Eva Luna is now up for sale on Apollo Duck: http://www.apolloduck.co.uk/feature.phtml?id=292685
I’d love your feedback on the advert.
Her layout is here: Boat layout
The lovely article about her when she was built is here: Homeward Bound.
The boat’s history
Sun setting on our adventure
So we are having to put our beautiful boat, Eva Luna up for occupying by a new owner.
Our adventure is far from over, but life has taken paths we didn’t expect.
She’s a lucky boat and we’ve been happy here. This lifestyle is idyllic – sometimes a little harder than having everything on tap the way you do in a house, but more than made up for by the environment and the people.
There is so much I haven’t done, including capturing the stories of some boats with real character along the way, from a massive Humber barge to the improbably funny boat owned by the Common Sense Party. And the people, including Fred whose family have always lived on Britain’s waterways, and Chris, who bought the hull of an old oil tanker and is converting it into a home.
Our boat needs her new owners to look after her, to love her, to keep her in top form. She’s been a happy home and we’d like her new owners to care for her her as much as we do – and the family who originally commissioned her did.
I’ll put some specs up this weekend for anyone who wants details. In the meantime, this piece about her was in Canal Boat magazine when she was first built: scanned article about boat.
I suppose I ought to write something about a widebeam liveaboard for sale. But for the moment I can only cope with discussing rehoming. Funny how they get under your skin!
Where we’re at
We watched last year as the swans, who worked so hard, failed to hatch their eggs. For me it was heartbreaking watching the lovely mother swan so reluctant to leave her eggs. They must have got too cold, despite the pairs attempts to build their nest ever higher to battle against the rising waters.
Their care contrasted sharply with the careless coots who seemed to drop their eggs wherever they felt like it, including, amusingly, one that was simply left floating in the water on the tender of a neighbouring barge.
As we come into spring, it will be interesting to see if the swans try again, or if they abandon their once favourite nesting spot. The grebes are already doing their wonderful snakehead dances and the coots are fluffing up and bumping chests, aggressively and noisily. Part of me wants to get out and yell at them not to be fooled, that this mild snap is just that. We always get more snow just before Easter.
The woods here are flooded. As we had badgers, rabbits, hedgehogs and other beasts that live underground, we are fearful for their survival. I doubt very much that the bluebells will come up this year. Of course, nature is such that whilst some lose, others will win, and we have seen a lot of bird life, including what I am reliably informed is a warbler of some sort.
The addition of the dog - who is now, incidentally, the most gorgeous loving (cheeky) little animal, such a change from the nervous, skinny little boy we gave a home to – means I get off the boat more and walk, making me far more conscious of what a lovely environment we live in. I shall miss it when we leave the boat. This, sadly, is imminent. We don’t want to leave the lovely community that we have found on the water, or the lifestyle that comes with being so close to nature, but sadly, for personal reasons, our adventure on the water is drawing to a close, and we are going to be putting Eva Luna, our much loved home for two and a half years, up for sale.
I will post up some details soon, but if you know a family who who would look after a beautiful British built widebeam home and who would love to live on the water (anywhere in the country), do point them in our direction.
Counting Down
We have started the countdown to our big pirate party boat treasure hunt in two weeks time, which Gill on Harlequin has organised. I’ll share some of that with you later.
In the meantime, we have another countdown: tomorrow is our tenth wedding anniversary, the anniversary of the dates on which we (separately) named our two children formally, and tomorrow we celebrate by renaming our boat.
Things won’t be quite as dramatic as expected: I had a painter booked and agreed, but my husband decided that he needed to be involved and we have no-one booked now – it’s a good job I love him! The boat’s nameplate is being re-engraved in the morning, and all being well there should be a special package arriving. The champagne is cooling in the fridge. The immediate family id invited.
We will have to remove all trace of her current name from her if we are not to have bad luck, apparently, to purge her name from ‘The Ledger of Deep’. And we will dename her first. We have heard of an East German superstition where the men aboard have to pee over the edge of the boat – but I’m not sure that I wasn’t having my leg pulled.
Anything lese we should be doing?
Progress report
We have now weathered our first storm afloat, which was painless, and are getting into the rhythm of liveaboard life.
The boys are enjoying their freedom, and I have to turn a blind eye to them running around with toy’s that fire foam ammo – I disapprove hugely of guns as toys, and they come back pumped after playing, but the school reckons this is healthy. Although this is the same school that thinks bullying is part of life, so I have my doubts.
Moving swiftly on (don’t get me started!) this week’s tally of wonders includes an owl sat on the fence as we drove into the marina. He was obviously unaware that he is an unusual site, eyed us with disdain and disappeared into the darkness. Not so the sparrowhawk sat on a pilon as we drove past. He flew off, giving us a great display.
The spiders have, for the most part, given up the battle for boat ownership – hurrah – and we seem to be managing our utilities fine. The lack of decent broadband is a constant frustration, and I have given up and use the office. We are chatting to various people to find a better solution for this. And for the eco-cosmetics. The most eco friendly shower products (for us to use) that I could find are Lush tubs. Which is great, except that the cheapest I’ve bought is £8.00, and the second tub, which I thought was £7.50, turned out to be £15. I’m not prepared to drain icky stuff into the river, but there must be a cheaper way of being eco-friendly than this?
However, for the most part, we love our warm, homely little widebeam, and there’s not much would drag us back ashore.
PS
