We will just have a look!

Viewing “The Priory” at Herons Rest Mar

For a while we had been looking for a piece of land to park BoobyDo! and possibly building a tiny house. The more we looked, the greater the reality that it was outside our budget and also that we could spend the rest of our days potentially arguing with planners.

Back in 2016-2017 we had thought about a narrowboat. WE had gone to Crick boat show and viewed quite a few. However, when Rachel was given the all clear from her primary breast cancer diagnosis we wanted to travel further afield so the idea of the narrowboat was put on the back burner. But following a lovely weekend in Bradford upon Avon and a stroll down the canal tow path we both admitted to one another that the idea still appealed to us. Especially as Rachel’s cancer has returned, now being stage 4 it means she will have to continue on treatment indefinitely.

So we then looked at narrowboat adverts and plot of land in equal measure. Rachel found one on the Monmouthshire & Brecon canal, an hour up the road from where we were helping our friends set up a campsite. What’s the harm in just having a look? After all it had 6’6” head room, a walk through bathroom…..

Our friends Paul & Marilyn were with us and we viewed the boat on April Fools day before 12.00!!! Yes, you guessed it - We fell in love with it. Put in an expression to buy subject to survey that morning.

A tour of “The Priory”

As I said, we fell for the boat. You can see from the little video, there were so many features that we really liked. The video is a bit rough around the edges as we quickly filmed it during the viewing to show our families. The Priory also had a mooring which made it easier to plan around other commitments we had that summer. This included a couple of festivals and a road trip to Germany

The boat only had approx 420 hours on the engine and passed the survey with flying colours. The surveyors comments were “I have seen some crap in my time, and this isn’t one of them”. So the intention to buy turned into a negotiation and we had purchased by the end of April.

Changes

We wanted to make a number of changes. The first thing was the name and to avoid bad luck this needs to be done while the boat is out of the water. The previous owners had named the boat “The Priory” as a bit of a joke as they basically used to get hammered when they visited and said to their friends that they were checking into the Priory (alcohol rehab) for the weekend. Others on the marina just thought it was odd and religious. Whatever, it didn’t feel right for us.

Eventually we opted for #JFDI (Just F’ing Do It!) Which pretty much sums up our attitude to life’s decisions. We also call him/ her Jeff for short to hell with the protocol of boats are female. Ours changes identity on a daily basis!

We made a number of other changes as Jeff transitioned from a holiday boat to a live aboard. Changing the battery system to lithium battery & Victron monitoring and charging. Adding 1300W of tilting solar panels to the roof too. It became apparent that lots of the electric wiring was chaotic so I have steadily rewired the length of the boat.

The bathroom had a makeover. The sink as predictably annoyed us very early on so we replaced this with a French copper pan. Made the counter top and shelves from an old school desk (complete with graffiti). Added a cabinet & vintage mirrors from Rachels parents and swapped the portapotti for a composting toilet.

In the kitchen / galley we added a better fridge and some open shelving to increase storage. Opting for the stainless steel industrial look.

In the saloon / living room Rachel built me a work desk from a childrens desk so I can work with a double screen but the majority of time it is hidden from view. We use a projector and screen rather than having a TV screen constantly taking up room that a nice picture could have. I am in the process of changing the lights all to be Alexa enabled. Yes I like my geeky projects! The boat also had a Morso Squirrel multifuel stove, we decided to have this converted to be a Diesel stove purely out of convenience. The thought of storing logs and coal on the boat and carting them down muddy towpaths in the pissing rain wasn’t something we looked forward to. We found Paul and Olivia of Lockgate Stoves at Crick boatshow and loved their conversion kit so we got them to do the conversion. It has had it’s teething problems (mainly trying to reuse the old flue and diesel quality) but we love the convenience!

In the bedroom we have moved some of lockers, added som fab storage boxes under the bed. We are still thinking about the flooring and need to box in the electrics but they aren’t urgent jobs.

At the back of the boat we have had a fantastic pram cover added. These aren’t commonly put on trad stern boats but we felt it will give us much more space when we are moored up. This also extends Rachel’s workshop space. She has a fabulous seated work space and storage built by our friend Simon. Or can work standing up in the pram area.

Blog Post Title Four

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