The Boat Moves Into Muddy Water

So my old boat will live on, with new careful owners. It's been saved from the scrapheap - I would say forever - and mighty glad I am too.

It's been the source of enormous fun and countless good times, but it's only right and proper that someone else now gets to take over at the helm.

Lesley, the new owner, has also paid me to be included as one of the characters in Muddy Water, which - surprise surprise - is set in Wivenhoe. In the story she (aka Miss Baudet) comes down from Leeds, sees the boat with me working on it and decides to buy it. She changes its name to 'Miss Baudet', and lives happily ever after. Or does she?

And thanks to her and a number of other good folks, a total of £1,500 has been pledged. At the book launch in October this will be equally divided and donated to three charities - MIND, The RNLI and the Wivenhoe Royal British Legion.

There's still much work to be done on the book, so I'd better get cracking.

What The Heck's Going On?

Saved from the boatyard in the sky

The next book

What the heck IS going on, you may well ask.

The astroturf has gone. The planters have been removed. The geraniums have been tossed in the river. "It actually looks like a proper boat now", someone recently remarked. The cheek! How very dare they?

There had never been a game-plan. I never thought I'd sell it. But dear Miss Baudet came along and made me an offer I couldn't refuse just at the right time.

You see, I want to be an aufer of words, and at the moment I'm concentrating on Muddy Water, what will be out in October. All this writing mullarky takes time, and time costs dosh.

But now, thanks to Miss Baudet's spondoolics I have some freedom to leave my paint brush and ladder in the van, and concentrate on the first draft. And the second, the third, fourth and fifth. In fact as many drafts and re-writes as it needs until it's ready.

The one what I'm doing now

Then when that's been done, a book called A Boat For My Potplants will be next. 'A story of how a gorilla came to sit on a boat in Wivenhoe' just has to be told.

I'm jolly proud to have saved one of these lovely old 1970's Norfolk Broads cruisers from going to that big boat yard in the sky. It will now live on for many more years to come.

I know the new owner is going to love and look after her boat as much as I did since I brought it to Wivenhoe five and a half years ago.

I've had many wonderful adventures with the boat and its flowers along the way - and I daresay Miss Baudet will have many more - even without its garden - or the gorilla.

The New Miss Baudet

Miss Baudet and her beau Graham keep a watchful eye on me as I beaver away aboard their boat

I'm such a soppy old sausage my hanky has hardly dried out from all my tears recently.

I've been away from my blog for a long long time, and there's a mighty good reason for that.

I couldn't think what to write!

No - that's not quite true. I did know what to write, but I couldn't bring myself to write it without feeling overwhelmed with emotion.

You see, dear blog-readers, the boat is no longer a Boat For My Potplants.

And not only that, it's no longer MY Boat For My Potplants either.

WHAT? WHY? - I hear you cry out in shocked horror. Not as loudly as my own cries of disbelief, I can tell you.

But it's true! The real Miss Baudet has bought MISS BAUDET, as it's now called, and I've been busy working to bring her up to scratch, nice and shiny like, just the way she wants her to be. Without the plants. Sob sob.

Stay tuned blog-readers, for tomorrow's thrilling instalment, when I will reveal what the heck's going on

The plantless Miss Baudet with its new paint-job is nice and shiny again