So what's happening?! No blog posts for a while!
Well, we had hoped to go up North into Southern Scotland, but an opportunity unexpectedly presented itself and, well - we had to change our plans rather suddenly...
I know I said that the next blog post would find us in a new place - All I can say is that I am poor at predicting where - or - what the next blog post will be about, and can only say that I'm a 'victim of error' in terms of the scheduling of our pre-announced travel plans...hey, I'm just as upset as you are about the whole thing...
We will be going North, just not for a little while yet...Even if we wanted to, the entire country is in Lockdown, so there isn't even anywhere to go.
We were just about to go up North for a few days when I decided to do a quick local job check - I'd been quietly looking for some form of gainful employment for months, and all up the coast I've been seeing what's available, and as funds got less and less - the kind of work I was willing to accept became, shall we say, 'broader'. Well, as luck would have it, a 'job' was available, and in an 'essential' industry that is permitted to operate during the pandemic...
Some of the jobs that I looked at on the South of England literally had 100's of applicants, and some of those jobs don't even exist anymore due to Lockdown and many businesses being, in one way or another, forced to close...
Everything costs money, nothing is free - Isn't that what they say? And we have some big bills coming up, I say big - but, big for us - so this bit of work will make a vast contribution to this year's liabilities... And given this is the first bit of work I've come across since the pandemic started, I wasn't going to miss out on a chance to earn some cash. Look, if there is one thing we could use, it's some money.
Plus, we've been looking to take a bit of a break for a month or so to get some maintenance done, and if we're gonna stop, might as well get a job of sorts to off-set the costs - so its a Win-Win - but it's looking like we're gonna be here a bit longer than we had originally intended, I suppose the plus to that is that we'll have a bigger sailing budget for when we do get clearance to go...
At the induction interview for the job they asked me how many hours I was willing to work, I said to sign me up for every hour they were legally allowed to employ me for - and they did - Hell, I would have worked on Xmas day if they asked me to. The work is seasonal, so in a month or so it'll begin to dry up - so I need to make the most of it while it's available...
Having said that, working does suck - I mean, going from a nice, isolated, quiet, carefree lifestyle to a factory stuffed full of people can be a bit of a shock to the system, selling your time and labor for money just seems barbaric in the face of such a contrast. I think, maybe, the sea has 'softened' me in some respects.
And no sooner had I started working...they announced a National Lockdown.
But this is a 'winter', and quite frankly, I wasn't really looking forward to sailing through the winter anyways - but it's not just the winter weather, it's also a personal winter, a financial winter - these are tough times for everyone - but surely a 'spring' is just around the corner and provided Covid doesn't mess up the job - This year should hopefully be an awesome year for us...
We're also going to be making some merchandise available through an online shop to those who would like something...we haven't got too far with merch, getting samples delivered, historically, has been tricky.
But I mean, who wouldn't want one of these outstanding ceramic works of art, guaranteed to increase in value - will most definitely make you the envy of ALL your peers, help you win friends and influence people with immediate effect of ownership...but...yeah, lol - I'll make a post about it when they become available...hopefully in the next few days...
We're sorry if the Facebook posts are a little sporadic, and that the Ships Blog Posts are not as regular as they should be or have been, we've just been a bit short on time - But, this is just another step in us finding our feet in this new life amidst a pandemic, just another nail in the structure...and now with a bit of cash coming in - repairs have already started...
The Genoa came down today and is getting prepped to be shipped away for repairs, cleaning and a new UV Strip...this is essential for this sail, it wouldn't have lasted another season of heavy use - it would've simply, just fallen apart - It's exactly the lack of this kind of maintenance that caused us to end up with a huge tear in the sail in the first place... So the sails aren't going to be an interference factor this season...we hope!
So what for 2021? As far as we can see - Ireland is like an unfinished book, but getting back there....hmmmmmm - do we go North and around the Orkney Islands and Cape Wrath again, or go North through the Caledonian Canal and check out Loch Ness or do we go South and get a Lemon Top in Scarborough on our way past or just get a real one in Bangor or try them both to compare - and will either even be open if, or when we pass...and even that doesn't account for the whole season.
Maybe Lockdowns will force us to go Continental, maybe we'll check out Holland or France...
We're really not sure what 2021 has in store for us yet, and it's hard to predict what regulations will be in place or what restrictions we will be subject to - presently, the whole country is in 'lockdown' and will remain so until about March - so, by the looks of things, we won't be able to go anywhere till at least then.
But it's okay, I feel pretty lucky to have checked for a job when I did, had we continued we might've got locked down in a more remote port with no chance of work being available....some things have a funny way of working out - and so far - so seemingly fortunate...a happy accident or something...
I just thought an update was in order as we haven't posted a ships blog in a little while, but rest assured work is happening in the background, and we'll be off again just as soon as we can...I, myself, can't wait to see where we go - I'm happy with wherever we end up going, just so long as we're going somewhere!!
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