Oshitoshitoshitoshit!

We’ve just received this post right, and its arrival wasn’t exactly unexpected, no no no- it was positively dreaded. Yup. Even More money is about to start flying out of our hands in a hurry.

Our host boatyard has sent us a very complimentary letter, commending our work so far and thanking us for paying our monthly rent absolutely on time, every time, which nevertheless declares that the rent is going to have to increase. Our original agreement was to be out of water for six months, a year tops, and the yard works on a quick turnaround basis so we are relieved to have got away with our extended stay for sixteen months already. To be honest we’re just happy that this charge hasn’t been applied earlier, but now it has. The upshot is that in January we will start to pay well over six hundred pounds a month for the storage ashore of Ms Ann, a fifty percent increase on the previous status quo.
We are already paying through the noses for Wendy Ann’s refit/rebuild and so are in a permanent state of seeming apparently completely flipping skint- in spite of grafting our arses off almost non-stop to earn well. You just wouldn’t believe the bills that come in just to keep the project (ahem) afloat, and because Boat actually stands for Break Out Another Thousand, we now live a life that in some respect resembles that of Victorian paupers. We’ve recently taken to going to the butchers and blagging free bones to roast for stock in order to make rice taste more interesting. The greengrocers are next on our hit list. These belts are tightening, and I think I’m going to have to find a sharp instrument and make even more holes. Somehow we are facing the fact that we can only go on, not stand still or go back.
This is what the money is really like, and we are scared silly because we know that the only outcome that works for us involves getting Wendy out of the shipyard intact as fast as possible, but also to get that work done according to our original plan, there’s just no sense in going through all of this- then botching the rest. Hence we are trying to work out what it will cost to make our boat float, and think up way to pay for it all. Things look fairly dark on this front.
But Wendy Ann’s forward end really is looking pukka. It’s just the back end that’s bothering everyone. Seriously though we’ve come such along way already that we kind of owe it not only to everyone who’s involved, but also to the boat herself, to continue. I’m personally hugely pleased with the quality of the work carried out so far and although the boat is still completely naked the repaired areas look good, each contributing to the overall effect of a newly solid boat, at least the front third anyway.
So we’re continuing, of course; and kind of wearing the fixed grins of forced positivity. Funny but right now things seem both really great and really awful at exactly the same time, a most strange sensation indeed.
Where on earth can we find the money in a hurry? The search has begun, and I’m talking very nicely to the bank although I’ve already taken a large loan with them. Whatever we do to stump up the cash (short of wearing balaclavas with menaces in financial establishments) has to work not only now, but in the long term too. We stand on dicey ground in interesting times, it’s all about balancing the pressing needs of the situation in hand, with the effects of burdening ourselves further in the long run- more loan repayments. So I’m beginning to think laterally about this, Christ I even bit the bullet and asked my mum. Not something I undertake lightly, trust me.

Will we survive? Will Wendy Ann 2 ever float again? Bet now.