The Start of A Journey

It must have seemed to Fei that I was having a minor/major crisis when I started showing her pictures of an old boat. But in reality like most things in life it was prior threads from my past coming together.

As a child I had spent time on the canals in England playing while the family was involved in the early years of restoration on the Kennet and Avon Canal. However I myself never had the opportunity to get my own boat. But that didn't stop my brother getting a narrow boat of his own to cruise the English canals.

Moving to California in 2006 I started to camp using a travel trailer which was a fascinating learning curve as my camping in the UK had been mostly Back Packing.

                

At the same time anybody who has camped in Southern California will know the frustration of find good campsites if you are not able to book up 6 months ahead. However I started to see the availability of boat-in sites on the lakes and rivers which helped the cogs turn and ideas to be generated. At that moment I stumbled on listing in Craigslist. The result BINGO!!!!!!

Further research led me to information on the web that ignited my curiosity further and my imagination into overdrive including All About Houseboats

After a couple of visits to the boat that was only 20 miles away the deed was done. Fei's  mystified reaction was summed up in her statement was "It's Old".

The owner an elderly man had used it for nearly 10 years for fishing on Big Bear Lake but for the last 5 years it had sat on the drive under a large tree (more of that later).

I moved it to storage and began to investigate my new/old boat.

To Be Continued