Thanks For dropping in
I know… I just said the recession word. Please forgive me while I relate my story… At least I said in the context of boating through a recession! I had just returned to the Wicklow hills from a weeks holiday in France on our boat “Driftwood” . Wicklow is where we live and it’s where I work. The book about our adventure bringing our Shannon cruiser to France had just
been published and life seemed like it couldn’t get any better.
Then came the news like a bolt out of the blue. My job was closing down and
I would have to give back the accommodation where we had been living for
the past year. It was a bit of a double whammy. So many other people will be able to relate to the feeling. For me it was a first. I felt that there was no longer a future. Just a continuation of days.
When I got this job a yearago the accomodation came with it, so we leased out out origional home in Dublin. Now we are tied into a lease agreement so we cant just ask our tennents to leave. So we’re kind of homeless.
After we got over the self pity bit we made a big decision. We have a pension from my army days, and a nice boat in France (all be it a legacy from the Celtic Tiger days) Our two boys are grown up so there is really nothing to hold us here. That’s when we made the call, we are going to go and live the dream on our boat in France. OK things will be a bit tight money wise, and we have the winter to face into but here is the plan:
We fly out on Aug 28 and expect firstly to visit Paris, by boat of course.
Then we need to do what the birds do and head south for the winter. This
means getting half way down across France and taking on the mighty Rhone River. We think that somewhere near Narbonne would give us the shortest winter. (Any advice here would be very welcome)
The close proximity to the sea as well as the southerly location should give
very mild conditions and see us through nicely.
People always say that I am very lucky, “Jeaaasus Harry if you fell out a window, you’d fall up” and I agree with them. But the next few months will tell a tail.
So please ckeck in here every once in a while. We can
be contacted through the website so why not drop us a line, we would love to hear
from you. Now keep your fingers crossed for us.
Harry & Marion
“Driftwood”