Rod Graham - Walk a Narrow Line

Not for the first time, I was looking at boats; cruisers, to be specific. The more I looked, the stronger became the desire to have another go at boating; to be spending hours lost in the pleasure of a more relaxed world, which is a bit like caravanning, but on water. No one gets tired of that sense of earthiness; the feeling of placidness that being near to rivers and canals can bring; do they? The site and sound of water seem to lend so much healing to your soul.

When I think back to times gone by; if we count our lives like a cats, after all; I am a Leo; the first boat I ever had was probably in my umpteenth life, with my first wife, Frances, in 1976. It was just a one summer thing. The boat came and went, like the summer; in the blink of an eye. We were a young family with two children, Paula and Trevor.

I dont want to give you the impression that we were well off; just because we bought a boat, far from it, like most people we spent our time ducking and diving doing a little bit of this or a bit of that, trying to get ahead, looking for a goldmine that would help us earn enough money to pay our way; then guess what; having to pick ourselves up and start all over again.

How often, I wonder, did we manage to deposit any money into the bank account? I always felt such a fraud queuing up in the bank; standing there in my jeans and tee shirt to pay a bill or two; everyone else seemed to look so much more affluent than me. Originally, Id only opened a bank account to pay in my student grant while at art College in East Ham. Now, I was living in Friern Barnet, trying to make a go of a music shop which we had called Manuscript. Not many years before that, Id had a Post Office Savings Account; banks were for the rich. Does anyone have a Post Office Savings Account? Back then, you paid whatever money you wanted to save; in to your account each week, if you could afford to. You would go to the Post Office counter, give the cashier your money and they would write into a little savings book, how much money you had paid in; then they would put an official rubber stamp next to the entry. You would keep the savings book in your possession; this book was the only record of how much money you had saved. A bit like a bank but not nearly as sophisticated and certainly with none of the security we need in our modern world; no requests for proof of I.D, proof of age; none of that stuff, just your savings book and a smile.

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Let me tell you about our first cabin cruiser.

In 1976 we heard about a chap who was selling up to emigrate to Canada, he needed the cash as he was running out of time before his departure, so he would take a mere 50 for his 24ft boat, that we were told had four berths and all mod-cons. Yes, I know what you are thinking

Couldnt have been much of a craft for 50.

Right, lets see!

Off we trotted to the river Lea near Broxbourne, in Hertfordshire to see this boat. Now let us remember that we knew nothing about boats or boating, that whole world was a dream to us; we had only ever watched other people living that dream, but it just seemed like a good idea at the time. The music shop we owned (well, we ran the business; the premises were rented) was open all day, Monday to Saturday. Most of my evenings were spent teaching music in the studio at the rear of the shop, Saturday evenings; I would usually go out to play a gig either by myself or with Lens band. Yes, Im a musician, not only do I teach music, but I play piano, sing and have a pretty cool guitar style.

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After finishing art college in 1970, I had become a graphic artist for a few years, but when I was replaced by yet another art studio while in Australia, I decided my face just didnt fit in that world. Later, while experimenting with various wheeler dealer schemes there in Australia, which included selling second hand cars, trying to sell my paintings, a second hand furniture shop, subcontract decorating (More about these later!) and doing a milk round (which had to be done at night) in Perth; I fell into playing the guitar and singing with a couple of very nice Aussies who had a function band. Its a funny thing, one of them was from an Italian family; he played and taught the organ. His English wasnt the best and his organ playing could have done with some improvement; I, on the other hand, was lucky enough to have had piano lessons in my younger days and taken all my grades; it had never occurred to me to pass on my music knowledge till I met him. When we came back to England in 1974, I started teaching music. To teach is definitely to learn, its a wonderful life.

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That 1976 summer was proving to be a really hot one; its on record as being one of the driest summers weve had; which is interesting because we had never heard of climate change in 1976, it was just a great summer. If you thought about it; you could just imagine yourself jumping in to the river off a boat deck, splashing about in the water, creating waves, wild swimming, the whole scene seemed to beckon ever harder with each longing thought you gave it.

This cabin cruiser was no Queen Mary, what did you expect for 50 in 1976? She was made of wood; marine ply, to be exact, you could be forgiven for being apprehensive about stepping aboard her, after all, wood was the customary material used to build boats for years. However, this particular craft may have been one of Noahs castoffs; except that he probably didnt have access to what looked like white emulsion paint. The whole boat had been liberally coated in it, you could see that someone had done a real quick job of freshening her up with a very clumsy hand and brush; even the windows had not been spared a daub or two of paint.

Our son Trevor; who was eleven years old at the time, couldnt contain his excitement at the thought of this adventure. On to the boat he jumped right behind Nigel, the owner, a scruffy guy with long greasy brown hair, who was either a really good salesman or very proud of his vessel. He certainly had the gift of the gab. My wife Frances and I gave each other a sidelong look of disappointment at the sight of this shipwreck. My heart sank; like this boat probably would. I remember thinking, what a mess; well one mans meat is another mans poison. Still; we both tried to keep an open mind.

There were indeed four bunks, which, amazingly, all seemed to be dry, there was a galley area with a gas cooker and sink. Nigel told us that you call the kitchen area The Galley on a boat. There was a cassette toilet that smelt and looked a bit like an old-fashioned sewerage farm with a small sink for washing beside it. The mirror above the sink was interesting in that you couldnt actually see your reflection in it properly for grime. I turned around and looked to make sure Nigel wasnt watching me as I quickly drew a smiley face on the mirrors dirty surface. Im lucky in that I have a fairly good memory for faces; especially mine! The thing is, if you wanted to clean yourself up, comb your hair, shave or make yourself look pretty; you were going to need a good memory for faces with this mirror. The shipwreck did have a nice sitting area at the back, or stern if Im to be correct with an outboard motor that had its own removable fuel tank, I noticed that Nigel didnt offer to start the engine; he just pointed it out, saying that it was a good runner. But no matter, as this trip looked like it had been a waste of time anyway.