The next stage

There is a formula, that all cyclists know, to tell you the right number of bikes to own: namely n+1, where ‘n’ is the number you already have. There is a development of that formula that needs to be applied when a cyclist’s spouse does not share their passion for cycling and that is to find the point where n+1= d-1 (‘d’ being the number of bikes at which your partner will divorce you). This dilemma is, possibly, what Paul the Apostle was referring to when warning people not to be ‘yoked with unbelievers’ (2 Cor 6 v14) 🤔

There is however no formula to help you decide how many bikes to carry on a narrow boat, and that is a major issue that is occupying our minds at present. The obvious solution is to accept that cycling and narrow boats are fundamentally incompatible, but that is a blasphemous thought that would only occur to non-cyclists. Instead we are seeking to store FOUR bikes on board, plus house the major components of our former bike shed – not easy when also trying to pack the rest of your life into the equivalent of a corridor approximately 50ft long by 6ft wide.

We did consider hanging two bikes off the back of the boat but they would be vulnerable to being bashed when going through locks, even assuming we had managed to mount them successfully whilst dangling over the water. Instead we have decided the only reasonable solution is to chain them to the roof and hope we can make the padlocks look fearsome enough to stop people thinking the bikes are worth pinching.

We have a few other projects to sort out before we are ready to set off on the next stage of our grand tour including getting some solar panels fitted to the roof so that we can live ‘off-grid’. But there are external demands too which command attention not least of which is helping our daughter and her husband decorate their new house in Bristol.

As anticipated in a previous blog we have put our house on the market (that will be one fewer properties to have to worry about) and are contemplating the prospect of facing life without that most fundamental of identity marks, namely a post code to call our own. I am sure that is going to throw up all sorts of problems in due course, but that is a problem for another day.

In the meantime we press on with getting the boat ready to set off, hopefully before the end of April by when, maybe, the weather will have warmed up a bit.

Finally let me share this photo of White Mills Marina on the River Nene where we keep our boat. This picture was taken by someone in the marina when the Beast from the East struck – truly beautiful.