Another rave from the grave that was October 2008. I quite like this one. But, given that it’s summer and warm, I imagine most people, as I am, are spending less time on line. So maybe this won’t get much of an audience. Maybe they’ll visit it later in the year. I hope so. Last time iI posted it, it attracted a comment condemning the French for their lack of understanding of navies. I’m still trying to work out the connection between that comment and my post!
It’s in the Blood
When you start looking for a house or flat, you aren’t usually warned to check if the person selling it actually owns it. With boats you are. This seems a tad strange, as almost everyone I’ve met in my boat search has been amazingly friendly and welcoming. They can’t surely all be plausible conmen. But apparently the most level-headed of individuals ditch their reserve and their caution when it comes to boats. All it takes is some smooth-tongued operator in the pub talking about a snug little cruiser for saleand they are handing over the nest egg – aka the new kitchen and bathroom – without any questions. Needless to say, Arthur had stern words and warnings about this, but so do all the websites. It seems such a common phenomenon you start to wonder why you haven’t seen on The Bill.
Of course this could just be an example of the gullibility of people in pubs, but I like to think it demonstrates our national connection with water, something that runs like a deep vein through our collective psyche. A connection with this other element our ancestors once crawled out of. Maybe that makes us somewhat less evolved than those in central Europe, a sort of amphibious variant perhaps. I remember reading an article in French about Ellen MacArthur and being bemused by their description of her as coming from landlocked Derbyshire. It all sounds rather remote and romantic. You can imagine Ellen as a child hearing tales from travellers about what the sea was like. But Derbyshire is hardly eastern France, As Nick Crane kept telling us on Coast, we’re never more than 72 miles from the sea. So on sunny days she probably spent as much time stuck in traffic jams on trips to the seaside as the rest of us. Come to think of it, I was brought up in landlocked Surrey, but the sea was always round my edges.
Admittedly, the boats I have been looking at are not quite in Dame Ellen’s league, but the principle is the same. Boats and water feature very highly in our overall identity. Think of Grace Darling, Millais’ The Boyhood of Raleigh, Turner’s fighting Temeraire, Horatio Nelson, Isambard Kingdom Brunel. And countless bedtimes listening to The Wind in the Willows, Swallows and Amazons and George and the rest of The Famous Five rowing out to Kirrin Island yet again. We may be dull and ordinary on land, but take us Britons to the water and we become heroes, riding the waves, explorers one and all. It’s the island mentality.
Isobel (and Cat)'s Blog 