When some people buy a boat, often the first thing they'll do is pair it up with a new blog.
So it is with Sarah Hale, who's already been writing intelligently for the last three years or so from the perspective of her existing boat Warrior.
Recently she bought an original 1937 GUCC Woolwich motor narrowboat called Chertsey. And in the spirit of a New Year Resolution, she's closed down her Warrior blog and paired up Chertsey with a new 'butty: chertsey130.blogspot.com.
She ends Warrior and begins Chertsey with the same post:
Although I am not in any way abandoning Warrior the boat, this seemed like a good time to wind up nbWarrior the blog. Project blogs are far more interesting that cruising ones, and nbWarrior started out as exactly that, as we set about transforming a boat with potential into our perfect boat.
Of course I'll still write about our Warrior cruises - we are thinking of the BCN for next summer, and a lot more besides, as I really, really mean, this time to try and post every day.
The new blog is headed with an impressive photo of Chertsey's bow looming over the stoplock at Autherley Junction. I love her blog strapline: "One woman's adventures with a big Woolwich." She makes it sound like a euphemism, faintly coarse, and I can almost hear Sid James cackle!
Or perhaps it's something from the Evans Outsize clothing racks? Just as a guernsey is a type of fisherman's sweater named after an island, maybe a woolwich or a chertsey is a type of dress worn by boatwomen on the Thames? Does my blog look big in this, sort of thing.
Sarah once bewailed the fact that her Warrior blog was always coming at the bottom of alphabetically-listed blogrolls. I tried listing my boatroll in reverse-alpha order, but it felt like a sop, didn't it? Chertsey takes her to the top without trickery.
But do you need to start out with a new blog if you've already got a following under an old name? I think that if ever I changed boats, I'd probably keep Granny Buttons for these tappings.
Or perhaps I'll just shorten it to 'Buttons'. That way, Granny B could still be above Chertsey in alphabetical order.
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