Turning to my right, this is the view down river.Burnham on Crouch is over on the far left, with the RSPB wetland site on our side of the river.

Looking over to Warrior, from the river bank,with the tide on the way out. The pontoons never dry, even at the lowest tides, we have 40 feet of water under us.

View to the other side of the kitchen.

View towards the kitchen, looking at the back of the esse range. One of the three roof sky lights can be seen, these were a major feature/reason why we fell in love with this barge when viewing, they let so much light into the space.

Maintenence work.

In a few weeks, Warrior is due to be taken out of the water to enable us to re-black the hull.This will require being towed down river & into the river Roach & along to Suttons boat yard in Rochford.

In preparation,I have spent this afternoon sanding down one side of the upper superstructure; if you look again at my first photograph of Warrior, it is the green colour that I have sanded & applied red oxide paint to any rust spots. I still have the other side to do, which will be more fun, as it is along the waters edge!

The part I am not looking forward to,is the roof.It is in desperate need of a repaint but, sanding it down is going to be a real tough task.

Due to the costs involved in taking the barge out, the main objective will be to get the hull done, anything else will be a bonus.The water line will be shot blasted by a professional, followed closely by myself frantically covering the bare metal with epoxy paint! We have had the usual 'Let us know when & we will help.' from the family/friends however, we shall wait & see how many actually turn up on the day.

Sometimes, the sea can get quite rough & although Warrior can withstand most weathers,the water hitting the barge can be very noisy. We are getting use to this however,it is not good if you are a light sleeper!

We have a chandelier in the dining room,which doubles up as our 'swingometer' to give an indication as to the weather outside,as sometimes we don't notice how rough the sea is,until we look up & see the light fitting swaying!

We have actually slept through a force nine gale so,living on a 60 tonne barge has other advantages too!

The marina is situated on Wallasea Island & surrounded by an RSPB wetland area,providing us with some stunning views & a great garden which we don't have to keep tidy!

Here is Warrior,viewed from the stern. The converted Thames Lighter was built in 1958 & used commercially,we think,until the late 1980's. The conversion into a liveaboard barge took place in the early 1990's, there is a personal name plate dated 1992,probably by the persons welding the superstructure. Warrior measures 84 feet in length & 16 feet in width & is a 'dumb' barge,meaning it does not have an engine.

I do have a picture of Warrior when used as a commercial barge on the Thames, which I will try & scan onto here at a later date.

The view of the outside gives little indication as to the internal layout, people are amazed when we invite them on board for a nosey around, the wheelhouse alone is 14"x12" the same as most average sized living rooms in a house. Below decks, we have four double bedrooms, a huge kitchen, dining room, with an oil fired Esse range cooker/central heating boiler(similar to an Aga) a cosy living room,with log burner for those cold winter nights, a full size bath & separate power shower & may more nooks & cranny's for storage etc.

I will add more information with each photograph posted.

Life afloat.

Well,here we are folks, my first attempt at a blog.

Whenever we tell people that we live on a barge, it creates a lot of interest & questions, so I thought I would create this blog for people to view & find out what life afloat is like for us.

I will try & upload photographs of Warrior & the surrounding marina & countryside.