Page 67 - recollections of a life in Porthleven

Kenneth, his wife and mother were great friends of the family. Kenneth was
the only one in Cliff Road who had a TV when I was a child. Where do you
think I was most evenings when I was a small child?? He was a very good
man, the sad thing is he is no longer with us.

It was good living in the village, people would call into the Stores to have a
chat and comment on how the boat was being built. One evening Jimmer
Eddy came into the stores and got chatting, as normal.

During the evening he asked what type of engine were we going to have.
Dad and myself had talked about it but were still undecided about the power
and make of engine. Jimmer, who was a marine engineer and owner of the
garage at the bottom of Brigside mentioned he had just purchased a 15 horse
power diesel engine and we could have it for the same price he had paid for
it. After thinking about it we agreed to buy it from him. So now we had the
engine for our boat.

I must say we had no accidents while building our boat but there was one
mishap I had. One Saturday evening when we were all but finished Dad
asked me to paint the bilge of the boat with 5l of red bilge paint. He left me
alone to do this while he went off to get fuel for the car, Well in my rush to
do this I climbed up to the side of the boat, balancing the tin of paint (with
no lid on it) on the top plank, supporting the tin with one hand. Then I lost
my footing and fell into the boat and into the bilge, followed but the tin of
red paint which emptied all over me. What a sight I was, covered from head
to toe. When Dad returned he did not know whether to laugh or cry. Another
thing, I had to walk home as I was not allowed in the car. After walking
home and getting out of my clothes in the back yard I went up for a bath but
the soap and shampoo took many days to get rid of all the paint.

Many strange things happened when we were building the boat in the stores
especially if we were working after midnight. Also, another strange thing
that started to happen was Dad would only work for an hour or so on
Wednesday evenings. He would then go back to Trewarvas, wash and change
into tidy clothes and then go out again. I would not see him again until I
came down for breakfast the next morning. It was similar again on Saturday