Settling in at the wharf
Christmas on Raybel showed us the true pleasure of this Milton Creek landscape, its broad skies and rhythmic waters, tucked below the mega sheds of Sittingbourne’s retail park. And some of the challenges ahead for us in 2020 too.
The day itself - a crisp, cold-blue morning, the bankside industries stalled silent, a kingfisher resting on the mud bank, more types of duck than I can name, and a hawk hovering over the main mast. Then Boxing Day, spent catching the drips cascading through a myriad of small leaks, cracks and holes on deck and hull.
Some insight, as well, to the pleasures of routine that are all a part of barge life – battening down, sweeping decks, stoking the fire. All whilst gently rising and falling on the tide.I am comng to understand more about the immense technical challenges we face – “every timber on the barge is shaped”, I heard a visiting shipwright say recently, in admiration of the workmanship. And then – “it’s going to take some work getting these out”.
Our other challenge is about people – making connections. Raybel is from Sittingbourne, but the three of us that set up this venture are not, and we’re having to build up our local links gradually. It can feel as if Raybel found her way back home for the restoration, pulled by something deep in those barge timbers. For us, it's a new place - though I'm finding a throwback connection to where I grew up, in a place not dissimilar to Sittingbourne.
We’ve had great support already, with our first open day attracting 140 people. But mostly from our existing supporter base and local friends - we are just skimming the surface so far. Some skate boarders have been over, to see ‘the pirate ship’, but we’d like to see more of them. Our local media exposure has been limited. Most people on the High St probably don’t know we’re there or what we’re doing, despite Raybel’s mast and sail poking jauntily above the retail park roofs.
Recruiting staff has been harder than we expected too. We're creating all this from scratch, and though that’s exciting to some (including, thankfully, to Mark and Faye who we’re delighted to have recruited) it proved too scary for others, understandably. Many heritage projects of this kind are run by established organisations with existing structures in place. We’re a start-up.
It means we’ve decided to take more of a ‘networked' approach, looking to work alongside local organisations rather than doing everything ourselves.It’s those links we’ll be looking to strengthen in 2020 as well as the barge timbers.From the deck.
Gareth