This morning after Natascha woke up and went to the front of the boat, she noticed that the door of Anton’s bedroom was wide open. She called him and there was no answer and so she went over to his boat. He wasn’t there and it immediately dawned on her – somebody broke into his boat. Nat came back late last night from a meeting and it was already dark, it must have happened before that. Then she saw that our bicycles on our boats were moved, somebody tried to nick those too. They also tried to enter our boat, for sure.

She called Anton and he came back as soon as he could, and yes, there were several items missing on his boat. Ironically, some things he actually wanted to get rid off.

Even though nothing happened to us, Natascha started to have this uneasy feeling and didn’t feel safe any more. Still we didn’t move the boats which resulted in her not leaving ours until Adnan came back.

Antonios & Natascha had to move the boats and we had to pass the Islington tunnel with the boats towed together. Never done this before, it wasn’t exactly an enjoyable event, but a memorable one. The boats, especially Antonios’, crashed into the tunnel wall again and again, damaged the side lights, scratches on the paint, etc. We had to endure a kilometre of near darkness, once we were out on the other side, there was no suitable mooring in sight.

We ended up at the bottom of the St Pancras Lock and moored up there. Anton didn’t want to go through the lock, Nat wasn’t happy with the location at all, not least because we were the only two boats there. This is in fact a no-go situation for boaters.

Adnan was in Switzerland for a week. Nat was alone, she wasn’t in the right space of mind to do anything, she was still numb from the news about her friend. This was also the moment when we left Hackney behind, it became clear to Natascha that life will not be the same any more, we will be on the move again and again.

Paralysis on her 39th birthday.

A very dark day.

Nat got a call from Lucio, whom we offered to stay on the boat previously, that our beloved friend was diagnosed with terminal cancer. She was a mother of three young children. Nat wasn’t sure if she can call to Berlin or not, so she made a few phone calls to other friends in London, things were not going ok. It was a heavy and dark moment, nothing could be done at this point.