Don't Lose Your Bottle

Secure your favorite tipple if you want to avoid a sticky game of skittles, suggests Helen Tidy

It may come as a surprise to readers that Andy and I are fond of the occasional glass of wine. In fact, when it comes to the fermented juice of the grape, we are really very partial. Well, I say ‘we’, really it’s me. Andy is more of a beer drinker. And gin.

We both enjoy a gin. Oh, let’s face it, if it has alcohol in, we’re quite likely to enjoy it. Unfortunately, we have both had to shun the consumption of red wine in recent years which is a source of great sadness. I find it triggers migraines and Andy finds it just doesn’t agree with him. We do still use it in our jams though. And we do like to keep the odd bottle in. You know, in case of guests, which has presented us with something of a problem.

You see, we have had a bit of an issue onboard Wand’ring Bark with the safe storage of wine bottles. Everyone knows there is not a lot of space on narrowboats and whatever storage space there is, has to be quite cleverly used. Our cupboards do not allow for the storage of upright bottles as the shelving is fairly low. And anyway, they are pretty full of food and gin and the like.

For the past goodness knows how many years, the wine bottles have been stored standing up on the floor in a corner. This has been less than successful. For a start, every time we experience a bumpy lock they go down like nine pins and roll around the boat until one of us manages to sort them out. As you can imagine, there have been disasters. Having our boat interior smell like a winery does nothing to help us keep up the façade that we really do not drink very much at all, honestly, officer. We have also fallen over them, kicked them, and generally found them to be in the way at every turn. So, something had to be done.