Here we go again, once more on the boat and cruising the inland waterways of England and Wales. I have no specific plans, I’m thinking it might be good to go into Liverpool and then up the Lancaster Canal. But first I’m biding my time around the Llangollen area as I am flying back to Ottawa in June for my son Robbie’s university convocation! So proud of him, he’s graduating with an Honours Biology degree (with Health Sciences). Just had to one-up me! Well, two-up.

While waiting for that, I dropped down off the Llangollen into Nantwich to visit my good friends Phil and Angela. It was great to have a catch-up. I also observed the coronation of the king, it was interesting to see the various degrees that people either celebrated it or didn’t. I had an appointment in the town, so dropped into the church to use up some spare time and watched part of the coronation in the most British way! They had TVs on, and some displays. Interesting way to view the event!

I also took time to do some work on the boat. The main thing was to get rid of the carpet. I’ve always hated it, it’s hard to keep clean and produces so much dust. Settled on a laminate (I thought I was getting vinyl but this is great). So easy to keep clean…

One of the things I almost did last season was to go down the Anderton Boat Lift to the River Weaver. As it turned out, it was probably good that I didn’t, as it broke down for many weeks and they eventually had to evacuate the narrowboats via the Manchester Ship Canal in a flotilla. It was quite an operation, narrowboats don’t often travel on the ship canal due to very large, ocean-going ships frequenting it!

I figured that this year was a good chance to check it out. Victorian engineering is simply amazing. Built in 1875, it’s a two-caisson lift lock, used to move boats on and off the River Weaver, 50 feet below the Trent and Mersey Canal. It used water-based hydraulic rams until 1906 before corrosion caused its closure.

A redesign added large support pillars and electric motors atop the structure, with the hydraulic rams being removed. This worked well until 1983 when a counterweight caught on something and caused a caisson to drop suddenly, then the other one did too. The lift was closed until a huge effort in 2000 resulted in it being rebuilt and reopened in 2002. They returned it to a hydraulic system, this time with modern rams and fluids. It’s simply an amazing experience. The following video is pretty large (might take a while to load) and is partly sped up, partly real-time.

While spending some quiet time on the river, I had a fantastic visit with Guy. He drove halfway across England to spend a couple of days visiting and cruising around. It was particularly handy that I was moored right near a pub! Despite having fitted out his own boat and spending many years cruising much of the system, he hadn’t been on the boat lift before so we did an up and down trip just for the experience.

It’s been a quick passage from summer boating to winter skiing. The ski season is rapidly waning although my favourite time is approaching, spring! Spring skiing normally (and hopefully) consists of sunny days and soft (“corn”) snow followed by cold and freezing nights. Fast in the morning, forgiving hero snow in the afternoons… weeee!

We’ve had a great season overall, although some strange weather patterns have been through. Very wet through Christmas, foggy in January, dry most of February, then real winter for the first part of March. Finally got some very good powder days, some sunshine, and some very large crowds on weekend! All-in-all, another great season.

Now it’s time to start looking forward to being off-mountain. Robbie’s convocation is in June so I’ll be attending that! I’m very proud of his accomplishments at Carleton, Honours Biology (with a concentration in Health Sciences). Just had to one-up me! Hard-earned and well deserved. Also have to start planning my route when I get back on the canals. Do I go north or south?

Finally, here are some pictures to show a sample of the what I get up to each day up here. Enjoy!

I’m now back in Canada and so begins the loooong wait for the snow to fly. The end of the boating season on the canals came a bit earlier than normal as I was anxious to get home. I think the timing worked out well, the nice weather over there ended just after my departure but the summer continued over here for another month.

Once I returned to the boat from Edinburgh, I had another covid-postponed event to attend. On my first visit to the Shropshire Union Canal in 2019 I happened to stop in Nantwich. Just by chance it was the weekend they were holding the Nantwich Food Festival and I thoroughly enjoyed the many (many!) stalls and pop-up restaurants spread throughout the town. Actually, over the three days I was there I ate far too much but completely fell in love with the area. It is picturesque, friendly, and provides all the amenities a boater needs. And finally, the festival has returned. Yum!

Of course, such an event is always much better with good friends!

While I was in Nantwich I got word that Guy and Rose (more boating friends that long-time readers might remember) would be passing through on their boat. It was so good to see them and have a visit.

Finally, all was prepared with the boat. Roof cleared, clothes and linens bagged, fridge emptied, and damson and sloe gin and vodka bottled! Ready to head to the airport…

The train system in the UK is going through some problems these days. Labour issues and staff shortages are causing many schedule changes and cancellations (I had one cancelled about 5 minutes after the scheduled departure time, while we were all sitting aboard). Although there are always complaints I’ve found it to be efficient, fast, and convenient. This time however, I was sufficiently uncertain of getting to the airport on time that I wasn’t sure what to do. Luckily, a friend offered to drive me directly, although it necessitated booking a hotel near Gatwick. As with so many things, this turned out to be a serendipitous change as I was able to have a visit with Bob and Cate, friends from my 2018 cruise to Bath. Readers of the blog may remember their anniversary party at the end of last season, the Murder Mystery at Epsom Downs. It was fantastic to catch up with them. Interestingly, when I first met Bob and Cate, they were on Guy and Rose’s boat and we all spent several days travelling together.

It’s always a bit of a wrench for me to leave the boat and the canals. I’ve come to really feel at home there, become comfortable living in such a small space and so simply. Having said that, returning home has so many of it’s own joys. Now more than ever…

Coming home early enough to have summer left meant I could go up the mountain with friends and family, go boating on our magnificent waters, and of course, spend more time with Rianne! We’re hoping and planning to spend time on the narrowboat together next year.

In the meantime, ski season is approaching! I look forward to sharing pictures and stories through the winter. Please stay tuned…

Welcome to another (very) delayed post! It’s the usual story, life gets in the way of recording it. But here goes:

Back in 2019 I made plans to travel to Edinburgh to see the Tattoo with Wendy. She’s always wanted to see it and I’m a sucker for bagpipe music. Tickets were bought and plans finalized and, like so many things over the course of 2020 and 2021, we suffered through two cancellations. Finally, summer 2022 arrived with a general ‘to hell with it’ attitude. All of Britain is done with lockdowns, masks, cancellations, and distancing. So the marching bands assembled and the Tattoo was on!

First, a bit of trivia. A ‘tattoo’ in this context has nothing to do with stabbing ink into someone’s skin. It’s the result of an early Dutch word ‘taptoe’ meaning, literally, ‘cask shut’. The police would visit the pubs to shut them down for the night. Later, the word entered the English language during the English Civil War when a drummer would ‘beat a tattoo’ to tell the men to stop drinking and return to their quarters. It has become a military event of great entertainment value, with primarily marching pipe and drum bands.

The Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo has been performed on the Esplanade of the castle since 1950, increasing in size and ceremony almost every year. Many (like Wendy), wait a lifetime to see it in person. Needless to say, we were excited.

We arrived in Edinburgh and went right to our accommodation; dorm rooms at the University. They are rented out to tourists in the summer, and it is a clean and inexpensive place to stay. Perhaps a bit noisy as many of the performers were staying there and were somewhat boisterous when they arrived back after the show and the pub but mostly just fine…

Of course, it was raining upon our arrival. England hadn’t seen rain in weeks, but Scotland can always be counted on! History, along with iconic, monumental architecture could be seen everywhere. We spent the first few days exploring, in particular a day at the National Museum. Honestly, one of the best, most interesting museums I’ve ever been in. Every turn was a new surprise, some amazing collection or display. Well worth a full day!

Something that was of interest to me given my background and ‘hobby’ was the Royal Yacht Britannia. She’s at a permanent mooring in north Edinburgh, having been decommissioned in 1997. Built in Scotland and launched in 1953 she’s of similar vintage to the first ships I sailed on (they were built in 1967) and much of it looked very familiar. Well, the operations end of it did at least. The accommodation areas were decidedly more luxurious, although not nearly as much as you would imagine. Spacious and comfortable is a better description, rather than luxurious.

Hop-on, hop-off open-top tour buses are a great way to see a city, once the rain stops. We saw many of Edinburgh’s sights while hearing live descriptions and stories. Lots of fun…

Another nearly full day was spent touring the famous Edinburgh Castle. It dominates the city, an imposing pile of stone atop an ancient volcanic outcropping. The castle is one of the oldest defensive fortifications in Scotland; Castle Rock, upon which is built, has been occupied since at least the early Iron Age (perhaps the Bronze Age), while being home to a Royal castle since at least the reign of Dave I in the 12th century. It was a royal residence up until 1633, thereafter principally used as military barracks. It has been under siege 26 times in it’s 1100 year history, so it’s one of the most attacked castles in the world. It was an amazing experience touring it, even though very busy.

Finally the big day arrived. The Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo. The show we had been planning for and waiting to see for nearly three years. The first official Tattoo was in 1950, the the title ‘Royal’ being bestowed in 2010 as a celebration of it’s 60 years of existence. Temporary stands are erected each summer, seating 8,800 people. The show itself goes every weekday evening (and twice on Saturday) throughout August and tickets have sold out every year since 1998 (excepting only 2020 and 2021, for obvious reasons). Anyway, it was as spectacular as expected, truly the highlight of our visit to Edinburgh.

Here are some videos of selected parts of the show. Very sorry for the poor quality, I was trying to watch it at the same time!

The Tattoo was fun, historic, and enthralling. All too soon it was heading back to England and the boat…

It’s been a while since I wrote much as not much of note seems to have happened on the boat. Off the boat I did make a trip home to Canada for a couple of weeks, which was amazing. With all the chaos in the world of airlines and airports, my trip was a dream. Just a couple of short delays, and with no checked bags, I actually arrived home earlier than planned!

Being away has taken on a new dimension so the visit was important, lovely, and too short. I still absolutely love my time on the canal, the gentle cruising and placid pace, but it’s much harder to be away.

But this blog is about narrowboating, so here’s some narrowboating news. As many have probably heard, the UK had a very unusual heat wave pass through. I had seen it coming (on the news, the weather forecasts, and the chicken bones) so I did some pre-oven sleuthing. I checked Google Earth and managed to find a spot not far away where the canal was completely overtopped by a couple of huge trees. I got there, tied up, and put up my sun shade umbrella. With lots of solar power I set up my large fan as well as a small rechargeable one. I was prepared.. (oh, and made lots of ice cubes for the G&Ts)

Altogether, I survived the heat adequately. I got some more painting done, touchups and hidden spots. There are always plenty of jobs to do on a boat of any sort, but a great heavy steel lump offers lots of extra rusty bits to grind, sand, and paint. Over and over and over. Sure glad it’s not salt water…

Almost immediately after the heat wave ended, it suddenly became a typical English summer. Which means rain. Daily. Not a lot, just enough to be a bit annoying. So the second brolly came into use! I find that if I’m cruising when the rain starts, it’s best to get out the umbrella and persevere. It usually stops pretty quickly. I have a large golfing one which works a treat (as they say). And it has seen considerable use in the last week or so…

The third brolly in this saga was less welcome. Cruising along a shallow and narrow waterway, frequented by many other boats, it’s not unusual to pick up weeds or other strange items on the propeller. Narrowboats have a small hatch (‘weed hatch”) just above the prop, for the express purpose of clearing any debris without having to pull the boat out of the water or go diving. In this case it was a bit more complicated. The wires of this particular umbrella were too tough to cut with the tools I had, and the nylon was very tightly wrapped and intertwined. I actually thought that I might not be able to remove it without help, or at least hiking to a distant town to buy bigger cutters and going into the water (yuck).

To make a long story short, after much pulling, tearing, swearing, and prying, I managed to free the propeller…

After all that, it’s been simple. I’ve retraced my route from previous years to arrive at my favourite canal destination, Llangollen, Wales. I love it here and can truly relax and enjoy…if only the sun would return.

It’s been a bit of a mixed bag over here, weather-wise. While it hasn’t been particularly rainy and wet, it has rained nearly every day. Often only a single sprinkle, sometimes a quick downpour. All-in-all, just enough to keep me from being able to do some additional painting on the boat that I’ve been hankering to get at. Having finished the deck non-slip which isn’t even visible, I wanted to get to the more obvious bits.

You (both of the regular readers) may remember that I repainted the roof just before installing the solar panels in 2019. I did what prep I thought necessary but some of the rust patches persisted and have begun to show through. For this reason, I have been grinding those spots down and applying a rust converter. This is a ‘paint’ that reacts with the iron oxide, turning into a more inert, hard, and paintable material. Then I could apply a couple of coats of the special non-slip roof paint. In order to keep it from looking patchy (the 2019 paint has faded somewhat) I had to paint the whole thing again!

I also had a serious need (and urge) to clean up the engine compartment. While the previous owner was living aboard, it seems that she didn’t move much, and had little interest in taking care of the outside or the engine. Here’s what I was dealing with:

First I scraped and wire brushed the surfaces, then applied the rust converter. It turns the surface blue and then black, relatively smooth, and quite hard:

Finally a couple of coats of bilge paint! I still have some spots to do but first have to do some degreasing. Under the engine and where I store my spare oil and fuel for instance. I’ve now got a huge jug of Gunk and I’ll be going at that shortly. Then I can get it finished, including some of the more difficult-to-reach nooks and crannies.

Someday I’ll have a go at the engine itself but that’s a whole other project! Sorry for the boring post, just wanted to get this into the ‘diary’. Not that I’ll forget, it has been a bit of a job…

Here’re some random pictures:

I hadn’t realized the depth of the love that the British people have for the Queen. The days leading up to her Platinum Jubilee (70 years on the throne) were filled with markets, parties, and endless bunting. The Union flag has been everywhere; boats had them flying high, rows of them were strung from every nearly every fence and door frame, and filled windows of every other home.

I asked many people what their feelings were and overwhelmingly it was simply love and respect for her. Not the Royal Family as an institution, or the monarchy itself (although those weren’t uncommon), but for her as a person. It’s not clear what it’ll be like when she’s gone. About one-third are okay with Charles taking over, about one-third think they should skip straight to William, and the rest either don’t care, have no opinion, or have no use for the institution. A very few outright hate it and will tell you so.

I haven’t been doing much these days, just trying to get some boat maintenance done between rain showers. It’s getting there… The engine compartment will be the big project, after I finish a second coat on the roof… Pictures to follow!

Take care all, as usual please don’t hesitate to send a comment to say hi! Thanks for reading this far… lol…

After leaving the marina, I descended the four locks at Hurleston and turned left (north), heading for the historic and beautiful city of Chester. The encircling Roman sandstone wall was begun around 100 CE and took about a century to complete. It’s nearly 3 km long, and (nearly) completely surrounds the city centre. It’s well worth the walk around it… I’ve previously highlighted it in a blog post, although that time I didn’t take the boat through.

The canal was cut alongside a portion of the wall in the late 18th century, in places having been cut through solid rock with hand tools…

Heading north out of Chester, the canal wound through some lovely countryside. As I approached a likely spot to moor for the night, I said hello to another boater already tied up. He looked at me and said “Hi Doug!”. Wow. Turns out we had done a lock together about 3 years ago, and he remembered me! His boat had subsequently broken down and if we hadn’t stopped to chat he’d have been in the middle of nowhere but the delay put him right at a marina where it got fixed…so he had a reason to remember the encounter!

At the end of this stretch of canal is the town of Ellesmere Port, home of the National Waterways Museum. I had pre-booked a mooring in the basin of the museum, hoping to get a good look at the facility. I wasn’t disappointed! It’s a very well presented museum, with lots of displays and live exhibits. I particularly enjoyed the machine room where the volunteers keep the old engines alive.

It really is a good museum but the mooring system leaves a bit to be desired. Nothing to tie to (rings or Armco), no monitoring (nobody leaves on time), no signage whatsoever (not clear what spot has been booked). It was a quiet, safe location however, which makes up for small frustrations.

The museum had several ‘cottages’ set up as they might have been when the port workers were housed here:

I’ll be heading back southward to Nantwich for a visit with friends and to do some restocking. Hopefully the weather will stabilize soon so I can also get some painting done!

Here we are once again! I’ve made the long trip to the boat on the inland waterways of Britain. Just to catch things up, this is my fifth summer cruising my Narrowboat Cool Change, although the last couple of years were cut short (you remember the last couple of years, right?). I’m hoping to travel a bit more this season, and have some special guests aboard too!

The flights over were fine but the train/tube/train/cab to get to the boat was a bit of a nightmare. I’m going to be looking a a new route! The train from Gatwick into London was delayed, which meant that I missed my connection from London to Crewe. I rebooked on the next express (for twice the cost) but as the departure time ticked away, we got an announcement: “this train has been cancelled”. Seriously, as we all sat on the train, they told us it was cancelled, we’re on our own. I ran across the platform and jumped on the next train going to Crewe but it turned out to be a milk run. Stopped EVERYWHERE. Took hours… Finally made it though…and slept for 12 straight hours.

All systems had been started up and checked out by Mick, my awesome engineer and fix-it person. It didn’t take long to have things unpacked, have groceries delivered, and be ready to head out on the system. One of the first jobs, however, was to check out last year’s Damson gin (and vodka).

While I was preparing the boat, I had some fantastic visits. Wendy and her beautiful family took me out for a Sunday Roast at a nearby pub, it was truly lovely to see them all and reconnect. We even got out onto the canal for a bit!

I also had a great visit with Phil, my good friend from Nantwich. Another day, another pub!

I eventually got all the little jobs done, settled up my bill, and headed out! Stay tuned for my first destination, coming up soon…

Okay, so winter is still my favourite season. It’s really the only season. Spring, summer, and fall are just the long wait until winter comes again. However, since I’ve been doing the narrowboat ‘thing’, I’ve developed a new appreciation for the other seasons. I’ve actually begun to look forward to them. A bit. Well, quite a bit actually.

So, to recap. Winter (ski) season is now over. It was a strange one, as far as snow goes. In early December it looked like the skiing would start on a bit of man-made snow, just a couple of runs. Then, a few of days before the scheduled opening at Mt. Washington, the heavens opened and gave us the most spectacular December of snow we could have asked for. Light, fluffy powder, sunshine, all the good stuff. Then in early January, the spigot was suddenly turned off! Almost seven weeks of virtually no snow. But, and this is important, it was awesome too! Freeze-thaw (spring) conditions, where it’s cold overnight then gets soft and slushy during the day. A bit of a sleep-in, start skiing around 11 am and it was awesome! Sunshine and ‘hero’ snow. All good until toward the end of February, when the normal winter set in. Cold, windy, occasional dumps of West-Coast Powder (heavy and wet), all the usual. Kept the base up though, so as March ran on and the snowfalls ran out, we have been able to stay open. Limited runs and not much off-piste, but still loads of fun. Then a pretty momentous dump on the final weekend, which was predicted since the ski club had a big race scheduled. It never fails. Unfortunately for them, they had to cancel the dual slalom on Sunday…

People this winter has also been a bit of a change. I’ve seen all the usual characters, and have had a great time with them, but also have a new crew to hang with (does that sound cool?). Adam, Jessi, and David have been the daily, unavoidable team. Wow, we’ve had some fun.

The most important change however has been the addition of Rianne to my life. Along with her sons Cohen and Ayden, (and Zeus and Fishy) we settled into a relaxed, laid-back routine. I’m now known as “Rianne’s boyfriend”! Oh what a great season it’s been.

At present I’m starting to think about prepping for the summer on the boat in England. It appears to have survived the winter well (on the hard, as usual). The bilge pump had failed last year and has been replaced, but we can’t seem to source a new tachometer just yet. No big deal though, don’t really need one. New water filters installed, new mattress delivered, once there’s groceries aboard and she’s splashed, we’ll be ready to cruise.

The route this year is still very much under discussion. I’d like to go through the Standedge Tunnel (highest, deepest, and longest on the system), and I’m also planning on some touristy miles when Rianne (and possibly others) are visiting. We just have to do the Pontcysyltte Aqueduct! And up to Chester I think. It’s time to get the plans firmed up, right Guy?

Here’s a bunch of random pictures from the season, so much fun!

I’d just like to add a thanks everyone for an amazing birthday. Rianne and Troy for arranging a fun fire and party, Joye and Peter for the repeated (and repeated) renditions of “Happy Birthday” sung all over the mountain, and the whole crew for the amazing blanket commemorating the year. I was truly touched and am feeling incredibly loved.