Hello everybody from jolly old blighty. No, seriously, I’ve made it back to England, onto the narrowboat, and loving every minute, just like last year. The boat survived quite well through the winter, with only some minor issues to deal with. I’ll see if there’s more serious stuff once we get moving on the canal, I suspect if a problem is going to show up it’ll be there. Most likely at the worst possible moment, in the worst possible place. No matter, I’ll deal with it. Or rather, <we> will deal with it! I have my son Robbie here for a couple of weeks, someone to work the locks and take out the garbage (as if). We’re having a blast together so far, getting things unpacked and working. It’s still early spring so the heating system has been tested, no serious problems yet but some strange noises that I’ll have to look into. There was an intermittent beeping but it turned out it was the boat next door. It had been left here for three years and the CO alarms’ batteries were all dead. The lady is from Australia but her (now late) husband was ill and they couldn’t come back.

The trip here was quite uneventful, although it was as tiring as usual. The inside cleaning and dusting is done (goodbye cobwebs!), the outside washed down. That job was delayed a bit however, because instead we cruised a mile along the canal to Foxton Basin, moored up at the pub and had a late lunch!

We (he) did get around to it however:

Foxton locks is a flight of 10 locks, two sets of five ‘staircase’ locks. There’s no space between them so it’s a quick run through (considering the length and height drop). I went through at the end of last year’s cruising, it’s quite an experience. I think going up will be less dramatic…

Here’s the view from the top, pretty spectacular actually (except for the two photobombers):

Alan and Abigail were with us for a few days, we had a great time together. It was fun to share my ‘other’ life with a ski buddy.

No, we didn’t JUST visit pubs, here’s Abi doing all the hard work…

We’re going to miss having them aboard!

Robbie and I have headed back down the way I came last year, toward Crick (the big boat show) and Braunston. Not sure how far we’ll make it, we’ll have to turn back to leave the boat for a few days while we go to London to ‘tourist’ a bit.

I hope everything back home is going well for everyone. Please feel free to comment or send me a message, love to hear from you!

Okay, Year 2 on the British canal system is about to begin. I’ve had a great winter on the mountain but it’s now time to return to England and get the narrowboat going again. Having said that, I was up the hill last weekend and it sure was nice to be ‘home’! Looked awfully skiable too, just a few dirt patches. And luckily for the Snow to Surf race, it was a gorgeous day. I was sorely tempted to strap on the planks and hike a bit for a few turns (just tempted…as if I’d actually walk UPHILL!).

I have a cruising plan (as outlined in the previous post and below), my flight and train arrangements are made, my stuff is mostly packed, and all the goodbye visiting that I could do is complete. Since I left everything over there last fall, I don’t have much luggage anyway. Carry-on only!

Just to start things off right, we’ve managed to arrange for my son Robbie to join me for the first few weeks! I’m excited about that as I was hoping he’d eventually get to hang out with the old man in some pubs (and work the locks for me). There are lots of other visitors planned too, I think my constant raving about canal life is having an effect. The first to arrive are Alan (sans Jane, sadly) and his daughter Abigail. From ski hill to canal in a month. I’ll also be catching up with Rich, Jane, and Joanne on the Trent and Mersey Canal, great people I met on the K&A last summer. Later on, several others are planning on meeting up; some are ski friends, some are lock-buddies from last year. More on those adventures as they arrive.

I’ll be attending the annual Crick Boat Show again this year, along with awesome friends Chris, Julie, and Poppy. I had the good fortune of meeting them while camping at the show last year, they were in the tent next to me. This year we’ll actually be staying on the narrowboat so it’ll feel like we’re part of the ‘in’ crowd. Look out Crick, it’s going to be quite a party.

Overall it looks like it’ll be a long trip if I manage to complete the plan. Fewer locks than last year, but more mileage (yes, they use miles over there). I’ve been tweaking the plan daily, looking at Google Earth to make sure I’m not in urban areas too much. I’ll have a big decision to make later in the summer about whether to take a ‘shortcut’ across the River Mersey from Liverpool to join the network at Ellesmere Port. It’s not that far, but it’s a huge waterway with large ships and a tidal component. Not something a narrowboat is made for. Lots of people do it however, they flotilla together and pick a good day. Since I’m not likely to be in a rush, I might just take the risk. It’s either that or backtrack to the Bridgewater Canal. The tough part of this decision is that the Bridgewater looks well worth doing as well. Nice to have two good options! If I’m early enough getting over the Leeds to Liverpool Canal, I might just do both.

As the summer goes on and I write more blogs posts, please sign up for email notifications and send me lots of comments! Don’t worry, there’s no spam or advertising. I’ll reply to all the comments I can (eventually) but I’m not sure if you get notification of that so check back often. I love hearing from all my friends back home as well as those I meet along the way. I’ll try to update other social media stuff more often this year, I’m still figuring it all out. I’ve also made up a business card to make finding me easier:

And as you can see I’ve got a new logo, and have made a name sign that I’ll be putting on the side of the boat:

 

 

 

Winter finally arrived (a while ago now). After a couple of months waiting the snow eventually arrived and I moved up the mountain (Mount Washington on Vancouver Island for my UK friends). Although it started a week late, the skiing has been pretty good. And while there were some “damp” days, often following a heavy snowfall, I still managed to have fun. All good to build a base though. I don’t go out every day, but most days. It’s great having the freedom to choose, to pick the good days, or to just not ski if I don’t feel like it (which seldom happens). As the season’s gone on, the weather has been very cold and dry. This has made the conditions very stable so even with little new snow, the skiing has been great. Even better, there’s been lots of sunshine!

I have a job on the mountain, or should I say a “job”. I volunteer as a Snow Host one day or so a week, which entails helping people with directions, locations of rentals and tickets, organizing queues, and acting as a tour guide for newcomers to the mountain. It’s a great way to meet people and make new friends, and the Resort offers some great perks for the time I put in. And it gets me up early at least one day a week…

Other than skiing and “socializing” (read: pub time), I spend a considerable amount of my time planning my upcoming summer canal cruising. I’m in touch often with several friends that I met last summer and we’re hoping to meet up again. I had thought the ski season would temper my enthusiasm for the narrowboat life at least a bit, but nope, I’m just as excited to get onto the canals this year as last. Maybe more, now that I know how much I enjoy it.

The present plan is to go north through Leicester, west on the Trent and Mersey canal, north to the Leeds and Liverpool, then eventually stopping in Chester and Llangollen in Wales. Overwintering is planned on the Shropshire Union canal (Middlewich Branch). This is about 650 miles, and 450 locks. I calculated my distance last season as 378 miles and 446 locks but that was a short season since I spent the first few weeks outfitting the boat and then came back to Canada a month earlier than planned. So I think I can manage the longer distance if I don’t sit around too much and have the whole six months.

Stay tuned (if you are interested), I’ll be flying over on May 4 to get Cool Change in the water and moving. I hope to continue the blog on a regular basis, with fewer pub references and more miles under the hull. After all, there’s still at least 1700 miles left to explore!

Okay, that title is a bit over the top, I know. I’m living my dream overall; a truly great retirement plan is unfolding and it’s one that suits me just fine. It’s just that this intervening month between the canals and the mountain is turning out to be a bit longer than other months. I’ve got some chores around the place to do, and the gym calls to me most days but I spend a lot of my time planning next year’s cruising. And I know I said my previous post was the last but I’ve found some video that I wanted to share.

So to keep from bouncing off the walls, I’ve been working on pictures and videos, learning all about transitions and sound levels and other cool techie-sounding stuff. Well, not learning all about these things, as you’ll see. But I’m getting there. These are my first attempts, and the music available to me wasn’t particularly abundant. It’s all in 30 second bites so don’t ask why it changes constantly! My apologies…

First up is Chris driving my boat into a lock, showing me how it’s done! We had a fantastic weekend cruise to a pub (duh, where else?). No comments about the empties please, they may be a sign of why he was driving!

Next is a rather long and jerky sped-up video of the day I spent cruising from Wooten Rivers (on the Kennet and Avon Navigation) to the head of the Caen Hill flight at Devizes. I set up a GoPro in timelapse mode for it, and wish I had done more. It runs pretty fast but would be somewhat tedious otherwise (much more interesting in real life)! It does give you an idea of the pastoral beauty along so much of the system.

This last video is another timelapse of many of the locks in the infamous Caen Hill flight. It’s a group of 29 locks, most of which have to be done in a single day as there’s really nowhere to moor along it’s length. Its construction was an amazing technical feat at the time (built by John Rennie in 1810).

You’ll notice a handsome gentleman in a blue shirt that appears to be doing so much of the work. That’s Guy. With him working hard on a long, hot day were his wife Rose and Bob’s wife Cate (Bob and I were driving the boats). You can see more pictures of them in a previous post. Great people and great friends that I’m hoping to meet up with on the Macclesfield next summer.

Here is the middle 16 locks, it’s an impressive sight:

The present plan (if you’re still reading) is to head over at the beginning of May and get some additions completed on the boat. I really want to add solar panels; due to some other issues on the boat this didn’t get done. If the weather cooperates, I’ll try to do some painting before it gets too hot. This was something of a problem all summer. Later in May I’ll attend the Crick Boat Show, it was a ton of fun last year and is a great place to learn stuff. Also, I’m hoping to meet up with Chris and Julie again, except this year we’re not tenting in a thunderstorm! Following the show I’ll head west then north, and eventually cruise the Leeds and Liverpool canal (with it’s large number of locks), visit Chester in before going into Wales to cross the spectacular Pontcysylite Aquaduct. (thank you Hilary for the correction).

I’ve received some great feedback from the previous post about continuing the blog. Seems some of you are still reading it, and even enjoying it! Thanks again for the support. I’m working on a Google Earth file that’ll have a large number of photos geotagged to their location, I’ll post it if I can get it to work. I want to also update the cruising route file to complete the season. I think the last one ended in August.

Lastly, I’ve been told that you don’t see my replies to your comments. I reply to almost every one, but I think it only gets posted on the particular blog post it pertains to. You’d have to go back and look at the comments on that post to see my reply…I think. Let me know if this isn’t the case, or if you do in fact get a notification of a reply.

All the best to everyone!

So I’m all settled back in Canada. I’m in Sidney now, more or less waiting until the ski season starts, when I will move up the mountain for the winter. In the meantime, I’ll work on the sailboat, on my condo, and on my growing yearning to get back on the canals (yes, already). It’s going to be a long winter.

Ever since I left the boat and flew home, I’ve been analysing my feelings. I’ve come up with the one word that best describes what I felt while on the narrowboat, cruising the canals. Contended. I guess it’s a bit dramatic but in so many ways that’s the word that comes to mind whenever I cast my mind back to the hours of quietly coasting along a tree-lined, remote bit of canal. As I wrote in one of the early posts after leaving the marina for the first time, I have become convinced that this was what I am meant to be doing at this point in my life.

I feel very fortunate to have found something that is so right for me. I’ve only had a few things in my life that gave me that feeling…the birth of my son is of course the best of those. Very few people are as lucky as I’ve been.

I would again like to thank everyone for the support and great comments I’ve received for the adventure itself, and for the blog that has documented it. I was a bit hesitant to write so much about myself at first (it’s still a bit odd to me) but have received so much encouragement and postive feedback that I’m glad that I managed to continue. I haven’t decided if I’ll keep it going next summer, maybe let me know what you think? Bored yet?

While I was in England, I had limited internet access and was generally unable to post many pictures, and almost no video. I have some videos that I wanted to share, so I’ll include them here. They’re quite out of order but I hope you like them! If I ever get better at video or photo editing, I might add more later. I should have lots of quiet evenings up the mountain to try.

In the meantime, have a great winter everyone and keep in touch.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

At the end of the previous post, you’ll remember that I was going to meander across to the winter mooring location near Market Harborough. While at Saltisford and I got word that a tragic event had occurred back home and I needed to return to Canada. I left immediately and managed to make it to Debdale Wharf Marina in about 5 days. It was an easy if hurried trip. The weather cooperated and I was able to find good moorings even late each day. Here is my penultimate location, one of my favorites of the whole summer…

The last travel day found me at the Foxton Locks, a flight of 10 locks situated in two 5-lock staircases (where the locks are connected without a ‘pound’ between them). It was a busy day so took me quite a long time but the wonderful volunteers did all the work, allowing me to stay aboard and just drive through. It was quite intimidating going down a staircase since when departing a lock I wasn’t able to see anything ahead except the valley in the distance…

Looking backwards it gives you an indication of the height change through each lock.

I spent so long coming down this flight that I actually made friends with many of the sightseers enjoying the day.

Once below the flight I moored up on the canal-side for the last time (this year). It was a pleasant spot, near a couple of pubs. In fact, I learned that one had a washer and dryer so I was able to spend the day in a pub doing chores!

Once the ‘chores’ were done, it was time to moor up for the winter. The boat will be winterized and hauled out in the next couple of weeks. I feel it’s in safe hands but it was a bit tough to leave.

I’ll do one more blog post in the coming days now that I’m back in Canada and have decent internet, I’ve got more pictures and video to share.

Thank you everyone for reading the blog, it’s been fun to keep a record of this adventure. It has truly been an amazing time, one that I’m incredibly grateful to have had the opportunity to experience. The things I’ve seen and experienced will stay with me forever, but more important are the friendships I’ve made. They are even more valuable. I’ve met some of the best people ever and I feel so lucky to have added so greatly to my circle of very close friends. Thank you all.

I’ll be back next year without a doubt.

Jill and Peter have gone home and I’m sad and ronery now. It was simply the best week I’ve had over here. To be able to share this adventure with such good friends, to show them the beauty and tranquility, as well as the excitement and history, was a special treat for me. If I’m not mistaken, they enjoyed it a bit too. Romeo and Juliet was fantastic, even if I did know how it ended. After all, it was the Royal Shakespeare Company, in Stratford-upon-Avon!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The next few days we spent enjoying Stratford, visiting various Shakespeare sites. One was quite interesting, it was billed as “Shakespeare’s New House”, apparently a large house he bought and lived in after becoming Rich and Famous. The thing is, the house isn’t there! It got torn down many years ago and is basically an archaeological site. The house next door is period, so they’ve used that to show what it probably looked like… The other places to visit were in somewhat better repair. Jill particularly enjoyed Mary Arden’s Farm, the place where Will’s mother grew up, It’s a working Tudor farm/museum and is well worth a couple of hours to see.

I’ve mentioned a few times, and in a few places, how wonderful the visit with Peter and Jill was. That wasn’t solely because they are two of my best friends, I had missed them, and they’re such good company. There was more to it. It was a touch of home. We sat drinking coffee (like at home), talked about many different things (like at home), just enjoyed each others company (like at home). I’ve met many wonderful people over here, most of whom I hope to maintain contact with, but it’s a bit more special when we share such a bond, a long-time common experience and so many mutual friends (and otherwise). I can’t say enough what it meant to me that they made the long trek over here. And Jill didn’t get seasick! This might possibly be the only kind of boating she’ll ever do.

The trip back from Stratford was a bit eventful. As I left the outskirts, I was waved to a stop as I entered a lock. Apparently there was a problem with two of the gates. It seems a boat had rammed a couple of the ‘cills’ (the thick concrete base that holds the gate doors when the water pressure is against them) and broken large chunks off. The steel rim around the gate was therefore loose and very dangerous. After draining and inspecting, it was decided that both locks would need to be repaired, stopping navigation for several days. Fortunately, they refilled and ‘escorted’ myself and four other boats through (since we couldn’t make it back to moorings from where we were). Stratford was indeed cut off for the next 5 days or so. It was fortunate that I made it out, although a few extra days on the lovely River Avon wouldn’t have been a hardship.

Further along, I did the Hatton flight rafted up with a lovely family, Chris and the three kids did all the work! Myself and their mother (my apologies, I neglected to write down names) just drove the boats in and out of the locks, so we made it through 21 locks in less than 3 hours! If you read this, please sort me out on names!

The rest of the adventure continues apace. I’ve returned to Saltisford (Warwick) and had a wonderful couple of days’ visit with Wendy. We did some sightseeing and walking about, mostly just chatting and catching up. It was so nice… However, one of the reasons I’m back here is to get (more) work done. It seems the voltage regulator on the alternator has failed, sending far too much voltage into the batteries. I don’t think this is why the other battery tried to explode, this seems like a more recent problem. Anyway, I replaced the whole alternator (and did an oil change while in the engine bay). So that’s one more part of the boat that I now know the history of! Buying a used boat (or anything) leaves you a bit in the dark about the background and what might go wrong. It’s nice to have new parts in critical areas so can I trust them.

I’ll be off toward my winter mooring next, it’s about 25 miles away (as the crow flies) so shouldn’t take more than a couple of weeks. The canals are a bit winding, and there’s lots of locks between here and there. And it’s at an average of about 3 miles an hour. And one more thing…I’m in no hurry!

 

 

Okay, I’ve been having (a) too much fun, and (b) too much relaxing to write much lately. It’s been a fun couple of weeks since the last post. I stayed moored up in Saltisford Arm, in Warwick for over a week, getting the new batteries, doing laundry, shopping, and some sightseeing. Warwick Castle is in an amazing state of preservation, including the living area. The whole castle was a private home until 1978, although it’s been open off and on for public tours since the 1800’s. It’s now owned by a large company that does theme parks, which they’ve turned it into. It’s a fun day, especially for children, and the history if amazing, but it’s a bit too cheesy.

Jill and Peter arrived while I was in Warwick and we had a great ‘reunion’! They had a few days in London before taking the train north, so they managed to catch some of the sights. It is so nice to have them here, and everything is going exactly according to plan. We’ve done many, many locks (Peter is a machine and has done most of the work), the country’s longest aquaduct, a reasonably long tunnel, some beautiful cananl-side mooring as well as in town and pub mooring! They’ve hit all the high lights! It has been a simply brilliant visit, I’ll be very sad to see them go. I think they’ve enjoyed themselves a bit…

We did the Hatton Flight (about 26 locks) with another boat, and again made fast friends that I’ll be seeing again. A lovely family, Martyn, Amanda, and their daughter Charlotte.

They tried to stay for dinner when they smelled Jill’s roast chicken! Here they are begging at the kitchen window!

We’re now in Stratford-upon-Avon (yes, THAT one) as I write this, and have tickets to Romeo and Juliet tonight at the Royal Shakespeare Company Theatre. Jill managed to get a single last-minute ticket to Macbeth this afternoon so was over the moon (she was inches from some guy named Ecclestone?).

Not a bad spot to moor up! (that’s Cool Change right in the basin).

I’ll add more later, we’ve tons of great adventures and visiting! …

I’ve been in the same vicinity for a while now. After fixing the shower and some other little things, I spent a few days just rambling up and down some of the local canals. I had some company aboard, people I had met on the K&A near Bath. We went north to a pub for lunch, then just wandered back. That’s one of the great things about this life, there’s almost no schedule. Just do what comes along…

Then it was the other direction, toward the nearest grocery since I needed to stock up on some essentials. Mostly cider and Pimm’s. Further on was a short flight of locks, and a very long tunnel. It’s almost 2km long and although it’s wide enough for two narrowboats to pass, it’s got some small bends in it which make it interesting. My new tunnel light was great though, so only one small glitch (bits of brick from the tunnel lining)…

Back on the main Grand Union Canal I’m now heading up toward Royal Leamington Spa where I will be meeting Peter and Jill (from Canada) for a visit. We’re planning on cruising down to Stratford-upon-Avon to see the Royal Shakespeare Company production of Romeo and Juliet.  Kind of an iconic thing to do. I just hope we can find mooring in the basin, that would be so cool.

Okay, adding more to this blog, it’s later now. I’ve had the worst internet of the trip on this section, often nothing at all (not even phone service). But now I’m at Warwick, in a nice little mooring built on a side-canal that was reconditioned into this sort of ‘canal club’. Anyway, I’m here because I’ve had another issue with the boat. This one wasn’t entirely unexpected. I have never had much faith in the batteries on board, I had no history and they seemed a bit sketchy. Well, one of them decided to die, in a rather annoying way. I woke up one morning with no power (10.8 v). They charged during the day but I knew something was wrong. I made arrangements to get new ones but that night while charging things got worse. A strong sulphur smell was wafting though the boat, so I knew it was gone. The bad battery was very hot so I had to shut everything down. The next morning my freezer was mostly defrosted (I’ll be eating a lot of meat for the next couple of days) but I’ve disconnected the bad one and I’m back in power. The new batteries arrive Thursday so I’ll just hang out and let it rain! I love boats…

This section of the Grand Union Canal was originally built as a narrow canal (7′ wide) but was widened to accommodate wide-beams and two boats in a lock. The old narrow sections of the locks are still visible on the left.

I’ve teamed up with Steve for many of the locks (and the Stockton Flight), he’s been a huge help. He’s a Ward Beadle for the Lord Mayor of London (that’s the City of London, not London). Sort of a ceremonial guard kind of thing. Great guy, we’ve had a blast. Here’s part of the flight. The locks on this section are great, with the huge paddles they drain and fill very fast. Did 10 locks in about 1.5 hours.

Here’s a guy that will still be able to run his washing machine after the apocalypse:

New friends I’ve made recently (that’s Ben on the left, the other two are married):

 

 

The weather has finally broken, at least temporarily. A pretty good storm has blown through, bringing some significant rain to most of the country, and high winds to the area I’m in. It’s been nice to get a decent sleep without the fan on, to actually tuck in under a quilt! As you can see, I’m in a marina…more on that in a bit.

On the boat front, something has happened. I was looking under a cupboard back aft for some tools and noticed that there was a bit of water on the plywood on the bottom next to the hot water tank. I thought ‘oh damn, a connector has come loose or broken’. I got a flashlight to inspect further and suddenly saw a flash of light through a hole in the floor.

It was full of water! I mean full. The space under the floor is about 5″ and full of steel ribs  for stiffness of the boat and brick ballast to help keep it upright. But it’s not supposed to have water in it. Ever. So, inevitably, I freaked out a bit. Everything was turned off, including the water pump. It couldn’t have come from the canal, there’s no below-waterline ports to let it in. I investigated every possible source, and concluded it was the shower drain.

To make a long story short, it turns out that the drain from the shower had fallen off, I have no idea when. The strainer was still in place, hiding the disaster underneath. The way the system works is that when you go into the shower, you turn on a ‘gulper’ pump that pumps the shower water over the side. It can pump air as well as water, so there was no indication that anything was wrong (I didn’t look over the side to see if water was actually coming out, never thought to!).

The result of this was that  every time I took a shower, I was adding more water to the sub-floor bilge space. And no, there’s no bilge pump in that area! The bilge pump is in the separated engine compartment since that’s the only place that water can actually make ingress from the canal.

I’ve pumped out the majority of the water using a combination of a hand pump, the gulper, and an electric pump I purchased from Amazon. As for fixing the problem, that’s an interesting one too. I had an engineer have a look and he agreed that pulling out the shower tray would be the very last resort, it would mean ripping the whole shower out (tiles and all). Not a pleasant prospect. The option we were going to do was to pull up some carpet in the hallway adjacent, and cut a hole in the floor. Unfortunately, upon further investigation, there’s a steel rib in the way. So I worked out a cunning plan to pull a new one in from the pump end with some string, and using that string to hold it up against the tray while screwing the sieve on (thus pulling the rubber seals against the tray top and bottom).

Well, that wasn’t as easy to do as it was to write. With the rubber gasket that came with the drain, the screw that holds it all together was far too short. So I removed the gasket, gooped the heck out of it with silicone, pulled it up tight with the strings, pounded the strainer as far down as I dared (with my biggest hammer) and the screw caught! I’ll let the silicone dry completely, add another layer, then hook it all back up and I’m in business. I’m glad I’m living alone, no shower for several days is starting to bother even me.

As I mentioned earlier, I’m in a marina. I was nearby when I discovered the shower problem and I was told that there was a good engineer that worked out of here (thinking I’d need help). So I booked in for a few days, and timed it just right! I had full electricity (heat!) and was nice and snug for the storm. I’ll fill my water, drain the black water, and be all set when I leave here. For those of you that are checking my location on Google Maps, I’m NOT at either of the large prisons next door. It’s just a coincidence. And there really is a marina here now, it only opend in April and it’s not even on all the satellite images yet (Maps no, Earth yes). Oh and by the way, send me a message if you’d like me to send you a Google Earth .kmz file that you can run as an animation to see my route so far. I haven’t figured out now to attach it to the blog yet.

The other advantage of a marina…food delivery. I’m getting a little low and there’s no stores nearby, but there’s delivery. I’m more than a little low, in fact. I was reduced to this for lunch (and yes, it was as bad as it looks):