A long thin boat holiday.

[onlyMark]

I’ve been slowing down my mode of holiday transport for the last few years and have progressed from cars (except last time in Mexico) and motorbikes to scooters, auto rickshaws, bicycles, on foot and after casting around for another means of getting around I realised I’d missed out on an obvious one. Canal boats, otherwise called narrow boats.
There are plenty and numerous in the UK which has the advantage that I speak the language reasonably well, have a passing knowledge of the local food but, the weather is not the best.
I also grew up in an area with them as a backdrop everywhere.
I decided to brave it anyway and so for the last couple of weeks I’ve been travelling at walking pace in a long, thin boat along narrow man made waterways and at times in the rain, wind, cold but the odd rays of sunshine breaking through to warm my back.

I made a mistake though. Tomorrow it should be about back to normal but it can be difficult to get a good internet connection and I never thought I’d be renting a boat that doesn’t have any power connections other than two USB sockets to charge my phone and Kindle. It means I have to rely on the pathetic computer battery and a battery pack I can’t charge up. Both of which are just about to run..........



Damn, takes me too long to upload an image, seriously, it's that bad. I'll try later but it might have to be tomorrow to continue.

[bjd]

I'm happy to see what a narrow boat actually looks like. I have a book called "Narrow Boat to Carcassonne" about an English couple who took their narrow boat across the Channel and then sailed through canals to Carcassonne in southern France.

[htmb]

I started following a couple of UK narrowboat YouTube people back during the pandemic. Still follow them, though one couple has moved off their boat. Looking forward to hearing about your experience, Mark.

[kerouac2]

As much as people are passionate about this sort of travel (and it is a common prize on French game shows), I always think about the many things to worry about. While I have steered boats in the past with no problem, I worry about the locks, the mooring, nights in the middle of nowhere and stupid things like that. Knowing that I am unlikely to ever do it, I never worried about internet service, but now you have added a new possible problem in our weird 21st century needs.

[onlyMark]

bjd, there'll be a few photos in the report of them I tend to think.
htmb, wouldn't happen to be Holly the Cafe Boat? And/or Cruising the Cut?
K2, normally internet isn't such a problem unless, like I have, you moor in a cutting with high banks to block out some of the wind and rain.
Often TV is also affected by this as you would expect.

I've tried again with some photos but given up. I'll have to see about it tomorrow.

[htmb]

Mark, I know of both to those boat channels. What I’ve watched has been from Foxes Afloat and CountryHouseGent.

[onlyMark]

Foxes Afloat, yes I know, the other not. Foxes now have a house/land somewhere I seem to remember.

[onlyMark]

Managed to get some photos sorted so I'll carry on for a minute but that will be all for today.

There are currently about 2000 miles/3200km of canals in England and Wales.
They were built for the obvious reason of transferring goods from one place to another and were originally built somewhat piecemeal to join rivers or make a spur to a factory or mine. This preceded the industrial revolution but as soon as that came about, the system and design of canals increased dramatically.

The first “modern day” canal was built in 1757 but it was only the first step -
“In the mid-18th century the 3rd Duke of Bridgewater built the Bridgewater Canal. Its purpose was to transport coal from his mines to the industrialising city of Manchester. It opened in 1761 and was the longest canal constructed in Britain to that date. Canal boats could carry thirty tons at a time; one horse could tow more than ten times the amount of cargo that was possible with a cart. The Bridgewater Canal reduced the price of coal in Manchester by nearly two-thirds within a year of its opening. The canal was a huge financial success and repaid the cost of its construction within just a few years.”

It wasn’t long though until a new method of transporting goods came on the scene. This provided the death knell for the canals. In 1825 George Stephenson connected the towns of Stockton and Darlington in England by rail.
Both canals and rail ran in tandem for a while but gradually most canals fell into disuse.
“The period between the 1770s and the 1830s is often referred to as the "Golden Age" of British canals. During this period of canal mania, huge sums were invested in canal building. The canal system expanded to nearly 4,000 miles (6,400 kilometres) in length.”

Shortly after the end of WWII, the leisure aspect of canals became prominent and many were repaired, refurbished, maintained again and so on until we have the situation we have today. The last recorded use of a canal to transport goods commercially though was in 1996.
Canals tend to vary in width but one feature which became standardised, as with rail track width, was the width of canal locks. The first canals were built with an eye on the costs and the ‘newness’ of the technology and idea. So rather than go for something grand, they hedged their bets and made the infrastructure as small as possible but still practical for usage. Over the decades as more and more were built it was prudent to keep the same sizes for practicality.

This is why generally locks are 7 feet/2.13m wide - bear in mind also that in the early days everything was built by hand and an extra few inches here and there would easily add up.
Also there was a limit to how long a boat could be and still navigate around bends etc. This determined how long a lock could be. If it fits in, all well and good, if you’ve built a lock an extra few yards/metres, you’ve wasted your money.
A standard maximum length became 72 feet (21.95 m).

[onlyMark]

I mention locks - but I’ll get to more description of them another time. They’re there to go up and down hills is the thing. With a large range of knowledge on the forum I’m probably repeating what some know but I hope also informing others.
A few photos then.
Drove through some nice Derbyshire scenery to get to my starting point near Stoke on Trent -






I didn’t pick the boat up until mid-afternoon but then only cruised a few miles to get to a decent stop off to sort out my stuff and have a good look around and what I’d rented.
This is capable of sleeping five, but any more than two would I’m sure be quite a pain. It’s not short, but not long either. Somewhere mid-range at 45ft (13.7m). It is also not a posh one at all. Quite basic and getting worse for wear. Not a bother to me because in the season they are quite expensive to rent. Before Easter as I have done they are taking everything into consideration, a reasonable price.

Bear in mind I paid for the boat, went food shopping before I picked it up but then, unless you want to stay in a Marina and with mains electric hook ups, mooring at the side of the canal is free, water fill ups are free, there are no tolls, no campsite fees, fuel is included, gas for cooking is included, central heating be it by gas or diesel is included and the only thing you pay for is if you block up the toilet(s) and have to have them pumped out - but then the boatyard you got it from reimburses you.

This was my first mooring spot. Nice and quiet -






There are different styles/types of narrow boats with traditionally the bed being at the back, but ‘reverse layout’ ones are getting more and more popular and I would prefer that.
Looking from the front there is a dinette(?) to the left, the kitchen area in the middle with a TV and radio, the toilet and shower/sink opposite each other in the corridor and the bed at the back. There are doors front and back -






The cooker and fridge are normal domestic size (small freezer compartment in the fridge), standard sized sink and drainer -




Shower and toilet, one each side -






Looking from the bed back up to the front. The bed a generously called a double and is 1.30m wide and longer than I am tall by a few centimetres -




More another time.

[kerouac2]

That looks far nicer than what I would consider "basic."

I'm surprised that the transport of goods in England has ended, since it is growing on the continent albeit using bigger canals. In fact there are new canals under construction.

Seine–Nord Europe Canal

[bixaorellana]

First opened this thread in the morning & was quite frustrated that you couldn't keep going after that first tantalizing photo.
What a great trip to take, which will render a really great thread.

I used to live on a 39' trawler, so cast a keen eye on the interior of your boat. It's quite a nice design in terms of fitting in everything, but yes indeed a skinny boat! A question: there is no way to walk on the edges of the boat on either side?

The history information in reply #7 is greatly appreciated. I see Kerouac commented about being surprised that commercial traffic on the canals of the UK has ended, whereas it is even now expanding in Europe. However, considering the difference in land mass between the UK & Europe & the very shape of the UK, it would seem to make sense that trains took over.

It is wonderful that the canals are kept maintained for leisure use. You'll probably answer this later in the thread, but did you come across people living on their canal boats?

Mar 28, 2024 16:45:04 GMT kerouac2 said:

While I have steered boats in the past with no problem, I worry about the locks, the mooring, nights in the middle of nowhere and stupid things like that.

Kerouac, the very first thing I ever had to do on a boat was to throw the lines when we went through the many locks on the Tom Bigbee waterway after buying the boat in Maryville, Tennessee. I also learned to pull and let out anchor. (we later electrified that, as it's a hard & dangerous task) Trust me when I say that if I can do it, it's something any landlubber can learn. As far as nights in the middle of nowhere, that's part of the appeal.

Mar 28, 2024 19:05:06 GMT onlyMark said:

nice Derbyshire scenery

Oh my, yes! Your first mooring spot is also just beautiful.

Mar 28, 2024 19:05:06 GMT onlyMark said:

This is capable of sleeping five, but any more than two would I’m sure be quite a pain.

This was something we use to joke about, as the number of people a boat will sleep always seems to be a selling point. As you say, a boat is automatically a place for a very limited number of people.

Excited to see this thread develop ~ thanks!

[onlyMark]

Mar 29, 2024 2:30:14 GMT bixaorellana said:

A question: there is no way to walk on the edges of the boat on either side?

There is a very slim ledge enabling you to do so. Bear in mind the limit of 7 feet to the width so the more ledge you have, the less internal space. So it is kept to a minimum.

I think the new project in France is joining two rivers, maybe, can't remember for sure. In the UK I can't detail why we don't build them anymore but it'd be a combination of factors ending up with it not commercially viable to do so. Originally the canals were all privately built and then nationalised in the 20th Century and I can't see the government or any private individual nowadays wanting or needing to build one.

Mar 29, 2024 2:30:14 GMT bixaorellana said:

You'll probably answer this later in the thread, but did you come across people living on their canal boats?

There are about twenty thousand people who live on the canals (figures vary). Every boat has to have a licence but it isn't really recorded accurately how many of those live on the boat on the canal or just use it for leisure purposes. There are those that live on a boat in a Marina or other private moorings whereby certain paperwork is not needed but other paperwork is and those that use their boat as what are called "continuous cruisers" which means they have no set home base but by regulation, have to move on every 14 days to somewhere new - quite if this could be just a hundred metres or so along the bank is not specified but as with most things, as long as it isn't abused, nobody is bothered.

[htmb]

Mar 28, 2024 19:01:22 GMT onlyMark said:

Foxes Afloat, yes I know, the other not. Foxes now have a house/land somewhere I seem to remember.

Yes, Foxes Afloat have moved to northern Scotland. They continue to blog, mostly about their new Scottish home, raising bees, chickens, etc.

CountryHouseGent’s several seasons of videos on Amazon Prime helped get me through the first year of the pandemic. Lots of beautiful English countryside seen from life on the canals. He is still blogging via YouTube.

I can’t imagine many of the locks are all that easily operated by just one person. Takes a lot of thought and agility.

[onlyMark]

Yes, you are right about the locks. There is a system to passing through them depending if you are going up or down and if the water in the lock is for you or against you as to it's level when you get there.
It means with one person a lot of going back and forth, mooring up twice, first to have a walk and a look, after to then shut the open gates, climbing up and down, walking around the lock to get from one side to the other when the gates are open/or closed and so on.

[onlyMark]

Narrow boats were originally horse drawn - and that is the reason virtually everywhere there is a path running down the side. Left or right doesn’t matter as long as there is/was one. Called surprisingly a tow path.
They do change over from one side to the other and I’ll show you how they managed to cope with that in a second.

The power for the boats comes from a diesel engine and an agricultural one at best. You don’t need a high performance one, just one that is low revving and with plenty of pulling power (torque). Steam was tried but having a boiler and all the rest of it wasn’t popular so horses continued up to the installation of basic diesel engines.

Electric power comes from batteries and whereas all the ancillaries were powered by the batteries, recent developments mean electric propulsion is being given a go. Cooking now is on gas whereas it was on wood but also, if you have the battery power, modern electric hobs can be used. Lighting is also electric now.
Bear in mind there are also bilge pumps, toilet pumps, water pumps, heating pumps and so on.

The problem occurs when you need to charge the batteries.
Unless you are connected to mains power in a marina or a private mooring area, you have a couple of choices to do this. The diesel engine runs quite often and charges up, a separate generator is used, or solar panels.
Or a combination of all three.
I just had the boat engine to do it so it meant at least for a few hours each day I needed to run it - and it isn’t/wasn’t the quietest of things.

A quick mention of heating. Many have central heating of one form or another be it powered by gas or diesel and often residential ones have a scenic wood or multi-fuel fire for effect. Hot water radiator heating is the norm, just like in a house though there are variations regarding on demand gas boilers again as also with a normal house.

I must have stopped at one point, as I often did, to have a coffee and some toast and jam for breakfast. I noticed they seemed to have a generic bridge for taking pipes over the canal. I must have seen about five or six each day of the same style -

[onlyMark]

This though is an original bridge. This is where the tow path changes from one side to the other and made with easy access ramps for the horses to cross over whilst continuing pulling and not needing to disconnect them. Not sure how they would cope with the few steps though. All the bridges are numbered, as are locks, so with a map, or now an app, you can’t get too lost. Also it becomes easy to estimate timings between places. You can see the gap the boat has to go through. Just, and I mean just, wide enough -






There is a length of metal shown here. There's one each side. I'm sure in your own mind you can guess what their purpose was. Don't be ashamed if you can't. It just means you're not old enough -




View from the top of the bridge one way and then the other -






Nice TV aerial on the roof. Also a radio aerial.
Other things to note is the boarding plank (I never needed it), the proverbial I wouldn’t touch it with a barge pole, there are two rubber fenders back and front each side for when moored up and a very important centre rope. This is heavily used. When stopping you pull to the side, jump off with the rope and control the boat. There are mooring ropes front and back for use when tying up but the centre on is used for control and a temporary mooring option for doing locks or whatever.
The problem single handed is normally a “crew member” would jump off the front as you angled in with the rope whilst you operated the engine to stop. I didn’t have this option so I had to always bring the rear in to give me access to the bank (note to self, mention later centre rope and deep locks) -






I had difficulty, especially with the gusty wind we had, steering the boat and taking photos. Invariably as soon as I whipped the camera out of my pocket a gust would blow the front of the boat one way or the other. As can be seen, you don’t have a lot of width to play with - and this brings me to this photo.
There is on the left what looks like a space opening up. I didn’t get chance to photo it properly but I did another day with a different one.
It is called a winding hole - pronounced as in wind and not wind. Hah, meaning not to wind a rope but to have a gusty wind. It’s for tuning the boat around as the length is usually greater than the width of the canal -




Dappled sunlight, trees encroaching the banks, not a person in sight and all is well with the world.
Until you want a pee that is, as single handed you have to stop and moor up again. Couldn’t manage peeing off the side and steering at the same time. I did try.
Same with a mid-morning coffee and biscuits. I solved this by bringing a flask outside with me I’d fill up before setting off and a plastic waterproof container with chocolate hobnobs in it -




The tulips were always a welcome sight -






Moored up at the end of the day. Generic pipe bridge again with a rail bridge tucked in behind it and an original in the back ground. Also people walking their dog I think. Very popular past time -

[kerouac2]

Are you sure those are tulips? They look more like daffodils/jonquils to me.

In any case, the countryside is magnificent. Do you see houses along the way? Because it looks as though (inexplicably) nobody lives there.

Do all of the boats come from Britain? I ask this because even though it is a major activity in France, most of the péniches are imported from Belgium or the Netherlands. Don't know why France doesn't have enough of them. Then again, it might be perilous to take such a boat across the Channel.

[onlyMark]

I'm not good with flowers so you could easily be right. Engines good, flora not good.
There are plenty of houses bordering the canals but I always tried to moor out of their way. Later there are some in the report plus industrialisation. One thing about the canals is you are in areas you would rarely see around the back of things that usually front a road. It's its own little world and normally unless you live nearby and use the tow paths, the vast majority of people are completely unaware of not only what is there, but its existence in any case.

Canal boats have crossed the channel to get to the French canals and rivers but usually they need an addition or two to make the journey across the sea to make them more stable like keel boards to stop the wind blowing them off course.
You can sometimes see on barges, I think the Dutch ones, where they have keel boards attached to the side and drop down for sea journeys.
All the narrow boats are British made as far as I know. They are a peculiar size and it wouldn't be viable for other countries to make them and then transport them across to us. I think.

There are other boats like barges, houseboats and fibre glass cruisers, especially like on the Norfolk Broads, that could well be made abroad but narrow boats and their more spacious cousins, the double width narrow boat called a Wide Beam I doubt very much.
Wide beams are quite common but are severely restricted as to where they can sail and often end up just in a marina being lived in.
I'm told there is a sweet spot for a narrow boat, and that is 58 feet long (17.68m) that is big enough and yet small enough and the costs for buying, running and permits etc are reasonable in comparison to others.

[onlyMark]

I had visitors as I moored up. Coming to check out who was in their patch. I'm not even sure if these are the ones I see every day or there are just a lot of ducks. I think the latter.
One thing of note is the sound of the engine. As it is a rental it's not exactly filled with sound deadening material. The only thing over the engine was a plywood board. Many times I passed other privately owned boats and there was barely a whisper from their engines. Nevertheless it did the job without faltering and required no maintenance, oil checking, water checking etc at all. I was told not to bother, it's a new engine. The only thing I had to do every day at the end of the day was to turn a handle that pumped grease into the propeller shaft to stop it dripping when it wasn't turning.
But it was quite good at the end of the day to have some silence.

Ahh, yes, silence. That was a thing. When it was quiet, it was as quiet as any simile you can think of (of which you can think, in proper English. I think).
But, it never quite occurred to me that if canals follow the best route according to the contour lines then so will railways. A couple of evenings I was regaled by the sound of an Avanti West Coast train passing by on a line I'd not spotted not too far away.

[fumobici]

This is lovely, thank you. My parents hired a boat to do the Loire canals back in the eighties and loved it. We've got similar canals with tow paths in the Eastern US but I'm not sure if you can rent canal boats to cruise them with.

[bjd]

You can still rent boats to sail along canals in France. It's very popular on the Canal du Midi in summer.

Last weekend in Toulouse, I noticed a lot of permanently-moored barges on the canal near where I stayed. Many more than a few years ago. Several had taken over the shore beside their mooring, put up a fence and seats or planted flowers. I'm not sure that is legal since it's municipal property but several had done so.

I used to know some Brits who lived in a barge on that canal. They had bought a sea-going barge in La Rochelle or somewhere but it had to be cut into 3, the centre removed and the front and back soldered together in order to fit under bridges and along curves of the canal.

[onlyMark]

Thans Fumo.

bjd, they must have been really devoted to that barge to go to all that trouble.

[bjd]

Mar 30, 2024 9:26:10 GMT onlyMark said:

hey must have been really devoted to that barge to go to all that trouble.

Not that devoted after all. They totally renovated the thing, then decided to move back to England so that their daughter could go to an English university.

[lugg]

What a treat Mark, great photos and really appreciating all the info you are posting. I have often considered renting a houseboat - just worried that i might not cope with locks etc .Are you travelling solo or do you have help ? But the tranquility appeals, despite the risk of train noise . I guess that could be avoidable depending on the route chosen ?

[onlyMark]

I've had to forgo posting more for a moment as a few commitments have come up where I have little time to to this justice. I will try to fit a bit in when I can.

bjd, what we do for children.....

lugg, a houseboat wouldn't travel particularly, they tend to be static somewhere but if you mean the type I've had then yes, the locks are initially difficult but it only takes a few for you to get the idea.
I am solo so I do it all myself and I hope to expand on that at some time. There is plenty of tranquillity when you use the canals and/or moor up out of the towns and cities and as for routes, there are plenty and they can offer plenty of variation of town and country, locks or few locks etc.

[onlyMark]

My location at this time was on the Macclesfield Canal. This joins further down the way I’m going to the Trent and Mersey canal - which is a major canal stretching a very long way. On reaching it I would turn left and soon go through the Harecastle Tunnel - which has a reputation as being quite difficult and has a nickname of the “Scarecastle tunnel”.
In the meantime though I had a gentle run in that direction.

Various buildings began to appear, one with random advert -








A very old mile marker just in case you didn’t know where you were going -




It mentions a place called Marple. This is back the way I’m heading and I wanted to try and avoid it for two reasons. Firstly there is a staircase of locks that are quite difficult but also I had signed up for notifications from the canal authority as to problems on the canals. One was that the staircase was closed due to work being carried out and I wouldn’t have been able to go any further anyway -

[onlyMark]

A few scenic shots -










So this is how you dry your washing in case you wondered -




This is a winding hole. Gives you enough space to turn around but can be difficult if it is windy and blowing the boat in the direction you don’t want to turn -






Going under a bridge you get the idea how tight some of them are -






Some grander places are appearing -






Dotted along the banks are places you can stop to fill up with water. If you are two or three people and regularly using a lot for showers and so on then you’d need to fill up every couple of days. I used relatively little but still stopped every three or four days anyway -




This is a lock, but a baby one. The drop was very little and is called a ‘stop lock’ because it is close to the end of a canal to stop the water draining into the one it joins, or vice versa. It gave me a gentle practice for the bigger more serious ones to come.
There is a lock keeper’s cottage, usually there is one somewhere close by, but nowadays they are just used as normal houses.
The water level difference wasn’t very much so in any case I moored up and went to have a quick look -






Brought the boat in -






Did the necessary which I’ll add more detail to another time -






The drove away to moor up further down ready for the next day -

[kerouac2]

You have certainly proved that having a very narrow boat is essential. The countryside is lovely.

[mickthecactus]

A great report. I go slowly through the pictures to make me think I’m actually on the boat....

[onlyMark]

K2, I think it was down to the time of year as everything was getting really green. It is though very appealing.

Mick, take your time.