Lockdown 2.0 is rocking our boat

It’s a different lockdown this time – for us in more ways than one. This time we are afloat, living on a 50ft narrowboat which we are renovating as we cruise. Preparing for a lockdown on a narrowboat is different, and wondering as we do so what we might have forgotten!

Canal and Rivers Trust have lifted the 14-day maximum stay in one place for continuous cruisers like us. Leisure boaters who don’t live on their boats can’t go to them until 2 December as was the case for us in Lockdown 1.0. For us now it just means we don’t have to move as often to keep to the terms of our licence. 

We are currently cruising the restored Ashby Canal, a 22-mile, no lock route in rural countryside. It doesn’t connect to anywhere. Boats go up the length passing through Warwickshire and Leicestershire ending at the moment past the delightfully tiny Snarestone Tunnel (250 yards). At that point you turn, heading back through the tunnel and travel the 22 miles back to the junction with the Coventry Canal from where you can head in multiple directions. It was built for commercial canal traffic with shallow sides not easy for mooring because the commercial boats unloaded only at the set wharf points (now pretty full of leisure boats)…

We have walked much of the Ashby towpaths over the years but never cruised its length so this seemed like an excellent route – not too far from the family at a time when there were 2 birthdays to celebrate in November and Christmas on the horizon. Now with lockdown 2.0 it is giving us different food for thought.

Like anyone on dry land we need to shop occasionally ideally for fresh milk and bread once a week though we can do without those if needs be. But on a narrowboat there are certain key things we have to consider which you won’t be thinking of if you live in a house or a flat… namely water and waste!

We need to fill up with fresh water every few weeks for drinking, cooking and washing. We need to dispose of general household rubbish and…this is where we need to talk about every small child’s giggle factor…poo! In our case with just two of us on board and obviously no visitors during lockdown, two toilet cassettes last for around 6 days. Although sealed, wheeled containers, they are heavy when full and trying to drag one of those along a towpath in the mud is problematic to say the least.

We have a few other particular requirements we need to consider for a month’s lockdown.

• WiFi with a decent bandwidth – not the case where we are currently moored
• Reliable phone signal for us both – not the case for me where we are currently moored
• The ability to have our remaining (electric) car safely nearby, in case we have to respond to urgent issues with work or the highly independent members of the family for whom we provide when necessary caring support.
• a bus route in case one of us has to go one way in the car and the other of us is needed in another direction
• A place that’s suitable for mooring the boat without needing a gangplank which we need to continually lift and raise to avoid impeding the towpath
• and if possible with two of us and a dog coming and going a mooring where the towpath isn’t totally churned up with mud

Sounds easy? If we were on another canal we would just keep moving from water and waste disposal point when we needed to. We would be able to find shops on the way if we needed them, and there would be diesel too to help us keep the engine running for either cruising or topping up the batteries for lights and heating water. In other words our lockdown would look no different from our normal life.

On the Ashby Canal it is a bit different. There are a lot of boats here already, some liveaboards, others leisure moorers. Many have found moorings that suit them and are staying put. The nearest water, waste and diesel point is less than half a mile ahead of our current mooring but we would then need to cruise quite a distance to the next available turning point if we wanted to return to this spot, and the WiFi is not ideal for working…we could keep cruising but once we get to Market Bosworth that’s the last of shops on the Ashby…

We are divided – we disagree – we have different views over what to do. 

Option 1 – move to better WiFi and fill up with fuel, empty bins and waste on the way and hope we can find a good mooring with safe parking nearby. We have walked a lot of the towpath hunting for a suitable site and not found one which ticks all the boxes yet – maybe we are just being too fussy…maybe we have to compromise more after all, we chose this life…

Option 2 – turn our lockdown into another new experience and find out how the other half live in a marina complete with WiFi, in a good phone signal area, electricity (reducing diesel use and enabling the use of power tools which we need to resolve certain issues including an internal leak before the real winter begins) secure car parking, water, waste disposal, walkways around the boat so no mud immediately outside, a shop and… wait for it…a laundrette on site! Other shops are in walking distance. 

Option 2 is the one we have plumped for after much discussion and debate. The deciding factor was the need to support our key working children with child care and support, get to independent but elderly parent ASAP if needed and respond to work emergencies which require attendance in person. We have chosen our new life but no one else should suffer because of it.

To me it feels like a bit of a cheat, a cop out if you will but I know it makes sense. We will still be living on the boat, we have to it’s our home, but living on her in a different way. Life is a compromise and the tough stuff is yet to come – winter whilst we can and will have to be moving, will come with all its challenges. 

There is also the moral element – if everyone is trying to reduce the amount they move about, shouldn’t we be doing the same if we can? I have already come to value immensely our nomadic life – new views when we choose, seeing new countryside and communities, watching the wildlife at close quarters every day and the liberating sense of freedom living like this brings.

But could I really feel comfortable knowing that we were living our unchanged life whilst our family and friends, those we know and those we don’t, are being asked to give up some freedoms for the greater good and health of our country? 

We have chosen this lifestyle and are being asked to compromise it for a month, just one little month, which in the scheme of things is a fraction of time. If this compromise enables me to be available for those that rely on us if they need us to help them through lockdown 2.0, if this month means more of us will be together with our families intact then it’s a compromise that makes total sense and one I need to take (and stop whingeing!).

I’ve been lying awake at night enjoying listening to the owls calling but worrying that we, no let’s be honest, selfishly I, will feel claustrophobic in this self-imposed static lockdown. I also know the only way I will feel like that is if I let myself.

I have already learned so much that has helped me to live better and reduce stress during our first months living afloat on a narrowboat. I need to use and share those lessons via my lockdown blogs in the hope that some will support me and maybe you too. We are all going to be constrained to try and stay safe and healthy. If we can make it as positive an experience as possible then when it’s over we can once more appreciate what we have missed.

My goals then for this lockdown:

1. To achieve something, however small, every day
2. To see if I can start gradually running again and hope my meniscus tear has healed enough to let me carry on
3. To leave this lockdown lighter in spirit and looser in jeans knowing I have made compromises and decisions that are right..

4 small weeks – let’s see just what we can achieve.