The end of a year afloat and hardest blog to write

Exactly one year ago we sold most of our possessions, let our house and the two of us (plus the dog of course) moved to live full time on a 50ft long, 7ft wide narrowboat continuously cruising the waterways. Our adventure began at Sileby Mill in Leicestershire on the canalised section of the River Soar, formally known as the Grand Union Canal (Leicester Section – River Soar Navigation).

Since then have have completely departed from our previous existence which was living on the hamster wheel of long hours and work dictating our lives. We no longer need to commute. I’ve gone freelance and returned to journalism as well as continuing some Higher Education work – all of which is delivered remotely. Steve continues to operate his existing property business from the boat and his portfolio now includes what was once our home.

Downshifting to need less to live on has meant we spend more time together. It has given us freedom and more choice. We have time to explore the incredible countryside, towns and cities we have passed through. It also means we use our time differently and are kinder to the planet in the way we live. We watch cygnets hatch, grown and have flying lessons from Dad, see fish, herons, woodpeckers, kingfishers – and of course our new ever-present neighbours – ducks – as we go along, or from the galley window as we wash the dishes by hand (no need for a dishwasher); enjoy splashing about in the fresh air washing clothes by hand at water points or enjoy chats in laundrettes or with family and friends as we borrow their machines (no washing machine), we forage for wood and food, enjoying the produce of woodland, hedgerows and fields (free food and fuel).

We’ve been through two lockdowns on board and one winter without central heating. In reply to friends who say “Isn’t it cold on board?” – we have found our multifuel stove heats us so well we ended up in t-shirts on board whilst the canal froze outside and snow fell. We foraged Christmas decorations, hiked miles and enjoyed many memorable moments with family and friends (sorry – too many to include here) once lockdowns ended.

Living afloat has changed how we think. Dual purpose or treble purpose is the name of the game – thinking consciously about our consumption. We think differently to maximise the use of our fuel – when using our stove we harness its heat for warmth, drying clothes and cooking too. The dual purpose approach extends to how we use our space too. Every step in the boat double as a store, the sofa is a double bed and storage container, the space under the bed contains the hot water tank and a sizeable storage space. Empty gin bottles become lamps thanks to rechargeable usb lights and generous friends.

Talking of power we don’t have mains electricity. Our batteries which give us light and power are charged by the engine as we cruise, but we don’t cruise every day. Steve installed two solar panels in March this year in lockdown 3. These mean that we don’t have to run the engine on days we are stationary. So far our two panels have generated 62kw hours which has saved us £311.96 in diesel to date. In total thanks to the sun we have recovered 60% of our installation costs.

Year 1 totals
• 522 locks (271 narrow/ 145 broad/ 5 large) including staircases and flights
• 697 miles 0.75 furlongs (10miles commercial waterways/ 351 narrow/ 276 broad/60 rivers)
• 58 moveable bridges
• 24 tunnels = 19m 0.25f underground

Waterways encountered

• Grand Union Canal (Leicester Section – River Soar Navigation/ Leicester Section – Leicestershire and Northamptonshire Union Canal/ Leicester Section – Market Harborough Branch/ Leicester Section – Old Grand Union/ Leicester Section – Welford Arm/ Grand Junction Canal – Main Line)
• Oxford Canal (Main Line)
• Coventry Canal (Main Line)
• Ashby Canal (Main Line)
• Birmingham Canal Navigations (Birmingham and Fazeley Canal)
• Trent and Mersey Canal (Main Line)
• Bridgewater Canal (Main Line and Stretford & Leigh Branch)
• Leeds and Liverpool Canal (Leigh Branch and Main Line)
• Aire and Calder Navigation (Main Line and Wakefield Section)
• Calder and Hebble Navigation (Main Line and Dewsbury Old Cut)
• Huddersfield Broad Canal
• Huddersfield Narrow Canal (19.3 miles, 74 locks)
• Ashton Canal (4 furlongs!)
• Peak Forest Canal (Lower)
• Macclesfield Canal
• Trent and Mersey Canal (Hall Green Branch)
• River Trent (Western End)

We’ve experienced 4 of the 7 Wonders of the Waterways, appearing here in the order we encountered them. Barton Swing Aqueduct over the Manchester Ship Canal; Burnley Embankment; Bingley Five Rise Locks; Standedge Tunnel.

Areas we’ve travelled through: Leicestershire, Northamptonshire, Oxfordshire, Warwickshire, Staffordshire, Cheshire, Lancashire, Yorkshire, Derbyshire, Nottinghamshire, Buckinghamshire, Greater Manchester, Bedfordshire.

The nitty gritty bits of living afloat including our running costs:

• 32 water fills
• 658 running engine hours
• taken on 652 litres of diesel at a total cost of £598 = 0.97l per hour = £11.58 per week diesel. Diesel is needed for cruising and whilst we cruise that heats our hot water. It used to also be for powering the batteries to give us light and power but now we also have solar.
• taken on 1,220kg (1.22 tons) coal = total cost £613.60 = 1.17 bags a week = £11.80 per week coal.
• taken on 4 bottles of gas = total cost £135.95 = £2.61 per week.

Energy costs over the past year: £26.00 per week, £112.67 per month, annual total £1,352.13 – that includes current full tank of diesel, 8 bags of coal and 2 full gas bottles on board.

What have we gained?

• Steve: Freedom
• Deena: A wonderful balance to our lives
• Cola: Daily swims

Best part ?

• Deena: too many to choose just one – being so close to nature; Huddersfield Narrow a fabulous rewarding challenge; gaining confidence and enjoying taking the tiller; long night’s of sound sleep and meeting fascinating, fabulous people.
• Cola: new walks and new smells to explore every single day
• Steve: Going a long way slowly

Least favourite part ?

• Deena: what seemed like months of mud and between us we have 8 feet to walk it onto the boat!
• Cola: the biscuit tin is STILL out of reach.
• Steve: Running out of beer.

What do we miss? Steve & Deena: Washing machine (think we might have to try and work out how to fit one on board, power one and afford one!) Cola: Nothing

Most surprising thing?

• Deena: How enjoyable winter is without central heating but a solid fuel stove even when there’s snow and you’re iced into the canal (and at one point into the boat), oh and that ducks do daily pilates!
• Cola: how the towpath changes sides so you have to check every time you get off (but I’ve proved old dogs do learn new tricks).
• Steve: How easy it is to change your life for the better – just go and do it!

Funniest part? Deena: Steve having to take another boat owner on our boat to rescue their boat after they moored it with a piece of string on the Aire and Calder and the string snapped!

This has been the hardest blog of the year to write because there was so much I to remember, to share, to capture. We are both looking forward with anticipation to what the next year will bring us. We are heading to London where Steve will run the London Marathon (slower than he would like thanks to Covid taking its toll), but he will still run it for Victa an amazing small charity. Then we will move slowly north via the Oxford Canal seeking to explore the Staffordshire and Worcestershire Canal, and the Shropshire Canal over winter.

I’m eagerly planning next year’s roof garden’s flowers, fruit and veg building on lessons from the experiences of this year – in the main nothing over 30cms tall but all the successful plants from this year. (More on this in due course).

The abundantly leafed potatoes in a sack proved the biggest issue this year – we couldn’t see where we were going and I had to stand on a step at the back to navigate! After weeks of being forced to take them off the roof for safety (so we could see and also to stop low bridges knocking them off into the cut), we started juggling them into the cratch for travelling, out onto the towpath in the evenings and nights so we had room to sit out, and back into the cratch in the day, they met their Waterloo at Standedge Tunnel in Yorkshire. Everything apart from the solar panels had to come off the roof to get through the tunnel. The panels had to be lowered. There were plants in containers stacked 4 deep in the cratch and lining the main cabin too much to the puzzlement of the dog! But I just couldn’t fit in the spuds however hard I tried, so they were harvested the night before the tunnel, and kept us tastily fed for a few weeks afterwards! If we’d kept them longer we might have had a bigger crop but they could have proved our undoing too!

In answer to the question we now keep being asked – how long will we keep going with this life afloat? As long as we possibly can, savouring every moment of it. It was a leap into the unknown of which this is not the end, but just the beginning.