A memorable week – was yours?

Last week for us was yet another crammed with memorable moments. It makes me realise that it’s not possessions or work but people and events that make most of our important memories. What memories will you keep from last week?

We came to London to run a marathon and that’s just what Steve did. We also had a chance to catch up with family and friends which was fantastic. It’s the effort people make to come and visit us on the boat, or support Steve on the marathon, or share meals with us, which is memorable.

Then one day of recovery and restocking calories (for two but only one had burned them off) with visits to boat cafes, with walking in London, along Regents’ Park passed the Zoo and into Camden for more food before heading back via a tavern…

And then we escaped the hustle and bustle of London. It surprised us just how quiet the mooring at Little Venice was. There are just 2 Canal and Rivers Trust moorings there, right on the edge of Rembrandt Gardens which is locked overnight but when open gives a handy shortcut from the mooring to Warwick Avenue tube station. The moorings are opposite a small island, which is inhabited by swans, ducks, Canada geese, cormorants and coots. The surprisingly raucous sound of the wildfowl often drowned out sirens of emergency vehicles travelling to nearby St Mary’s Hospital.

We were hugely fortunate with the weather – Saturday brought torrential rain as did Monday night causing flooding in the Capital. The marathon on Sunday though was largely dry apart from a heavy shower when Steve was running round the souless Canary Wharf. Fortunately the skies and Steve dried out by the finish line. Good thing too, as he’s still promising that is his last full marathon!

This week has reinforced my belief that it is actually possible to run any business from a boat. We’ve encountered the Puppet Barge, a Cafe Boat which served astonishingly enormous breakfasts (although it still didn’t rival the breakfast rolls of Boat Street – the floating cafe at Mercia Marina run by Chris and Kim), a recording studio, a welder and a floating concert hall with a grand piano.

From our travels we’ve already encountered a softserve ice cream boat (the sublime Wobbly which also serves candyfloss and fudge in what seems unlimited flavours); Holly the cafe boat with Jo’s amazing homemade cakes; a hairdresser; a wood carver and artist; Holm Oak Trading which sells a huge range of eco products for home, human and canines plus clothing from recycled offcut materials, so reducing waste, and the luxurious Pullman seating of Boat Street Cafe.

I’d be interested to know what business actually couldn’t work on a boat?

Our memories of cruising south are how very different it feels to boating in the Midlands or the North (our experiences to date).

• Few boaters we’ve spoken to are travelling any significant distances – many shuttling rather than cruising
• There are many more floaters than boaters – people using floating structures as homes rather than homes plus transport. It’s understandable given the space and cost issues.
• How many boats/floating structures are in a poor state of repair, through lack of funds or lack of knowledge perhaps?
• The number of loose boats we have had to catch and re-moor or manouevre round – widebeams, cruisers and narrowboats!
• The bulk of Britain’s widebeams seem to be gathered south of Watford Gap!
• The significant debris on towpaths – much boat fit out waste in certain places particularly irritating alongside lock moorings. It all takes up valuable CRT time and resources to clear meaning they can do less in maintaining or improving the infrastructure of the waterways

We’ve encountered CRT staff and volunteers in various places, in emergencies and unexpectedly and they have always been cheerful and helpful. They have responded when we have needed them, for which we are hugely grateful.

We got to share the first day’s cruising memories of a couple who sold up everything and moved onto a narrowboat with no prior experience of one; we met the last finisher of the 2021 London Marathon (a justifiably proud 83 year old); saw some interesting floating roof gardening (wonder if I can manage wisteria…not sure if the other plants on an adjoining boat were legal…), and moved from pea soup algae covering the canal on the Paddington Branch to another invasive species, pennywort, clogging locks and propellors further north. We, like other boaters, are dragging it out constantly, and will keep doing no doubt as we head north.

For now though, we’re back under the M25 and heading to see family and friends in Bedfordshire and enjoy more memorable promised meals in their company before moving on once more.

The smoky, damp scent of Autumn is in the air, mornings start misty and chill giving way to late sunshine or torrential rain – who knows which way we’ll go or what awaits us round the next bend?