Steeling ourselves for the future

Trust is vital when you let someone cut out a chunk of your floating home with an angle grinder while you’re on the water…

Trust we had but I still feel glad the dramatic work is over, and we are still afloat! It was something that had to happen.



So why did we need to have the whole well deck (deck at the front/bow/pointy end) cut away?

Take a look at how it looked before the work. Rusty and getting thinner by the year. Walking on it was about to become a game of chance. The risk was if your foot went through the thinning deck you would end up with a very wet damaged leg – the well deck being the top of our water tank!

Over two years ago,  we found an angle grinder/welding wizard – Kev Kyte. His work changed the safety and ease of living on our boat then, and now he’s done it again!


We have streamlined the boat at the bow internally in the process. For now the structure on top of the well deck that supported wooden planks that we used as seats are gone. We used to store much underneath them – coal, wood, all sorts of things we couldn’t decide whether to throw out or not! It is now a large (relative to a 50ft boat) open space, with a more flush water tank lid, all covered with a fitted canvas, which gives us the opportunity to rethink its use.

Our aim is to allow us a chance to consider how we want and need to use this space, and to maximise it rather than use it as a dumping ground which would be the temptation if we returned it as it was. Ideas at the moment are for moveable seating at different heights, fixed storage and potentially in the future, a new fuel tank to supply a diesel stove. The latter is a future-proofing thought – a way of removing the effort and need to haul around a ton of coal every year onto and into the boat to supply our heating.



So this work was the first stage of new plans for the future and for a valuable section of the boat. We also had an invitation this week to get involved in a different but equally forward thinking and vital planning exercise – bringing two of my personal passions together. Academia and narrowboats – an odd combination perhaps but one I’m used to remotely (via online) or with only one or two academics on board with me. This though was over 30 academics all at once. A logistical nightmare perhaps, but not when spread over 3 boats.

Academic away days can be many things – when I mentioned it to another former lecturer she recalled basement rooms with little light, another remembered an expensive hotel with over-active heating, both considered they were exhausted and drained by the end of the day. The group we had were invigorated, revitalised by fresh air and sunshine, and from the look of those on the boat I was invited to skipper, hugely productive. Tasks were allocated to be completed between locks or pause points, and when you are chugging along in the middle of a river with the only distractions being ducks, swans, a heron, a cormorant and a kingfisher (sadly the latter only spotted by me on the tiller),  focus and completion don’t seem so difficult.



Groups changed within the boats and tackled a variety of academic tasks as we went through the day. We weren’t on the padlocked section of waterway where we are currently moored but on a river with working locks, so the groups had physical exercise and new lessons to learn too.



Thanks to the friend and former colleague from Loughborough University for the invitation to an inspired, inspiring and hugely fun away day. Rumble, Fumble and Jumble from Sileby Mill proved perfect foils for an effective day of planning and team buildimg with a real difference. Huge thanks too to the colleague who was happy to provide accommodation to work with me off our boat later in the week (and provide a comfy space for Boatdog too) while welding work was going on!

And a final thanks to the dentist who fitted me in for an emergency dental appointment. Living afloat doesn’t make us immune to such necessities, but fortunately that’s the first required in 5 years for either of us.



So another memorable, busy, and productive week afloat to start our 6th year afloat. Next week is looking alarmingly full already – and there is talk of the padlocks being opened in Northamptonshire for three weeks from 10 October, and then two flights of locks on the Leicester Line being open for use from 27 October for one week. That means, all being well and more water appearing from the skies to continue replenishing reservoirs, we may have the chance to move next month back into Leicestershire to cruise there through the winter months.