It’s the start of another year, a time to take stock and look ahead. That applies to us all, and particularly to us aboard nb Preaux our floating home and office.
Six years ago we set off saying we would give it a go for two years and obviously we can’t count…
This year has seen us travelling less miles and locks than last year but more than the year before.
We have worked 434 locks this year over 612 miles.
That means over the past 6 years we have travelled 4,142 miles and worked 2,762 locks just for our boat (ignoring all those locks we work for others to help them on their way).
This has been a year of very many highlights for us:
+Both our daughters have given us grandchildren this year and everyone is happy and healthy.
+We completed the BCN 24 hour Challenge and highly recommend cruising at 4am on a summer morning!
+We have cruised with valued friends old and new, from England and France.
+Our eldest grandson has been a superstar at locks with us
+We have experienced a lot of new waterways – all around Birmingham!
+Once more the inestimable Kev Kyte has worked on the boat for us, cutting out a perishing well deck and welding in an immaculate replacement.
+Work has ticked along and paid the bills for us.
+We have rescued 2 Canada goslings, a moorhen chick and a hoglet from perishing
+The Skipper has completed more external painting
+We have continued volunteering for Canal and River Trust
+We have lost count of the number of bags of rubbish we have fished out of locks and the pounds in between them
We started this year afloat on the Grand Union in Grafton Regis outside Milton Regis, stuck because of low water levels. We end the year on a major detour to get not far from there to get the boat out of the water for blacking (treatment to her nether regions) and BSS (regular safety survey similar to an MOT). That detour has been caused again by low water levels. The shorter route we would have taken has been shut for some time so we are on a longer loop, but actually shorter than we were expecting as another closed waterway (again shut for low water) reopened the very morning we were in a position to take it!
So British Shallow Time has affect us for months now, curtailing cruising and cosing routes. We expect this to be an annual occurrence now. Equally, winter time is seeing more flooding and for the past two years we have been river based at that time so we have waded a lot.
We are giving serious thought as to what this means for us going forward and how we live afloat.
This is a very short post as battling waterways which have been closed since early August complete with 16 locks (11 single and 5 wide) have left us exhausted and remembering why going to a gym is not necessary when you are travelling distances on canals. We have fished out innumerable bags of rubbish, plastic tubs, tyres, a child’s cot, a tent and so much fabric tangled in the prop that it took us hours to travel just a few miles. Fortunately Richard from CRT met us part way and took most of the detritus we collected because we have failed to find an open rubbish facility.
Tonight we shall sleep well, and tomorrow we do it all again!
If you want to try something – do. You won’t regret trying but you will regret wondering what it would have been like if only you had tried it.
Pickingupducks 