Water water everywhere…can you help?

Water is a major global problem for us all, and it’s getting more acute.

The United Nations General Assembly back in 2010 recognised access to safe, clean, and affordable drinking water and sanitation as a basic human right.

Living and working afloat makes us hugely aware of water – we need it to stay alive and afloat as well as to travel. You, like us, need water for your survival too, even if you don’t have to fill up your water reserve regularly as we do (we’ve filled up our tank 36 times in the past year).

Filling up with water – oops, the hose from the mains tap is trailing in the canal which isn’t a good idea

Conserving water as we travel is an essential. Where we can we share wide locks with other boats. We are conscious of not emptying or filling locks unnecessarily, so waiting for other boats to come up or down before we move wherever possible.

Sharing locks on the Hatton Flight this week

On the River Severn last month we were made very aware of the evident pollution in and around the water. Sewage was an issue in the water there too. Plastic and rubbish pollution is as apparent on the canals as the rivers. We try to fish out what we can, and not to add to the problem.

Fishing out from what gets tangled round the prop…as well as fishing with a net

We’re conscious of how we use the water we store on the boat so we don’t have to fill up too often or waste the water we have in our tank. Washing up water, and shower water all provide useful roofgarden watering sources. Perhaps it seems a drop in the ocean when we look at the scale of the issues surrounding water availability but every little helps. We are also aware of the distances to travel between sanitation waste disposal sites so we don’t get caught short.

Sometimes reaching the designated site isn’t always straightforward!

Water is a major global problem, with over 2 billion people according to the World Health Organisation (WHO) living in water-stressed situations, a problem getting worse its climate change and population growth. Clean, safe water is not available either to over 2 billion people meaning health is being compromised, and many are dying as a result.

Sometimes too much water with floods and tsunamis creates as much difficulty as drought or pollution.

In the UK we might think there is no problem, but a research project is underway to determine exactly what the situation is in terms of water and sanitation access among boaters, van dwellers and others with alternative off-grid lifestyles.

Ruth Sylvester from the University of Leeds is looking at water insecurity and equity among off-grid dwellers. She’s part of the Water-WISER Centre at the University of Leeds. Ruth and Helen Underhill , a liveaboard boater and researcher with the Water Security and Sustainable Development Hub at Newcastle University are keen to talk to anyone living off-grid.

In boater terms that means they want to hear the situation and experiences of boat dwellers on moorings with services, moorings without services, continuous cruisers, boaters with accessibility issues, full time, part time liveaboards and those who live on narrowboats, cruisers, widebeams, Dutch barges – you get the picture!

Leeds’ Water-WISER Centre = Waste Infrastructure and Serviced Engineered for Resilience – a higher education acronym if ever I heard one! Their work is seeking to have global impact combining as it is with research from Loughborough University’s Water and Development Centre, Cranfield University’s Water Science Institute and the Water, Public Health and Environmental Engineering group also based at Leeds.

If you can contribute to the factual content and perspectives of their research in any way do email them – helen.underhill@ncl.ac.uk or Ruth Sylvester cnres@leeds.ac.uk

Reflections on what matters

In the past 10 days we’ve both been away from the boat which has given valuable time for reflection. Reflection about what really matters.

Living and working afloat as we do provides two key essentials that are reaffirming and invaluable – choice and freedom.

To be free to go and help instantly where and when without needing to book time off, juggle leave or appointments is liberating. It is good to be both wanted and needed, and even better to know that we can dig in to support with our time at the drop of a hat.

Downshifting has meant the work we do has to work for us, as a means to an end and not a be-all-and-end-all. Working flexibly may not make us millionaires but allows us to support ourselves and our family with time and actually being there when it really counts. Our work goes with us wherever we are, but we need to do less of it, so it doesn’t constrain in the way it once did. That’s good for the output too.

We choose where we go (within the obvious constraint of having water to float on!). We moor where we choose: choosing whether to take short mooring or longer moorings, to moor in cities or towns, villages or the middle of nowhere. Sometimes a need for internet and/or phone signal moves us on, but I think that’s only happened twice.

Freedom allows us to take the time to appreciate living so close to nature – to see the changing of the seasons, the cycle of life including battles against predators and elements to thrive and grow, and we make the time to marvel in the beauty of life around us. It is a privilege – something we failed to build into our daily lives when they were absorbed by work, commuting, packed diaries and constrained by houses and cars (nice as those were).

We have freedom through choice from monotony, from overwhelming routine – we can choose to make every day different, to move on, to stay put, to explore on foot or on the boat, to give work the time it needs and then devote the rest of the time to what we choose to do, which often includes the constant of boat maintenance. Living like this makes us more aware of our consumption, and even regular tasks like filling up with water, emptying waste and fetching the shopping become interesting because they’re nearly always in new places, certainly since lockdown constraints ended.

Part of my trip away included regular hospital visiting, underlining once more as the pandemic did how vital health is to us all, and how like so many things life, we take it for granted until we don’t have it. That can also be said of freedom and choice – we need to really value them where we have them in our lives and not let them be eroded or obliterated by work or material pressures.

This floating lifestyle can at times seem selfish in its multiple positive benefits to us. Knowing we can go and help when needed, to take time to share the good times as well as the difficult brings another really important positive.

So this life we have afloat… It’s a simpler life. It’s a slower life. It’s a better balanced life. It’s not a wealthy life, but in many ways it is a richer life.

That’s been proven to me this past 10 days when we’ve both been able to be with family, to support and help when and where needed (one of us headed south and the other headed north!). It’s been so good for us to be able to do that, to share daily routines like chatty walks to pre school, garage clearing, and enjoying relaxing over home cooked meals together – let’s hope it was good for them too!

Hope the coming week is good for you and yours. Build in some choices for yourself, create some appreciation time and ringfence some time just to reflect on what is good in your life.

Teamwork triumphs

Solutions to what may seem insurmountable odds come in multiple guises and so often the answers lie in the shared endeavour of teamwork. It’s true in physical and academic endeavours; in engineering and business.

Teams are valued in the real world but often not appreciated in Higher Education – at least by student team members who believe it’s individual endeavour which matters and counts. This results because so often we consider that our outcomes are, and should be judged on our individual contributions.

The canals of Britain once again showed us the value and scope of teamwork and shared endeavour this week.

The longest flight of locks in the UK raises (and lowers) boats 220ft at Tardebigge in Worcestershire. Over 2.25miles 30 locks are the solution to getting boats over the Lickey Ridge.

This lock flight is a feature of the Worcs and Birmingham Canal. It was designed and built by teams –  of hard working navvies and a trio of engineers. They started in Birmingham in 1792 and made it to Tardebigge without needing a single lock. At that point it plus its tunnels, were wide enough for 2 laden barges Once locks were needed to tackle the terrain wide locks were out of the budget. So the 56 locks down to Worcester are single with narrow 7ft chambers. The final 2 between Diglis Basin and the River Severn are wide, enabling river-going vessels to enter Worcester to unload or offload onto narrowboats for the journey up the locks.

The 29 mile canal was a key  factor in the  the commercial success of many firms including Cadbury Chocolate, linking as it did their factories in Bournville and Worcester.

For today’s boaters laden with our worldly goods or holiday essentials, making it up or down the flight is as Pearson puts it ‘A Boater’s Rite of Passage’.

Some have tried to moor at the Reservoir near lock 57 but CRT advise there’s no overnight mooring on the flight so all 30 need to really be done in a day. The final lock is deep – 11ft.

It was originally created as a vertical boat lift designed and installed by John Woodhouse. His solution raised and lowered a boat at a time in a water filled chamber worked by counterweight and a windlass. It did work, moving 110 boats in a 12 hour period but it wasn’t considered robust enough for continuous commercial use so the Lock we still use today was installed. Technically it can move fewer boats in the same period but has been working since 1815 with only pauses for maintenance.

Technically the whole lock flight could take up to 7.5 hours to complete though for most it is under 5 hours. Time depends on the number of boats in the flight and the numbers of working crew aboard. Single handed boaters tend to take longer and the flight is most rapid for those with a team of board who can continuously prepare locks ahead as the boat moves through.

Teams from one boat also help others – true team spirit evident along the waterways.For us, a single additional crew member taking us to 3 plus dog enabled us to complete our ascent in a highly respectable 3hrs 8 mins.

Teamwork wherever it appears pays off, just as it has in designing, building, and now navigating this remarkable flight. It provides a lesson to remember:

Tackle more together
Enjoy empowering each other
Abandon individual egos
Make more happen

Have a good – team-fuelled week!

Sestercentennial journey and multiple lessons

Six months ago we started travelling the 46 miles of the Staffordshire and Worcester Canal. This week, 250 years after it was first opened, we finally completed its 43rd lock and passed under its final bridge. It has been a fascinating lesson in history, geography and England.

As slow travel goes this is probably a record for us, 46 miles in 6 months, but we have retraced our steps and veered off to explore to the Mersey and Llangollen in that time too.

The Staffs and Worcs is like all canals we find, unique. It traverses market towns, quaint villages and pockets of industry. In its commercial heyday it was a noisy, constantly moving conduit. It bustled with barges carrying pottery from Stoke, glass from Stourbridge, carpets from Kidderminster, bricks from Wildwood, agricultural produce aplenty, coal from the Littleton pit, and iron from the works at Gothersley. The Staffs and Worcs connecting as it does to the mighty River Severn which heads to the South West and the Port of Bristol enabled goods to be transported locally, nationally and internationally.

The only barges using the waterway now are historic craft or commercial fuel boat. Whilst quieter than 250 years ago, this last stretch has been busy for us with happy hirers passing on holiday boats, a vital commercial aspect of the waterway today.

The weather is different too. When we turned onto the Staffs and Worcs last winter passing under bridge 109 at Great Haywood near the sumptuous Shugborough Hall, we had iced ropes and chill fingers. We’ve ended in April sunshine.

Within minutes of leaving Great Haywood you can be forgiven for thinking you’ve inadvertently gone to sea as you experience Tixall Wide. This huge stretch of water resulted from a wealthy landowner stipulating the view of a lake not a canal if the   waterway wanted to cross his land.

Whilst Tixall Hall no longer exists to view the magnificent Wide, its Elizabethan gatehouse remains. From here we travelled south, through kingfisher country and the valleys of the rivers Sow and Penk. In early December we were moored by the moated luxury hotel of Acton Trussell a stone’s throw now from the M6 and M6 tolls carrying today’s commercial goods. Then into Penkridge with its many magpie buildings, to the summit at Gailey marked by a roundhouse that dates from 1895 when Nelson won the Battle of Trafalgar.

The canal winds down through heathland until suddenly industry intervenes with siren threatening chemical works and a recycling plant plus bio digester, under the M6 and M54, contrasting with The Narrows living up to their name before Autherley Junction.

This connection to the Shropshire Union Canal marks another changing point in this multifaceted waterway. It was to here that we came the first time, winded (turned in narrowboat speak) and returned to Great Haywood, from whence we took a loop into further reaches of Staffordshire, Cheshire, and North Wales. We eventually returned to Autherley Junction down the Shroppie after travelling its 66.5 miles and 47 locks.

Although on a map you can see how close the Staffs and Worcs runs to the Midland heartlands of Wolverhampton and Birmingham, it maintains a rural feel. Highlights on this southern section include the patriotically colour coded Bratch Triple Locks, the haunted Awbridge lock allegedly constructed by French prisoners captured post Trafalgar. I’d like to think they would have been pleased to see nb Preaux pass through their beautifully constructed and unique lock and bridge. They might have appreciated the reminder in their native tongue of peaceful meadows.

Through Swindon, Stewponey, into beautiful wooded surroundings at Kinver with its fascinating rock houses hewn from the soft orange sandstone and through Gibraltar to Kidderminster of carpet fame.

Sandstone outcrops and wooded glades often shaded blue at this time of year bring the canal abruptly it seems, to its end at Stourport. Here exuberant seaside gulls and stomach-churning fairground rides, contrasts with the formal surroundings of an inland trading port with its mellow clock in the Tontine tower, genteel yacht club and formal riverside gardens.

Within minutes of the final lock it’s through two staircase locks within Stourport Basin and suddenly you’re disgorged onto the wide reaches of the River Severn.

SOAR-ing Peace – beware complacency

Peace is good for us all, as individuals, as businesses, as a nation, but is only really valued and appreciated after turmoil. We can become complacent when faced with Peace that endures which is dangerous. Stability and growth require Peace.

We humans need constant reminders of the importance and beauty of Peace to prevent us taking it for granted.

Boaters, walkers and canoeists on the canalised section of the River Soar now have a unique opportunity to appreciate and share Peace. On the private land of the Sileby Lock island now stands a beautiful Peace Pole created and carved by local artist and boat-dweller, Angel.

The Pole rises from a cairn of stones, collected and placed by local children and adults. Her idea is for all of us to expand and spread Peace by bringing stones for the cairn and taking some to other places. At this time particularly, with conflict in Ukraine destroying and threatening the world, it is pertinent to reflect on how we are all vital to create and sustain Peace.

Let’s hope Angel’s not too unhappy with me for this image of her!

The intricacy of this Peace Pole, created from recycled materials, has to be seen to be appreciated. Animals and birds, fish and messages of Peace flow along its length, carved by Angel as a reminder of how nature flourishes in times of Peace. It is a glorious celebration of what we have in our world, and well worth making a trip to see.

The beauty of the River Soar and this stretch of the Leicester line is a fitting place for such a beautiful reminder of peace. Its location is significant too. The Pole stands between the Lock and the weir, The rushing weir which constantly harks back to the situation at some points of the year when heavy rains and melting snow can turn the  calm flow of the Soar into a fierce, flooding, threatening torrent. At those times the river is un-navigable. The Lock is man’s attempt to calm and manage the waters, but when the indicator boards show the waters at a red level then nature takes control.

At this time of the year though, this is a lovely stretch to navigate, packed with wildlife and well worth adding to your agenda for a walk, cruise or paddle. The new Peace Pole is an added and important attraction to this glorious route.

Angel’s unique work inspired by Quaker Peace poles across the world, stands in this beautiful corner of Leicestershire as a necessary reminder that we can need to keep the Peace.

Its an issue for the human race that so often we can become complacent when faced with Peace that endures. Complacency can be dangerous. Growth benefits from awareness, stability and peace. That goes for each one of us too – we need Peace to allow us to flourish as individuals.

If you’re on the Soar enjoy a peaceful moment at the Peace Pole – bring your stone to leave some of your peace and take a stone from the cairn to spread peace around where you go.

The glory is, you can take a little bit of the beautiful peace of the Soar with you wherever you go ❤

If you can’t get to the Soar just hold on to not becoming complacent, holding onto what really matters and recognise the need to keep the Peace.

Goal setting for life

Goals are strange things – they can motivate and inspire but also leave us feeling bereft when we achieve them, or failures when we find them unattainable.

Since the autumn of last year when we left London after Steve had achieved his goal of running the London Marathon, we’ve been heading slowly, circuitously around the country with one particular goal in mind. We needed to replace the decades old cover at the front of the boat which provides us with vital additional space. It has had a hard life and despite remedial treatment was leaky and torn.

We talked to other boaters for recommendations, visited various companies, and spoke to others for quotes online and over the phone. We chose a supplier. The upshot was that whilst we could have ordered one from them and they could have visited us at a series of locations for measuring and fitting, we decided to travel to them, as they’re in a pleasant part of the country. The appointment was suitably canal-time: “Come around the end of March, beginning of April.”

Through the winter and burgeoning spring, through storms Dudley, Eunice and Franklin, we journeyed and diverted to explore new areas, managing work on the way and always with the goal that we were heading eventually at the end of March/beginning of April for Kinver in Staffordshire.

We travelled 577 miles, tackled 351 locks, moved 31 bridges (swing or lift), plunged underground for 5 miles, 6¾ furlongs via 14 tunnels), and crossed high over 2 major adqueducts (Chirk and Pontycyllte) twice in pursuit of our goal to replace the cratch cover as it’s called. Our circuitous route took in sections or complete lengths of 11 canals, and encompassed 425 miles 3 furlongs of narrow canals, 152 miles 1½ furlongs of broad canals, 233 narrow locks and 118 broad locks if you want the specifics!

This week, on Monday after a final week’s 69 mile, 69 lock journey from Whitchurch on the Llangollen we arrived at our destination. Forewarned, the next morning at 8.30am Harry arrived to template the boat’s cratch, and discuss the final details of what we wanted.

By that evening he had returned in the company of another Harry and a beautifully stitched, watertight cratch cover. It was fitted, adjusted, and installed. The speed took us somewhat aback to be honest – we had fully expected to be waiting for days – had even prewarned CRT that we would be expecting to outstay the 1 day mooring for work and wham – the long-awaited goal was achieved before we even caught breath! It was disconcerting somehow, and also helped me reflect on how rudderless we can feel when we achieve our goals when they are very specific.

SMART goals as we know from business and academia are designed to be just that – Specific, Measureable, Achieveable, Realistic and Timebased (i.e. they have a deadline). SMART goals support us to set targets and benefit from the realisation of them. If we are so focused on a single goal, that can leave us feeling lost when it is achieved. This can be the successful end of a project, or a career stage – striving for one thing and then wondering where to go or what to do when you reach it.

New challenges dawn after old goals are met

PhD candidates (myself included) talk of spending years working to achieve their doctorate and struggling with mixed emotions of elation and deflation when finally Dr So-and-so. What they’ve worked on intensely for so long can no longer be their sole focus. Athletes talk of spiralling into depression after training for a specific race, event, or medal. When it’s over their entire focus is gone, they feel lost and bereft. Authors say the same when they reach the end of a book, and face another blank page.

We have started this week by planning new goals, new destinations, new journeys to move towards to fill the gap we are experiencing, but it has also made me realise how important it is to keep multiple SMART goals ticking over at the same time. Yes, we need the recognised SMART objectives for specific purposes, and we need goal setting support from experts such as Dr Cheryl Travers, but perhaps it is time for some more sustainable SMART goals too.

I propose:

  • Share/See;
  • Make (a positive difference)/Marvel;
  • Appreciate/Admire;
  • Reflect/Relax
  • Thank/Try/Treasure.

What will your SMART objectives be to run continuously through life to never be short of positive, meaningful goals?

Our long-term goal is to continue to share, appreciate, relish and be thankful for everything that living afloat brings.

In the short term we welcome a family Easter, and then a journey to the end of the Staffordshire and Worcestershire, onto the mighty River Severn, up the Worcester and Birmingham Canal to the Stratford-upon-Avon Canal. It’s a little jaunt of 76 miles with 6 moveable bridges, 1 major aqueduct at Edstone, 6 tunnels totalling 2 miles 4¾ furlongs underground and – wait for it – 127 locks. This is because it takes in the Tardebigge Flight of Locks – described by Pearson’s Guide as a Boater’s Rite of Passage. This, the longest flight in the UK with 30 locks over 2¼miles, with no overnight mooring, must be done in a single ascent or descent, and looks like a millipede on the map!

That will be a day devoted to boating with no external work to intervene. We rather hope to meet lots of enthusiastic and energetic holiday boaters there! Anyone wanting a walk and some exercise when we get there – we have spare windlasses for temporary crew!

Travelling through time and place

This week has taken us 47 miles and 46 locks through Shropshire into Cheshire, back to Shropshire and then to Staffordshire.

We left the Llangollen Canal in glorious sunlit days preceded by moody misty starts.

Through lush green Cheshire countryside we made good time, going with the flow of the River Dee waters hastening down to Hurleston Reservoir.

Beside the Reservoir is the final 34ft drop taking boats down from the Llangollen onto the Shropshire Union. Through Nantwich and over the Chester- Nantwich Road Road on an  impressive cast iron aqueduct, the result of landed gentry not wanting to see a canal and industrial barges plying near their county seat. 

Then it was hush hush territory- Hack Green, the now far from secret (or perhaps a double bluff) scene of a WW2 radar station converted into a nuclear bunker to house Regional Government if the Cold War demanded. Now a tourist attraction it sent eerie chills through me – and not just because of the lack of heating.

Then amid a weather change back to winter on to Audlem, passing the once bustling Shroppie Fly, remembering the barges which were the 24-hr operating delivery service of their day. Audlem’s flight of 15 locks are resplendent in battleship grey and white rather than the familiar magpie colours elsewhere. Remnants of a WW2 paint surplus bought up cheap.

In return for 15 locks by 11.30am rewards awaited at the delightful and delicious honesty stall of Kinsell Farm.

Up the Adderley Flight of 5 locks and into the haunted Betton Cutting where tough old boatmen of yore never lingered…neither did we.

Quick pause for supplies at Market Drayton mooring at the delightfully named Ladybird Moorings.  Then through through Tyrley flight of 5, remembering that this sandstone cutting and deep lock chambers were all cut by hand with picks and shovels.

The Shelmore Embankment was another engineering and construction feat in its day – taking 6 years to build. At the start stands the wharf overseen by a duty heron as we passed where cocoa nibs used to be loaded from the factory beyond to travel by barge to Bournville. Bet those Cadbury barges smelled delicious!

On then through Grub Street Cutting (nothing here for writers) but again a route painstakingly created with picks and shovels, wheelbarrows and sheer hard graft. At the end stands the famous double-arched High Bridge. Living up to its name it is well known for the short telegraph pole standing in its centre. It too is said to be haunted after a boatman was killed here in the 19th century. Either our imagination was lacking or the bitter chill kept the spectre at bay…unless you can see him?

We still have 22 miles and 23 locks to our Monday destination – will we make it? We’re ploughing on through sun, rain, hail and snow so hope springs eternal as ever!

Dramatic revolution afloat

Three key lessons this week: Take NOTHING for granted in your life. Be patient – good things are worth waiting for. Technology can be marvellous in many ways!

Loyal blog, Instagram or Facebook followers will be familiar with stories of hand washing on towpaths alongside water taps, hunting down laundrettes and lugging bags of washing along towpaths to streets and car parks over our time afloat. Steve’s mother and our eldest daughter (or more correctly their washing machines) have also become used to our laundry-laden visits!

Last year we began working on a solution to washing our dirty linen in public… or rather Steve was working on one, and injuring himself in the process as happens when working in confined spaces.

But everything has paid off and finally – it has arrived. This is a week that has totally revolutionised boatlife for us. No more laundrette hunting across Great Britain – a unique but time consuming experience. Thanks to Steve’s efforts replumbing, rewiring, carpentry to construct space for a washing machine in what was the wardrobe, and thanks to the efforts of our younger daughter and partner – look what our 50ft home now boasts!

Thanks to social media and knowledgeable contributors on Canal World Forum it also now works without clouds of smoke – more on that in a moment.

Fitting a washing machine in a bricks and mortar home is pretty straight forward compared to doing the same thing on a boat. You can’t just slot it in and connect it to power and water so it works… you need to get the power and the water in and out to make it work. You also need to balance your boat – so we had to get the floor up and remove 84 kg of ballast from underneath it.

We run 12 volt from batteries on board because we aren’t connected permanently to a fixed mooring with shoreline mains power. Washing machines (along with many other pieces of household equipment we all take for granted) function on mains power – 230 volts. To turn the power from the batteries into power which can run a washing machine we needed an inverter. Enter a Victron Phoenix 12/3000 plus all the relevant cables, fuses, and a residual current device (18kg in weight). Space had to be made for that to fit on board, and it had to be connected into the system…

We needed water in and out – the out demanded making a hole in the side of the boat – always alarming! The in required plumbing a cold water fill and also connected up the pressure release valve from the water tank which used to drain into the bilge for us to mop out but now drains straight out of the new drain.

And then having found the machine we wanted – a Hoover H500 (65kg weight) with a 1600 spin and a cold wash and most important of all a 52cm depth… we then had the issue of how to get it delivered to a boat! It was a military operation. Enter AO.com and Blackwater Meadow Marina at Ellesmere. The latter agreed we could use their address for delivery so we moored outside the marina ready and waiting for the moment of arrival.

Whilst AO were approaching so was the family muscle, making their way from Leicestershire, and Steve was removing doors, plus all the gubbins which usually clutters the back of the boat so it’s handy when we’re travelling. By 12 noon the deck was clear, the scene set and the delivery van appeared. AO say they’ll deliver your washing machine to where it needs to fit!

We were the first time these two had ever delivered to a boat – they were very excited and probably still talking about it now!

Machine on the back deck we then had to get all the packaging off in order to fit it through the doors and down the steps that descend and turn in the process. This was achieved by daughter and partner with straps round the machine. My job was keeping the dog out of the way and Steve was directing operations! It is such a tight space that there’s no room for spectators!

Finally the machine was manouevered into place at the foot of the bed into base of the old wardrobe. It was connected up…

…and with huge excitement and total glee I added the washing and started it going on a cold wash…only for clouds of smoke to emerge from the engine bay. The electrical monitoring app on Steve’s phone showed that the alternator that generates the 12 volts into the batteries was working so hard it was smoking! Everything off… and a trip out for lunch to reward the workers and pause to rethink.

Back at the boat we tried a rinse and spin which worked fine so the issue was clearly the washing part of the programme. Steve turned to the social media to see if other boaters had experienced something similar and what solutions they could suggest. Within moments 20 replies had arrived. Advice varied from installing a thermostatic valve connecting up the hot water tank, refurbing the alternator (which is probably 20+ years old) so it’s clean, disposing of the boatdog (dog dander lying on things that get hot tends to smoke) and pouring a kettle of hot water into the washing machine as the cold water’s going in as the cold water from our tank may be too cold for the machine’s cold wash…

The latter worked brilliantly and suddenly washing is not something to be planned, to take half a day to arrange. This morning the washing did itself as we cruised in the sunshine to arrive at a mooring spot where I put up the washing line and had superbly spun washing to hang out.

Life as we know it has been changed afloat this week by technology and a team effort. We are now self-sufficient in laundry terms. Half days taken up with laundry are a thing of the past! Let’s hope the wonder at the revolution continues to delight us for years to come.

It should repay us within the year for the machine and the inverter in laundrette costs, but having the inverter also means we can now power other things like the battery charger for the cordless drill, the soldering iron and I guess maybe a vacuum cleaner??? Maybe that’s the solution to the dog dander! Where will this revolution stop?!

Full Monty shows the power of volunteers

This week we’ve been on one of the shortest stretches of canal new to us – the 7 miles of the Montgomery Canal (known as the Monty).

This stunning canal which straddles the Anglo Welsh border is beautiful, special (site of special scientific interest SSSI) peaceful (at the moment) and well worth a visit by boat, on foot or in a kayak, canoe or stand-up paddle board. It is accessible today thanks to the work of volunteers and campaigners.

The canal was abandoned for commercial traffic in 1944 but by the late 1960s a move was afoot to restore it, led by the Shropshire Union Canal Society. Volunteers gave up their time to lobby councils, physically dig out debris and silt, campaign for funds, and persuade the then British Waterways (now Canal and River Trust, CRT) to back restoration.

Many of those hundreds of volunteers remain anonymous so we can’t thank them in person. One though was Graham Palmer, who organised the London and Home Counties Working Party Group of the Inland Waterways Association which became the Waterway Recovery Group. His remarkable work is remembered on the Monty at the Graham Palmer Lock.

The Waterway Recovery Group published a journal called Navvies Notebook which co-ordinated volunteer activity on the canals across Britain. Their vital work continues to this day – with numerous volunteering opportunities including working holidays or ‘canal camps’.

For many communities along canals the income from carrying cargoes on water have long since gone but the work of volunteers and canal restoration projects have brought new commercial benefits through tourism. Hire boat companies, canalside pubs and cafes bring income streams to often remote areas . Boaters, walkers, cyclists and holiday makers are able to discover new places which are beautiful, peaceful and historic. These are places which in turn play a vital role in supporting the nation’s mental health and physical fitness.

We who live and work afloat travelling the canals have much to be grateful to them for – we may not know their names individually, but we enjoy the lasting impact of their efforts as future generations will do. Volunteering is a remarkable way of giving to our communities, both individually or as businesses, and research shows it is a fulfilling way to increase our own wellbeing. When the full length of the Monty is reopened to navigation, volunteers will have been integral to that happening. It is evident they’ve already achieved so much to get to the current length by galvanising and supporting bodies like CRT.

So – where might you or your company benefit from volunteering so your legacy can live on? What will you give to get back and make yourself feel good in 2022?

Going international

Let’s be honest – travel between nations with a narrowboat in the UK is limited unless you are prepared to pay for trucks to transport your boat! To get to Scotland or Ireland trucking is required, but to reach Wales – you just keep cruising which is what we’ve done this week.

We’ve spent the week gently moving towards Wales, and in and out of Wales too. The border is far from straight, and the canal crosses and recrosses it.

We started in England on Monday morning with a necessary fill up of water (no idea of the size of our tank but we know about a fortnight with the two of us plus dog on board is a good time to refill).

From Calveley Services it was down to Nantwich to find a laundrette from which I returned laden with damp washing while Steve headed for a supermarket to stock up on necessities. Then while the stove rapidly dried the washing for us, we set off for the Llangollen Canal. It branches off the Shropshire Union just outside Nantwich alongside the Hurleston Reservoir. You enter the Llangollen through the bottom gates of the Hurleston flight of four locks which took us up 34ft. We were quickly through these – mainly because it’s muck spreading time in the fields and the maize stubble alongside the locks was getting a very whiffy covering!

The 44.5mile Llangollen canal is justifiably one of the most popular holiday cruising routes there is. It wends its way through farmland, woodland, bird-rich meres, marshes, and market towns with some real highlights along its length. The two spectacular aqueducts of Chirk and Pontycysyllte lie ahead of us. There are just 21 locks along its length but to keep you entertained en route there are lift bridges, tunnels and some eye-catching architecture. We did wonder at one point if we’d been fortunate enough to stray not only into Wales but France!

We last cruised the Llangollen in the heat of summer in July 2011, but we’ve never travelled its complete length. There are some holiday boats around but it is very peaceful at this time of the year. There are no queues for locks, which can be both frustrating and a sociable time in the summer sun when you meet new people and hear their boating experiences.

From Llantsilio near Llangollen water flows from the River Dee into the canal which carries it down to the reservoir at Hurleston providing drinking water for Cheshire towns. This creates strong flows at the locks where the bypass weirs discharge – it can prove challenging as you can see to get neatly into the locks when this combines with blustery winds!

Whilst it has been chilly in the wind, we’ve enjoyed some spectacular sunrises and sunsets this week, and experienced a range of moorings. The views from our home and office have been varied and rewarding. It has been a peaceful week which makes us even more grateful for our life. That deep sense of gratitude is perhaps what has prompted the significant boaters’ responses to support the struggles of the Ukrainian people as they battle war with Russian invaders. Not only can we all contribute through our regular shopping in supermarkets which offer chances to add donations to the final bill, but we can also donate to food collections, knitting, crochet and clothing projects all coordinated via social media.

We know the value of canals as peaceful places for leisure mainly, for boating and fishing, walking and cycling and on the Llangollen for the practicality of moving drinking water. In Ukraine and Russia canals are mainly for irrigation for food production of crops and to ensure drinking water. The 250-mile-long Northern Crimean Canal lies at the heart of the Ukraine/Russian War. The canal links the Crimea which was annexed in 2014 by Putin with the Ukrainian Dnieper River and its water. It is the main source of water for Crimea. Last summer the Ukrainians rapidly and secretly built a dam at Kalanchak to block the flow of water to Russia. Kalanchak was occupied by the Russians, and just a week ago Ukrainians bravely took to its streets singing their national anthem in defiance, and demanding the Soviet withdrawal. As the protests happened, Russian media reported that soldiers had removed the Ukrainian dam.

Being moored in Ellesmere as we are now seems particularly poignant. It was here that Eglantyne Jebb was born – she went on to found Save the Children – a key aid agency working to alleviate the current conflict. Jebb also drafted the Declaration of the Rights of the Child in 1924 – so relevant today. In memory of her work the Ellesmere Sculpture Trail includes this moving work by John Merrill called Refuge. It represents a child displaced by conflict supporting its own shelter as it seeks refuge.

This bitter bloody conflict over water, land and rights is directly threatening millions of children, their safety, security and basic human rights. Like so many in the UK we are supporting Ukranian people as best we can. We are fortunate not to be facing the horrors Ukrainians are experiencing daily. It is a somber lesson for us all to be grateful for what we have, to support those who face conflict and seek refuge, and to fight continuously to protect peace.