Weathering the storms when you live and work afloat

It’s been a stormy, destructive week for so many. Hot on the heels of last week’s Storm Henk we’ve had to contend this week with both Storm Isha and Storm Jocelyn. The winds are still strong, but we seem in a time of respite with sun streaming through the boat windows. It’s interesting that weContinue reading “Weathering the storms when you live and work afloat”

Heading out into the unknown

It’s been a harrowing start to the new year for so many. We know of boaters who have lost their homes, been washed off moorings by rising flood waters and either damaged or sunk by water or falling trees. We’ve been hugely fortunate having made the decision to base ourselves in a marina with controlledContinue reading “Heading out into the unknown”

Wishes for you for 2024

We wish you a healthy and happy year ahead. We wish you contentment and calm: peace and perspective. We wish you love and laughter, tears of joy alone, and the chance to make happy memories on your journey through 2024 to last a lifetime. May you find the courage to follow your dreams wherever theyContinue reading “Wishes for you for 2024”

Happy Christmas!

This Christmas, some former UK veterans will celebrate having homes thanks to the charity we’ve donated to in lieu of sending cards. They won’t only have a home, but one that floats with all the benefits we know that brings for physical and mental health. Bringing boats that need new owners, often boats that haveContinue reading “Happy Christmas!”

Winter of some content…just

December and winter came hand in hand to a canal near us as they did for many people in diverse locations this week. We love winter on the boat when it’s crisp and cold outside and cosily comforting inside. The cold as we open the back hatch takes our breath away, but when we returnContinue reading “Winter of some content…just”

There may be trouble ahead…

Preparation for the future is essential, and something many of us put off but we can’t. We have been getting ready for winter as the first winter storms chivvy us. Getting a full-time liveaboard boat winter ready is very different from prepping a house or a car or a boat that sits in a marina.Continue reading “There may be trouble ahead…”

Never look back? There are times it helps but not in anger

It can be tough to look back – this week we encountered Adrian Edmondson on his Berserker book tour. He was looking back as one does when launching a personal memoir. In part, Edmondson looked back at his time at a Yorkshire boarding school. It was a time he recalled feeling helpless; at the mercyContinue reading “Never look back? There are times it helps but not in anger”

Make your own choices

This week, after months of trying, we completed our journey down the Rochdale Canal. It was the only one of the three trans-Pennine canals we had yet to navigate. It has been a passage that has taught us much about the benefits of physical effort, determination, and making up our ownminds, making our own decisions.Continue reading “Make your own choices”

A different view of our week wending and working our way from ‘up north’

We are now halfway along the length of the Rochdale with 44 locks and 16 miles of the canal still to go. Then it’s onto the Bridgewater, Trent & Mersey, Coventry, Birmingham & Fazeley, Coventry, North Oxford, Grand Union, and Leicester Line to our ultimate destination… a little way to go (191 miles and 143Continue reading “A different view of our week wending and working our way from ‘up north’”

Totally swamped

Exhaustion, relief, elation, achievement, fear and pride all in one week – a veritable tidal wave of emotions has swept us along. A week ago we were moored at Gunthorpe on the non-tidal River Trent waiting to leave to head towards the tidal Trent. We had our anchor at the ready, our lifejackets on whateverContinue reading “Totally swamped”