A few weeks ago, I had the great pleasure of spending a day aboard the fuel boat and butty of “Jules Fuels” on the Grand Union canal. The day started – early! – with loading of supplies and then off we went to deliver to customers south of Milton Keynes.
Your chance to win a superb narrowboating holiday on the canals of the UK, with many thanks to ABC Leisure Group for the excellent prize.
If a traditional narrowboat that’s 6’10” wide is just too limited in width for you then you might want to consider a widebeam for the canals of Britain. However, there are limitations on such craft so in this video I talk to widebeam owners Julie and Mark Weir about their experiences on a boat with an 11′ beam.
For my regular viewers really, this is one of my winter fireside chats to bring you up to date with what’s going on and what plans I have for 2020. These include a FANTASTIC competition, my cruising options for the year, and details of my trip to New Zealand & Australia including possible viewer meetups.
This is a real time recording from the bow of my narrowboat from when I cruised up the Macclesfield canal in September 2019, from Hall Green stop lock to near Bridge 65. Towards the end there’s a bit of a pause while I waited for another boat to come through two bridges close together but I do move on again after that for a bit before finally coming to a halt.
While my boat was broken down recently (see vlog 205), I had the great pleasure of Pixel, Maggie and Ryan aka Narrowboat Chef being my neighbours. They very kindly agreed to instruct me in the mystical ways of baking scones and this is the result.
After I had the narrowboat blacked at Stone I set off along the Trent and Mersey canal to head to my winter mooring. Unfortunately, disaster struck on the outskirts of the town when one lovely sunny Sunday morning, the engine made a peculiar noise which resulted in a horrible discovery…
As we head towards the end of the year, a quick message to say thanks for tuning in and all the comments and quips and good cheer throughout 2019 – and here’s hoping for an excellent 2020 as well. Cheers!
After crossing the Mersey estuary with Minimal List aboard NB Perseverance, we now had a 36-mile journey up the Manchester Ship Canal, to get to Salford. Also aboard, as before, London Boat Girl Lorna.
In mid-October I moored the narrowboat on the Macclesfield and hopped on a bus and a train to Liverpool where I met with Jo and Michael of “Minimal List”. They had a rather interesting trip planned, to take their narrowboat across the Mersey estuary and up the Manchester Ship Canal. Joined by Lorna (aka “London Boat Girl”), we got up at a ridiculous time of the morning and set off. This is Part 1 of that journey, covering the Mersey crossing.