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Hello once more and welcome to the newsletter. There's a fair bit to get through including the return of Captain's Log; my latest travels on Narrowboat Gentian; what I'm going to be doing this month and what's going on with the canals around the country. So let's get straight into it.
Cheers
David |
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News from the canal world.
*** Press releases or other news snippets can be sent to me at newsletter@cruisingthecut.co.uk ***
Feeling flush
An extra £4.5m is to be spent on improving facilities for boaters by the Canal & River Trust, the charity has announced.
The money will go towards standardising and upgrading elsan, water and pump-out points across the network.
The Trust says up to now, facilities have been managed locally which has lead to a range of disparate maintenance fixes and components. Standardising them should eventually mean cost savings for the Trust, as well as more reliability from the services for boaters.
The slightly alarming aspect of this extra money is that it's coming from a sell-off of assets owned by the Trust. Such assets are a vital part of ongoing revenue-raising, but the upcoming sales have been agreed as an exceptional decision which it's hoped will save more than it loses over the longer term.
Details of exactly how the money will be invested will be shared "in due course".
See https://tinyurl.com/CRTFacilitiesInvestment
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My recent videos
Is it wrong of me that I'm starting to enjoy making holes in my project boat, Twiggy, in part because I know how it's going to trigger people in the comments on YouTube? Hehehe they're surely going to love the latest one where I made the accidental vertical holes through the hull even bigger (so that I can then fix them by adding new fibreglass). If you've ever wanted to see a man wield an angle grinder on a fibreglass hull, now's your chance.
Before that was the tale of my overnight trip on NB Gentian up to Torksey and back, the last trip I did before starting to bring the boat down from Lincoln to the Midlands (that trip has now begun and the videos will start to be published in July. Yes, July, there is a reason for the delay)
And there was more shenanigans aboard Twiggy (two in one month!) before that when I removed the old leisure batteries and made a lot of people very frustrated by the way I disconnected them (which I explain in my pinned comment on the video by the way)
Click the links below to watch.
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What am I up to?
First things first, a quick look back at what I've done in the last couple of weeks, namely I have started moving NB Gentian down south from Lincoln.
Each 'hop' in the journey will be over a weekend and there will be 7 hops in total to get to my destination marina in the East Midlands. As I can only get back to the boat intermittently, I am booking it into marinas on a temporary basis as I go.
So it was that on a sunny Saturday in mid-April, I left Burton Waters marina on the Fossdyke Navigation and went up to Torksey again, this time locking out onto the River Trent where I moored overnight just below the lock. The next morning, on the incoming tide (that part of the river is mildly tidal), I set off for Newark and arrived without incident 7.5 hours later just in time before the marina shut on Sunday afternoon!
This coming weekend I will be moving the boat again, further up the river heading towards the Trent and Mersey canal. The boat performed very well in the first move so I have no reason to doubt it continuing to do so henceforth.
Also this past week I attended the Inland Waterways Association's annual restoration conference at the National Waterways Museum in Ellesmere Port.
Whilst certainly not a "picture rich" video - it was, after all, a day of people sitting in a conference room listening to talks - I did come away with some interesting interviews which I am going to bundle together into a video that is probably one for the more hardcore canal enthusiast, realistically speaking.
As for this month, apart from further moves on Gentian, the big news is ... that I shall be spending a week in the south of France on the Canal du Midi! And I shall be accompanied by my 'canal wife' Lorna plus another friend (assuming Lorna doesn't expire from her amazing efforts running the London marathon, which she is doing literally as I type this newsletter)
I'm hoping to get three videos from the France trip (a boat tour plus two travel vlogs - maybe even more, I shall have to see how it goes) and it will be interesting to compare and contrast the French canal experience with the British.
Just a shame I speak almost no French really...
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Events for your diary
After a break for winter when there wasn't much going on, it's time for the Captain's Log to return, a diary of upcoming canal and river related events.
IWA Canalway Cavalcade
3-5 May, Little Venice, London
https://waterways.org.uk/support/ways-to-get-involved/events/iwa-canalway-cavalcade-2025
Norbury Canal Festival
3-5 May, Norbury Junction, Staffordshire
https://www.facebook.com/norburyfestival/
Trading boats, historic boats, live music and boat trips
Moira Canal Festival
17-18 May, Derbyshire
https://www.moiracanalfestival.com/
Boats, classic cars, a Battle of Britain flypast - for all the family.
Crick Boat Show
23-26 May (Fri 23 is trade and preview only)
https://www.crickboatshow.com/
"Britain's Biggest Inland Water Festival", the annual event for all narrowboaters |
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Into the dusty archive...
With the Moira Canal Festival being held once again this month, I think my dive into the archive is, logically, the video I made at last year's event which was simultaneously home to the annual Trailboat Festival featuring loads of tiny little canal boats.
Have a watch at https://cruisingthecut.co.uk/2024/05/29/vlog-334-happy-trails/ |
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My YouTube top pick of the month
I have generally tried to avoid picking boating channels for my recommendations here on the basis firstly that YouTube probably already recommends them to you if you watch any narrowboating already, and also that it's just nice to find other things to watch outside of the same sphere.
That said, rules are meant to be broken occasionally so this month I am recommending the wonderful Jade Murphy.
You may recall Jade because I made a video about her and her tiny, much-beloved fibreglass cruiser which she keeps on the Peak Forest canal. As a new boat owner, she has dipped an inexpensive toe into the waters with her first purchase and she absolutely adores it.
Now Jade has started her own YouTube channel documenting her adventures on the boat and she's just so engaging and so full of infectious joy for boating that I cannot help but steer you in her direction.
Watch at https://www.youtube.com/@MyBoatSkylark and show her some love with a Like, Subscribe and nice comment eh? |
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Final Thoughts
It's surely going to be a glorious summer! We've already had three weeks of sun at the end of March, now the forecasters are saying a heatwave is on the way this week (probably here by the time you're reading this) and lazy days spent sitting on the back of the boat are beckoning.
If you don't have a boat, I urge you to potter along to your local canal and wander along the towpath in the sun, breathe the fresh air and listen to the wildlife on the water and in the trees. There really is no better way to boost your wellbeing.
Regards
David |
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