Stories about boats and waterways
Posts including videos
A much requested video, this lengthy ramble discusses the three main types of narrowboat toilet, namely the cassette (eg Thetford or Porta Potti type), the pump-out, and the new kid on the block, the composting loo. There is much discussion of poo and wee and even a brief shot of it going through a pipe. You have been warned!
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In which I try to condense everything that’s happened in July and August into a ten minute video. Spoiler: I succeed because in reality there isn’t much to tell. I also trail what I’m going to be doing over the next few months and some new videos that I’m working on.
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The August Bank Holiday brought rain at first but sunshine by the Monday and so off I trekked to the annual Festival of Water, organised by the Inland Waterways Association. It’s a free event which sees over a hundred narrowboats moor up on a chosen stretch of canal – different each year – for the long weekend.
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In which I travel – by car – to a legendary canal village and meet the inhabitants both human (should that be “hooman”?) and animal of the narrowboat Ewart and find out what brought them to the waterways.
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I’ve been sent an 80 Watt semi-flexible solar panel to review by a company called Lensun so here are my thoughts on the panel (until the point where I broke it, for more on which, watch the video).
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Up, up and away as I take to the skies to gaze down on the canals from the air. All courtesy of my friend and former BBC “rival” Jon Hunt,
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Now back at Yelvertoft, my narrowboat gets taken out of the water so that I can tackle the rusty gas locker properly, using Fertan rust treatment followed by red oxide primer, bilge paint and then two coats of Intertuf 16 blacking for good measure.
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Here’s my final leg of the First Great Round Trip, taking me back from just outside Braunston to Yelvertoft marina where I began.
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Getting back on track with the travel vlogs from my Grand Tour earlier this year, I pick up where I left off in Vlog 51 (Bascote) and continue my route back towards Braunston. In doing this I pass through the Stockton lock flight with the help of the lovely folk on the Mikron Theatre Company boat and up up just past Wigram’s Turn marina (Napton Junction)
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This is a very ad-hoc video because as I was sitting on the boat near Braunston, staring out of the side hatch, a chap paddled alongside in a kayak. As I leaned out to chat, it turned out he wasn’t doing it for fun but for charity. So here’s his story.
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