Stories about boats and waterways
Although traditional steel narrowboats cost many thousands of pounds, even second-hand, there is a cheaper and easier way to get a foot on the water and that’s with a fibreglass cabin cruiser. In this video, I visit a woman who’s chosen exactly that as her first boat.
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locks), how do the British canals stay full of water? This video attempts to shed some light.
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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.
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The northern end of the Macclesfield canal was in sight (well, about six miles away) and a beautiful day dawned so the engine was engaged and the boat chugged along up to Marple where, at a T-junction, you meet the Peak Forest canal. I turned right and headed south along the Upper Peak Forest, just a little way to find somewhere to stop.
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My journey up the Macclesfield canal continued, leaving a lovely mooring at the top of Bosley locks and going through two swing bridges which weren’t as bad as I feared even though they are a nuisance when you’re travelling solo. Through Macclesfield itself where I stopped to nip to the shops, and then Bollington before stopping just on the north of the town.
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Pressing on from the mooring at LMH – see last vlog – I unexpectedly stop early for a week when the Bosley lock flight is closed due to a leak in the canal at the top. Once it’s re-opened, I go up the flight in a pretty good time, all things considered, despite the peculiar “dual top gate” installation on these locks.
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Having explored the furthest, murkiest depths of the Caldon canal, I turned around, came back the way I’d come and continued up the Trent & Mersey canal, through Harecastle tunnel and then took a sharp left onto the Macclesfield canal. Spoiler alert: it’s utterly lovely.
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The (in)famous hand-drawn canal map returns in this vlog where I contemplate places to go in the narrowboat in 2019.
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