Lots of folk ask me about hiring a narrowboat for a holiday so I thought I’d make a video about it. By coincidence, friends and fellow YouTubers Greg & Lou Virgoe, and John & Mandy, had decided to book a week’s hire – their first time on a narrowboat – so I tagged along to document the hiring handover.
In part to prove I’m still alive, a brief selection of snowy scenes from the marina this morning.
Filmed entirely on a DJI Osmo Action camera – which has the most amazing stabilisation – with a Rode Videomicro microphone, this is a recording of the first brief walk I took after completing 14 days of self isolation having come back from overseas. The weather was beautiful, the birds were chirping like crazy but the waters were almost totally still. Hopefully this is a nice little background video to bring a window of peace and calm into your day.
Filmed at the end of June and start of July, this video captures the very few miles I did in the narrowboat between Fazeley Junction and just past Hopwas. En route I picked up food supplies from a supermarket and plumbing supplies from a DIY store.
I had a party in Kent to attend so once again put the boat into a marina this time at Alvecote. Upon my return, I continued journeying along the Coventry canal, now heading west, stopping a few hundred yards short of Fazeley Junction, having gone through the two locks at Glascote.
With my time on the Ashby canal come to an end, I took my narrowboat back onto the Coventry canal and headed north, through Nuneaton and it’s well-tended back gardens and allotments, and up towards Atherstone where I’d spend a few days while the heavens opened.
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.
Having come through Hillmorton Locks on the eastern outskirts of Rugby, I now make my way west – right through the middle of town. This also involves a stop near a large supermarket to stock up on tea and cakes then its onwards to Brinklow Marina where a viewer is paying me to film and edit a video of their newly-purchased boat for their family and friends. Finally I move on just a little way to find a peaceful place to stop for the night.
At last! After waiting all winter, here’s the first Vlog that charts my journey as a Continuous Cruiser on the canals of England and Wales. Leaving Yelvertoft marina on April 1, 2016 I head south to Watford Locks.
This video is a retrospective, looking back at what facilities you get when mooring in a marina; specifically Yelvertoft Marina where I was for winter. A massive thank you to everyone there who made my early boating days so pleasant.