Hello and welcome to the third edition of the CtC newsletter which also happens to be the final one for 2023.

So first of all, I hope your year has been a decent one, goodness knows there's enough turmoil around in the world, and of course crossed fingers for you to have peace and joy in 2024.

Thank you for tuning in to my videos whether you do so for every one or just dip in as and when - every view is appreciated and every kindly or enthusiastic comment.

I'll describe what's coming for the channel below so for the moment I will just wish you a happy new year.

Cheers

David

News from the canal world.

New Boating Event Announced

A festival dedicated to electric canal boating has been announced. "Electrika" will take place on 3rd & 4th May 2024 at Brinklow Marina near Rugby.

Promising "a unique event for anyone interested in electric narrowboats", it's been created by Ortomarine, a well-known narrowboat builder who've made plenty of hybrid craft, in collaboration with Aquavista who own the marina.

The idea is to bring together owners, would-be owners, manufacturers, boat-builders etc for a big chinwag about every aspect of electric propulsion and other electrical canalboating aspects.

See their website at electrika.uk for more info.

Trailboat Festival returns

Another rather splendid announcement is the return of the annual trailboat festival. This was held regularly until Covid put paid to it but now it's back for 2024.

Organised by the IWA, the Inland Waterways Association, it's being held at Moira on the Ashby Canal, on the weekend of 18th & 19th May, hosted by the Ashby Canal Trust.

The festival first ran in 1989 in Lancaster and is enthusiastically supported by many owners of small trailboats such as my favourite Wilderness Beaver craft.

Indeed, being held at Moira which is on a stretch of the Ashby that's unconnected to the rest of the network (restoration is underway), the only way to get a boat there would be to tow it on a trailer and launch at the event.

As well as the boats, the organisers are promising lots of fun for all the family with bands, train rides, magic shows, food and drink stalls - the usual stuff.

I really hope this is a success and whilst I'm pretty sure my Twiggy won't be in a fit state to attend at that point, I'm definitely aiming to go (probably in the campervan) and bring a video from the weekend.

See their website page at waterways.org.uk/support/ways-to-get-involved/events/national-trailboat-festival for more info

In case you missed any notifications from YouTube, here are links to the latest three videos on the channel.

They include my Christmas Day greeting which was also a video about the pros and cons of having pets aboard a canal boat; the return of my "slow TV" not-vlogs (realtime recordings of canal trips with no commentary - some folk like them, some hate them); and before that, the grand tour of Twiggy, my newly-acquired cabin cruiser in need of refurbishment.

My upcoming plans

A video being released on New Year's Day will go into more detail about what I've got lined up for the year so far, so I'll keep this brief.

Obviously, having bought an old boat that needs quite a lot of refurbishment, I'm going to be doing various DIY videos aboard Twiggy.

I'm intending to take the boat out of the water in Jan / Feb (river levels permitting, as I need to move it to a location with a crane for lift out)

Then I'll be able to not only sort the interior but also do any works on the structure of the boat, which is going to include cutting off and rebuilding the transom as I'm now fairly sure that tiny water leak at the back is coming from the canal, not rainwater. Gulp!! Luckily, it's a really tiny leak (for example, after a couple of weeks, a towel left on the floor is fairly sodden, but it's not as if gallons of water are streaming in)

I do intend to continue my other videos about aspects of canal life, and visiting other people's boats. This always depends on what offers I get and what I think would make a nice video but it looks like I might be making a piece about lift bridges on the Oxford Canal as well as something about how the Canal & River Trust engineers inspect the amazing Pontcysyllte aqueduct.

Also, I went on my cruise ship holiday to the Canary Islands at the start of December. I loved it! (rather to my surprise) and am now planning another trip. I took some photos and bits of video, which I'm intending to compile into a video early in January.

Into the dusty archive...

Each month, I pick out a video from my own archive, and suggest why it might be worth a (re)watch.

This month, given that 2024 is largely going to be about my ownership of Twiggy, the fibreglass cruiser, my suggestion is vlog 236 from 3 years ago.

Called "Your Plastic Pal Who's Fun To Be With" (yes, that's a "Hitch-Hiker's Guide" reference), it was a video about fibreglass canal cruisers as an alternative to traditional steel narrowboats.

I will be rewatching this one myself, to see if any conclusions or thoughts I had back then, come to pass with my own upcoming experiences aboard Twiggy.

See the video at https://youtu.be/Csw2JxKnty0

My YouTube top pick of the month

It's got absolutely nothing to do with boats (though she does visit Venice so there is a tenuous canal connection) but I really enjoyed a recent series of (sadly all-too-short) videos by Mary McGillivray where she travelled around Europe in the footsteps of 18th Century "gentlemen" tourists.

Presented with all the confidence and aplomb of a seasoned TV professional (I mean this in a good way - she's really engaging), Mary is a keen historian and born to make television and videos.

I watched the series as individual short videos but her most recent upload at time of writing was a single 30-minute compilation of all those episodes which might be an even better watch.

I do urge you to have a look at https://youtu.be/YmZMgN9zKSs or see her the individual episodes at www.youtube.com/@MaryMcGillivray/videos

Correspondence

There's no Letters this month - everyone too busy getting ready for Christmas and the new year perhaps - so I'll plug something else I was involved with instead... (forgive me)

I don't often agree to interviews as I'm really quite shy and prefer to decide for myself what gets transmitted but the delightful Heather Renée May, an RVer, dog-owner, and software engineer in the United States, asked me to guest on "Flipping Dreams", her podcast about living your dream life.

We had a rather pleasant chat all about narrowboats and canals and you can listen to it at roguemedianetwork.com/podcast/flipping-dreams-with-heather-renee-may/ or on any major podcast app.

Look for the episode "Floating Dreams".

Getting Social

If you enjoy spectacular photos of scenery and wildlife from around the world then you can do no better than have a look at Bella Falk's Instagram.

An award-winning professional travel and wildlfe photographer as well as TV documentary producer, she's got some spectacular images from lions, zebras, elephants and much more!

See www.instagram.com/passportandpixels

Don't forget: you can follow me on social media, for example to chat directly ("Twitter / X") or see pictures from the canals (Instagram) etc. Click on the buttons below:-

Final Thoughts

I'll sign off again here by wishing you all the best for 2024 once more.

If you have any correspondence for the newsletter, please do press 'reply' to this email and write me a note (note: I will assume anything sent is OK to publish, possibly in edited form, unless you state otherwise)

Cheers!

David