We’re In A Race Against Time! Narrowboat Canal Life – Episode 180

I remember recently Gary captain Phillips passed those ocean liner buildings not long ago. I'm not a great lover of them, the old building next to them was much nicer in in it's current state. ❤️💙🐕🐕

Thanks for a great vlog. Took me back to childhood days when it was a huge treat to be close to and watch the swing aqueduct when it moved the canal to let a big ship go along the Manchester Ship Canal.

Fran blended in with the scenery while walking the dog!

Great video 😊 hope you have Warmed up, have a great weekend.

Whatcha singin' there Richie? Thankyou for the Boat tours YEs not seen it in ages. Thankyou. Good to see you are normal with a little homely style going on ahhaha

Looking for advice! When you run the engine to charge the batteries do you just run it at tick over? And for how long do you charge it? We have not got a clue!

Thank you so much for sharing your trip up the Bridgewater with us. Barton Swing Aqueduct was an engineering marvel for its time, and it's wonderful people still get to use it in these times.

Great cruise lots to see the wind did not affect the sound heard you loud and clear Swing bridge over the Manchester canal different fingers crossed you make it to Middlewich on time look forward to the next vlog Safe cruising Ed 40 S of Vegas

Thanks for the ride 😊

You have just made myself and my hubby very happy viewers! we walk the Bridgewater way from up by the Trafford Centre either turning back to Manchester through Trafford Park passing Manchester United Media City there too.Or turning to walk to Sale! or we do a bit inbetween! as we live in Old Trafford! if you'd of stopped at the boathouse Stretford you could of done a bit of shopping close by or walked under the Canal to Chorlton where all the Trendy people live or just walked around Sale water Park or the River Mersey walks or Turn Moss both areas your Doggies would of loved it loads of Dog Walkers there.Sale is a shopping area but some trendy bars opened there!
We loved the Worsley bit…We used to go on our Dates to The Bridgewater Hotel in the 70's.Last year we had afternoon tea on the Barge there and went across the bridge too.Then Lymm was Our other Date Nights in the 70's too! I've often wondered if yous would ever make it up here! On the Bridgwater it's only in the holiday season we have seen Narrowboats not many though.❤

I too like to look at the houses and gardens as we go by. I’m always surprised the difference between those that embrace the canal and those that completely ignore it. But it is fun being nosey 😊

Thanks for the great video! This brings back so many memories- growing up in Wigan I used to go narrowboating with the boys brigade over bank holiday weekends. I went used to go down the Bridgwater because the officers didn’t think we would manage the Wigan locks but one year the Bridgwater was closed so we tried it and it was so much fun we did it every year after that. Worsley is a great place it is a pity you couldn’t stop.

How beautiful. Here I am in Dakar Senegal watching your vlog. It will also be winter here, with very cold temperatures of 24 degrees Celsius at night. I have been retired for 22 years and have not been to the UK for over 45 years. I would like to visit Brixam and Pezance where a few uncles lived after fleeing Ostend from the German occupation. I really want to visit the UK again before it's too late, maybe next year. I also fled and opted for the beautiful weather in southern Spain where, as a widower, I remarried a Senegalese and here I am now in the family home. Thanks for the beautiful vids, it takes a lot of effort to always deliver quality. Enjoy and make many memories together with the dogs. Take care. Oh yes, I am Flemish from Ostend.

Hello Fran and Rich. I have fairly recently found your comments and experiences that you went through when you decided to have a simpler life! On the cut, on your first narrow boat Constanza. My late wife also a vegetarian due to her serious love and need to protect animals and I decided to 'Drop Out' in 1990 The Canals twenty-eight years ago were a very different and less crowded place than today, and the 'Rose Tinted Specs' remained firmly attached to our noses and a lot of mistakes were made! My background of having a couple of garage businesses in Kent and a pre-war quality car restoration business. A long life of being involved with the sea and water, and a recent change of career into the Canal Leisure Industry which saw us sell up, move from Kent to the West Midlands and join a thriving Birmingham based narrow boat hire fleet and boat building company was the start of our dream!

My first mistake was to want a traditional, quality built, vintage engined narrow boat, and we bought Galton, a sixty-two ft high quality traditional, Gardner 3LW marine engined narrow boat in an engine room with traditional boatmans cabin. Our idea was similar to yours, live aboard and cruise the extensive canal system at will and buy bricks and mortar to keep our investment safe and rent for income. I became involved with Les Allen and Sons in Oldbury and got involved with them as an engineer/ boat fitter and then was asked by the ex-owner of our boat, to fit out his new narrow boat which the Allens were building. So this put a temporary hold on fully dropping out, and we bought a mid terraced Victorian property, which we renovated back to a true Victorian town house but with all the modern conveniences of a good modern kitchen, separate toilet and shower/bath room.

Like your cottage in Herefordshire, this took far more time than we envisaged, and we wanted to go boating, so sometimes it was difficult to generate the enthusiasm necessary for getting the extensive work done on the house. We found a beautiful residential mooring for Galton at the Hyde near Kinver on the lovely Staffs and Worcs Canal and joined the small band of like minded boaters and lived comfortably aboard Galton with the bare minimum of facilities, no power, no water (half a mile and two windings away) no waste pump out, we had a big holding tank, another big mistake! With our two cats and a dog. Our little cottage was finished and we found that the organisation of holiday letting needed far more input from us than we ever envisaged, and employing an agent saw virtually all our profit evaporate into other pockets and little came to us.

After a very good year living on and doing a few nice cruises with Galton, we realized our many mistakes. A trad boat is not user friendly for cruising, our cats loved the boat when it was static on our mooring, but when underway it was a nightmare. With us expecting to have cat mangled in the engine room and they were wonderful at finding the tiniest exit point and launching themselves shore wards often not making it and causing and emergency stop. Not easy with a thirty-five ton boat, a launch into the canal for me (Annette couldn't swim) and subsequent rescue of a very angry and bedraggled feline!

So our Rose Tinted Specs came off and we with a gret deal of regret sold Galton, bought and restored a fifteenth century water mill and millers cottage near Bridgnorth in lovely Shropshire. But that is another story.

A personal comment, sorry I do not like your early incidental music, (the later is much nicer) but I think your general presentation is very professional and so interesting. Your second narrow boat Laura Maisie by Elton Moss, is a most beautiful narrow boat and embodies all the right elements for a live abord extended cruising home in my opinion. Congratulations on a great practical design and I wish you many more years of living on your lovely boat and fulfilling your dream!