Tag: canal

The ducklings are back!

Just over a week ago, Mandy and I were commenting that we had not seen any baby birds this year. It is lovely to pootle along on Narrowboat Thuis, watching for the ducklings, goslings, cygnets, cooties and moorhen chicks. I am not sure why moorhen chicks don’t get a cute name like the others.

Well this week the ducklings have started arriving and I have seen new families every day.

This group of ten ducklings were so small we wondered if they had ever been in the water. Mummy duck jumped into the canal in front of us, and one by one the ducklings followed, kicking their legs to try to work out how to stop going in circles.

I learnt something new about ducklings this week. Apparently the mother only lays one egg a day, but does not sit on the nest to incubate them until she has a full set of eggs. That way they all hatch at about the same time. Very clever.

I took Lulu dog for a walk to a bird sanctuary yesterday. The geese were being quite aggressive. I reckon that may be because they also have eggs coming up to hatching. Now we have the ducklings I look forward to seeing the other birds. It is a great time of year for nature and a great time of year to be on a boat.

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Is it summer already?

What a great time to be on a Narrowboat. The week with some pretty rough weather, and narrowboats do not like wind. The wind blows the boat sideways and we had to moor up to avoid getting stuck. But by Tuesday we had wall to wall sunshine.

It has been like summer. But better. We wake up to cool crisp mornings. The sun builds through the day and if we moor up at lunchtime, we have a relaxed afternoon in the warmth before the temperature drops again in the evening. In the summer it stays hot all the time and sleeping can be a challenge.

The forecast for the weekend is back to typical April temperatures, but I have enjoyed this week. There are not too many positive sides to climate change but on the canals this is one of them. Spring is the new Summer.

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What is the best name for a Narrowboat?

Our Narrowboat is called “Thuis”. It attracts much comment on the cut, because it is such an unusual name. People try to pronounce it and usually get it wrong. It is actually a Dutch word and means “home”. You pronounce it to rhyme with “house” but beginning with a “t” instead of an “h”. It is a good name but perhaps there are better ones.

“Toblerhome” has been moored just up from us in Oxford this week. Other favourites of mine are “NotaYot” on the Staffs and Worcester, and “Flat Bottomed Girl” which I think is on the Leeds & Liverpool.

The most popular Narrowboat names reflect the peace and quiet of boating life. There must be a hundred boats called “Serendipity”, and plenty more called “Moon Shadow”, “Blue Moon” and “Dreamcatcher”. There are also many “Dun” names, reflecting retirement, such as “Dunworkin” and “Dunstressin”.

Then you get the hire boat fleet names. Usually these follow a pattern. For instance Balck Prince use women’s names on all their boats, while College Cruisers names all theirs after Oxford university colleges.

I think the most annoyed owners must be the ones with a boat called “Narrow Escape”. This is quite a clever name, but since the “Narrow Escapes” TV series, it seems very obvious.

Unfortunately it is not easy to change a boat name. Superstition says that if you just change the name and continue using it, Poseidon will come from the depths of the oceans and drag you and the boat down. You can change the name when the boat is out of the water for maintenance, or you have to perform a a ceremony involving chanting to the sea Gods, and casting an ingot with the old name on, into the water. This is what we did when we named our boat “Thuis”.

Have you seen any great boat names on your travels? What is your favourite?

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Does March have the biggest temperature differences?

Living in a house, it is easy to ignore the weather. Central heating and good insulation literally insulate us from it. On a Narrowboat things are somewhat different. This week has given us a good example of that. We have had the most beautiful blue sky days. Great weather for Spring boating.

On Wednesday the temperature on the boat got up to 26°C, even with all the windows open. But overnight the clear skies dropped the temperature to 1°C. I think this must be the greatest daily difference I have seen. In Winter the temperatures stay cold. In Summer they are hot. And in the Autumn they tend to be mild.

It is a special time. I have loved starting the daily cruise with ice on the roof and wrapped in layers and a coat. I have loved shedding the layers as the day goes on. I have loved mooring up early afternoon and taking Lulu Dog for a walk to see fields full of lambs.

It’s a good time of year.

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Five types of narrowboaters who travel at this time of year.

We have set off on our first big Narrowboat trip of the year. For the next eight weeks we will be travelling the Trent & Mersey, Coventry and Oxford canals (plus a bit of Birmingham & Fazeley, Staffs & Worcester and Grand Union,). Our aim is to get to Oxford and back. We wanted to go there last year but had to bail out at Fenny Compton because the drought was causing more and more canals to be closed. Right now we have had a winter of rain and the canals and reservoirs are overflowing, so we should be fine.

It is a lovely time of year. The navigations (canals and rivers) are quiet. Moorings are easy to find. Fellow boaters are as excited to be out and about.

So who are these fellow boaters who brave the canals in early March? I have identified five types:

  1. The genuine continuous cruisers. These people live all year round on their boats. During the winter, when there are many maintenance closures, they tend to stay in an area they like, just travelling a mile or so every two weeks, to comply with the regulations.
  2. The lazy continuous cruisers. Like us, these boaters live in a house or in a marina over winter. It avoids the worst of the mud, and makes us very excited for our long cruises March to October.
  3. The brave hire boaters. Most of the hire boats are sitting safely in their bases at this time of year. Business begins to pick up at Easter and peaks in the summer. But there are always a few brave souls willing to take a boat out early at a lower cost. We find that often these are very experienced boaters. Perhaps they once owned a boat, or have just hired for years.
  4. The unlucky share boaters. Many narrow boats are owned by a syndicate of people, who each own a thirteenth share, and in return get four weeks a year on the boat, usually one week in each season. The winter week is usually spent in a marina but for Spring, Summer and Autumn they want to take advantage of their investment. Spring weeks are the most varied, from March to May, and the unlucky ones get a week at the beginning of Spring.
  5. The working boaters. There are always trees to be cleared, fish to be surveyed, locks to be mended. Canal & River Trust are out and about helping to keep us moving. We even called them out this week to pull a dead sheep from a lock. Not a pleasant job.

And what connects all these boaters is our love of being out on the cut. We pass each other with a cheery wave and a word of advice – “The Fazeley has reopened early!”, or “You don’t expect to meet under a bridge at this time of year” or “Watch out for the dead sheep In Weston lock”.

We are so happy to be narrowboating again.

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Is it too cold to go boating?

We have had our first couple of trips out on Narrowboat Thuis this week. Dodging the hail and rain we found a couple of days of sunshine and pootled along the Trent & Mersey.

It was very beautiful and brought home to me why we love boating. But as you can see from the photo, it was very chilly and after a couple of hours at the tiller, I felt so very cold. Fortunately, inside the boat it is not cold. We get heating from the engine, heating from our Webasto central heating, and when needed, heating from our “bubble stove”. So one of the things I have enjoyed most this week has been watching Yellowstone of an evening, in my T Shirt, while the sleet fell outside.

But I have concluded that maybe February is just a little too early to be boating. It is too wet, too windy or too cold. So we are heading back to the house for a couple more weeks, catching up with a few appointments and then heading out properly in early March for our first big trip, down to Oxford. The good news is that we have proved over the past fortnight that everything is working well. Our newly serviced engine is chugging along nicely. Nothing serious has broken inside the boat during the winter. I have even sprayed the algae that had grown on my gunwhales. It is all going well.

You can of course expect a post from me in a couple of months complaining that it is too dry and too hot. Narrowboaters like to complain. But we also really love it, and seeing the countryside at 3mph this week has reminded me of that. There were a few early lambs in the fields, geese and swans giving me evils for disturbing their canal, even a few crocuses edging out of the ground.

Just a bit cold.

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Back at the boat. What’s next?

Mandy and I have been married for nearly forty years and we get on with each other very well. This is a bit surprising because in many ways we are very different. For instance she really doesn’t like change. When we have been living on Narrowboat Thuis for a while, she does not want to leave and return to the house. When we have been living in bricks and mortar over the winter, she does not want to come down to the boat. On the other hand I am always planning the next thing to do instead of enjoying the moment.

Narrowboat Thuis, settled in Aston Marina this week.

We are back on the boat for the first time this year and Mandy is now in her happy place. She has done her jobs and is spending her time cross-stitching a picture of a narrowboat and watching an American series called “Castle”. I have done most of my jobs needed at the start of the season. The water tank has been disinfected. The engine bay has been cleaned. Our new central heating controller has been set up. The store cupboard staples have been bought and put away. The floor has been steam cleaned.

So now I just want to get back out on the cut. There are advantages staying in the marina. It means we have access to the car. there is water literally on tap. And mains electricity because at this time of year there is not enough solar to keep the batteries topped up. However, since we retired we have travelled all over the country and nothing beats waking up each morning with a new view and pootling along the canals and rivers.

The problem is that it is really too early in the year to get out and about. There are still a lot of winter works going on, and after all the rain there are flood warnings on many of the navigations. And frankly it is not much fun steering a narrowboat in the wet.

So we have compromised. Saturday weather looks cold and dry, so we hope to get the boat out. But we will spend most of next week staying in the marina. Then we will go back to the house for a couple of weeks before starting a big trip down to Oxford starting in March.

I like a plan.

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It’s looking like it’s going to be a wonderful new year

We are staying for a few days with our eldest son Robbie, and his partner Alessa, in their swanky house on the South Downs. I woke up this morning to the most beautiful sunrise.

We really are blessed to live in such a stunning country. Whether we are living on Narrowboat Thuis, or in bricks & mortar houses, there are few countries like the UK. I spent much of 2025 grumbling about the weather. When we were on the boat in the summer, it was sometimes so very hot. The canals dried up and became unnavigable. From September to December it felt like the rain never let up. The ground in some areas became like a marsh.

But on crisp, cold, clear mornings like today I could not wish for a better place to live. And having Christmas with one son and New year with the other, both with their wonderful girlfriends has been such a privilege. I am a very lucky chap.

I think it is a sign for me in 2026. My New Year’s resolution is not to complain about the weather or other challenges and what they are stopping me doing. Instead I will enjoy the moment and what it allows me to do.

A very very happy new year to you and your family.

Pete

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Why am I so excited about new canal books?

This week I received.a package in the post. It contained not a Christmas present, but four books with maps and routes of the canal network in the UK.

Narrowboaters have many options for navigating these days. We use a website called CanalPlan AC and an app called OpenCanalMap. But most boaters also like to read the guides. Some use the ones from Pearsons, but we prefer the originals – the Nicholsons. They have good maps of the routes, helpful lists of pubs and places to visit, and honest descriptions of the towns and villages on the route.

I also have a personal connection to the Nicholsons because one of my friends is the main author, Jonathan Mosse. I met him about ten years ago at a barbecue for narrowboaters in Scotland. He lent us a long chain for an anchor when we travelled the tidal river Clyde. And since we have been in England we have used our Nicholsons to navigate the huge network of rivers ad canals across the country.

Once a year I let Jonathan know all the changes and edits we have found in the books. Perhaps a pub has closed. Perhaps a bridge is incorrectly numbered. Perhaps we have discovered a wonderful new cafê. In return he sometimes sends me new editions, and that was what I received this week. In fact, guides 2 and 3 have not even been published yet. They come out in February but Jonathan has got me early copies.

We have been living in bricks and mortar houses since October, albeit with six weeks in the Outer Hebrides. I am itching to be back on Narrowboat Thuis. We won’t get properly going till March but perhaps we can get a week or two on the boat while it is moored in the Marina. Maybe New Year in our Narrowboat, with me, Mandy, the dogs and reading my new books. Sounds good to me.

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No more narrowboating this year – so what is next?

Narrowboat Thuis is back at the marina in Stone for the winter and we are back in our house in Lancashire. As always, we are a little sad at the end of this year’s adventure, but we will be back on “the cut” next year, and can look forward to the next few months of bricks & mortar life.

And I can engage in my favourite pastime of making plans. I get bored very easily and the idea of a quiet retirement fills me with dread. So we will have a couple of weeks at home, seeing family and friends and doing jobs around the house, and then we will be off to North Uist for six weeks.

North Uist is a small island in the Outer Hebrides. We have stayed there before and it will be very peaceful at this time of year. The tourists will have left and restaurants & attractions will have closed. But what will be left for the locals is simply stunning scenery and amazing nature. The weather will either be sideways rain, in which case our cottage with the open fire will be very welcome, or it will be clear and sunny with the best light in the UK. My brother in law is joining us for the first week and he is unconvinced. I can’t wait to take him to see some of the beaches and see what he says.

After the Hebridean trip it will be Christmas and maybe skiing in January. And then, all too soon, it will be February and we will be back on the boat. Come the end of this year I will have been retired for five years. Is it time to go back to a job? Not yet!

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