Boating, such a laid back and enjoyable pastime.

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G#Gill
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Boating, such a laid back and enjoyable pastime.

Post by G#Gill »

My mum and dad enjoying one of their many trips on their narrow boat. It was my hubby's fault, getting my dad interested in boating on the English inland waterways. :wah: He and my mum loved it !

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Bryn Mawr
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Boating, such a laid back and enjoyable pastime.

Post by Bryn Mawr »

G#Gill;1490961 wrote: My mum and dad enjoying one of their many trips on their narrow boat. It was my hubby's fault, getting my dad interested in boating on the English inland waterways. :wah: He and my mum loved it !


As well they might. A narrowboat is the most relaxing form of travel known to man and the boaters you meet are, as a group, the nicest people you could hope to bump into.
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G#Gill
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Boating, such a laid back and enjoyable pastime.

Post by G#Gill »

Bryn Mawr;1490974 wrote: As well they might. A narrowboat is the most relaxing form of travel known to man and the boaters you meet are, as a group, the nicest people you could hope to bump into.


My dad bought a small wooden cabin cruiser (after he and my hubby had long discusssions about the joys of boating) and he pottered about on it whilst it was on it's trailer at home. He made one or two modifications under the guidance of my hubby, like a sort of covered wheelhouse, to allow for his tall stature, and to keep the weather off him while he was steering the boat. He called that boat "Donna".

When he trailed it to the slipway to launch it you could see that he was very "chuffy" with his endeavours, and when he climbed aboard and fixed the outboard motor on the stern, he had a big grin on his face ! He took the boat for a short run and when he returned you could see he had been bitten by the bug ! That was the beginning of a very enjoyable pastime for my dad and mum.

Over the years they had their first boat 'Donna', then shortly after that they sold 'Donna' in part exchange for a glass-fibre canal/river cruiser which gave my dad huge fun. He would be the first to admit that he was a 'naughty boy' with that glass-fibre cruiser, because if you worked it right, it would get up to the plane with just the prop.shaft and a small part of the stern in the water and 'fly' down the waterway, which he used to do fairly frequently when there were no other boats in the vicinity - highly naughty on the canals particularly because it eroded the banks somewhat (although when the boat was planing, it left no wash at all !) That boat would probably manage to reach more than 30 mph, which of course thrilled my dad ! He decided to change the boat name when he got the hooligan element out of his system :lips::wah: He called it 'Bendith' which is Welsh for blessing.

When the opportunity came up to purchase a narrow boat, my dad took quite a while to get used to the rock steady stability of the narrow boat in comparison to the glass-fibre boat, 'Bendith' which felt more 'boaty' with it's gentle undulating 'bounciness'.

He unfortunately had to sell his narrow boat 'Pulsatilla' when he became ill and he and my mum were not so agile any more. They are both gone now and I miss them both terribly. But they have left behind some wonderful memories which include the joy they gained from all their boating days and the stories that were formulated with meeting so many other boaters on their travels. My dad loved that side of it too, because he had a ready-made audience for his endless funny anecdotes. Needless to say my mum made herself scarce as she had heard them so many times before !

Yes you can't beat being on the water and chugging along through the delightful countryside, being able to just stop for a while where you want to, and drink in all the lovely perfumes from the wild flowers and shrubs. To see nature slowly developing through the seasons and to be away from the hustle and bustle of busy roads and into the peace and tranquility of pastoral gentleness.

Can't be beaten. :) :-6
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Boating, such a laid back and enjoyable pastime.

Post by LarsMac »

My first trip to UK, We had one guy manning the UK office, which was on the Thames in Marlow. There were a number of those boats tied up nearby, and my first thought was how nice it must be to live there aboard one of those.
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Boating, such a laid back and enjoyable pastime.

Post by ZAP »

My brother lived in Alaska, south of Anchorage. He had a 26' cabin cruiser and I visited him several times and we went fishing a lot--for halibut and salmon. I fished in the Salmon Derby in Seward but the one I caught was only 13-13 and the winners were usually 16-20 lbs. Silvers are much smaller. My niece won one year with a 16+---$10,000! Another time we fished amongst the glaciers and got into a pod of killer whales. I shot a videotape of the mothers and their calves playing alo0ngside our boat for about half an hour. The bulls lay out a good distance away across the small bay. My brother said he never seen or heard of anything like these beauties and their antics.

I did catch a halibut one time but it only weighed 45 lbs. but it took me about 20 minutes to bring it up from 300 ft. down. We slept on the boat quite often and it was so calm and peaceful to awaken to a gorgeous sunrise on the peaceful bay. But if the water was rough it could be miserable as I found out through my stupidity of riding in rough seas, on an overcast day, while reading a book and not keeping my eyes on the horizon. I got terribly seasick. The first and only time I ever did.
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Post by G#Gill »

We did live aboard a boat for a couple of years. It was a wooden ex-Norfolk Broads 6 berth cruiser. I installed a Torgem boiler (would burn anything) in the main saloon and constructed a fireproof chimney which stuck out through the saloon roof. The whole thing was very effective and kept that saloon very cosy, and we used to have a kettle permanently sitting on top of the Torgem so we could have hot drinks any time, also the front cabin was kept cosy too if it's door was opened. My son slept in that front cabin and my hubby and I slept in the rear cabin, the other side of the central wheelhouse. There was no heating in our cabin and we had to co**** ourselves in swathes of blankets, eiderdowns etc. We had to wear thick socks in bed and sweaters, and my hubby wore a woolly hat! I took a hilarious photo of him fast asleep. This, of course was only necessary in the winter months.

Unfortunately my hubby, who has asthma, was badly affected by the cold and the damp, so after one winter we looked around for a house that we could afford, and we moved off the river. I often wonder, if we had installed central heating to run off the Torgem boiler, would we ever have moved off the water. It was a wonderful experience and it was so peaceful and away from noisy traffic and rowdy people.

We really had a wonderful time living on that boat, and it was so convenient to moor up our charter trip boat on one side of the rise-and-fall jetty after we had dispatched the evening's party further up river on our 'public' jetty, and almost literally roll into our cosy water born home moored the other side of that rise-and-fall jetty ! Our night-time hot chocolate was such a welcome drink before we turned in for the night.

Oh they were most enjoyable and happy days when we had our charter/trip boat business on the river. Hard work but most rewarding, and a part of my life that I shall always remember with fondness and a smile and be thankful for.



:yh_rotfl:yh_rotfl:yh_rotfl

I've just read back what I have written and noticed that my word (meaning to wrap as in the butterfly world - sounds like kokoon !) has been asterisked out, just leaving a 'co'. The vetting program must be Nazi biased ! :yh_rotfl:yh_rotfl (somebody wrote that something caused him to titter, only he wrote a different word not realising that it would be asterisked out - it sounded like triggers and all that was left was the first letter 's' and the last letter 's' with a load of * in between ! :yh_rotfl definitely Nazi don't you think ? :yh_rotfl
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Boating, such a laid back and enjoyable pastime.

Post by LarsMac »

ZAP;1490992 wrote: My brother lived in Alaska, south of Anchorage. He had a 26' cabin cruiser and I visited him several times and we went fishing a lot--for halibut and salmon. I fished in the Salmon Derby in Seward but the one I caught was only 13-13 and the winners were usually 16-20 lbs. Silvers are much smaller. My niece won one year with a 16+---$10,000! Another time we fished amongst the glaciers and got into a pod of killer whales. I shot a videotape of the mothers and their calves playing alo0ngside our boat for about half an hour. The bulls lay out a good distance away across the small bay. My brother said he never seen or heard of anything like these beauties and their antics.

I did catch a halibut one time but it only weighed 45 lbs. but it took me about 20 minutes to bring it up from 300 ft. down. We slept on the boat quite often and it was so calm and peaceful to awaken to a gorgeous sunrise on the peaceful bay. But if the water was rough it could be miserable as I found out through my stupidity of riding in rough seas, on an overcast day, while reading a book and not keeping my eyes on the horizon. I got terribly seasick. The first and only time I ever did.


Your seasick moment reminded me of my own experience with being sea-sick.

My brother and I once took some friends from up north on a drift fishing cruise. The boat was a 75 footer, that specialized in 4 hour trips out to the edge of the Gulf Stream. They would run out to a spot where the current met the relatively calm close in waters, and turn across the current, and cut motors. everyone tosses a line with baited hoots and a small weight. This day we had a good wind swell coming across the beam, and the waves were 4-6 feet. The crew had insisted everyone stay in the cabin while going out, for fear of losing a tourist overboard. Well, Brother knew the first mate, and we talked them into letting us stay on deck. We brought a case of beer with us, and by the time we got to the drop site, we had a few under our belts.

The drift, as I said was across our beam, making the boat rock sideways. as we rose on a wave we saw sky, then we topped and rolled down , sow we saw only water. There we were, drifting and rocking, drinking a beer and rocking, sky, water, sky water, beer, sky, water, sky, water, beer, etc, etc. A few fish were caught. I pulled in a nice king mackerel, there were a few more. The wind picked up, and along with it the swell. more sky, more water, more beer, and more people began to lose their equilibrium, and lunches began to find the sea.

Bro and I were fairly acquainted with the sea, and not we held our posts. Eventually it was down to about four of us still competing for the biggest fish of the day. The Captain decided to haul it in and head for port. We all reeled in and stashed our gear as he turned us toward port. This time the First Mate was insisting that we go into the cabin as well. He saw how many empty cans we had and didn't trust our stability. Well, we went into the cabin and sat down. all around us were miserable tourists, landlubbers, all. and they were not waiting for whoever was in the head to finish before they heaved their remaining beverages and fried shrimp lunches. There were buckets set about the deck of the cabin for just such emergencies, and yet few of the poor souls managed to hit their mark.

A few minutes of that, after all the motion and all the beer, it was all I could do to make it out the cabin hatchway, and grab a rail before slipping over the side. My last beer went into the sea, and I clung for dear life to the railing, with my legs hanging off the deck. The wind and the spray, and the sounds of the diesels roaring became my mantra, and I sat right there for the rest of the trip back to port. I was drenched as I stood up. when we entered the inlet, and cruised into calm waters.

My King beat the other guy's snapper by a quarter pound, and I took the biggest fish pool. I split it with the First Mate for not coming to retrieve my poor soggy a$$ from the deck and making me go back in the cabin.

It was a glorious day.
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Boating, such a laid back and enjoyable pastime.

Post by FourPart »

My ideal form of 'cruising' would be on a barge, plodding along the canal, pulled in the traditional way by a horse on the towpath. Just that 1 Horsepower Engine.
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Post by ZAP »

LarsMac;1491004 wrote: Your seasick moment reminded me of my own experience with being sea-sick.

My brother and I once took some friends from up north on a drift fishing cruise. The boat was a 75 footer, that specialized in 4 hour trips out to the edge of the Gulf Stream. They would run out to a spot where the current met the relatively calm close in waters, and turn across the current, and cut motors. everyone tosses a line with baited hoots and a small weight. This day we had a good wind swell coming across the beam, and the waves were 4-6 feet. The crew had insisted everyone stay in the cabin while going out, for fear of losing a tourist overboard. Well, Brother knew the first mate, and we talked them into letting us stay on deck. We brought a case of beer with us, and by the time we got to the drop site, we had a few under our belts.

The drift, as I said was across our beam, making the boat rock sideways. as we rose on a wave we saw sky, then we topped and rolled down , sow we saw only water. There we were, drifting and rocking, drinking a beer and rocking, sky, water, sky water, beer, sky, water, sky, water, beer, etc, etc. A few fish were caught. I pulled in a nice king mackerel, there were a few more. The wind picked up, and along with it the swell. more sky, more water, more beer, and more people began to lose their equilibrium, and lunches began to find the sea.

Bro and I were fairly acquainted with the sea, and not we held our posts. Eventually it was down to about four of us still competing for the biggest fish of the day. The Captain decided to haul it in and head for port. We all reeled in and stashed our gear as he turned us toward port. This time the First Mate was insisting that we go into the cabin as well. He saw how many empty cans we had and didn't trust our stability. Well, we went into the cabin and sat down. all around us were miserable tourists, landlubbers, all. and they were not waiting for whoever was in the head to finish before they heaved their remaining beverages and fried shrimp lunches. There were buckets set about the deck of the cabin for just such emergencies, and yet few of the poor souls managed to hit their mark.

A few minutes of that, after all the motion and all the beer, it was all I could do to make it out the cabin hatchway, and grab a rail before slipping over the side. My last beer went into the sea, and I clung for dear life to the railing, with my legs hanging off the deck. The wind and the spray, and the sounds of the diesels roaring became my mantra, and I sat right there for the rest of the trip back to port. I was drenched as I stood up. when we entered the inlet, and cruised into calm waters.

My King beat the other guy's snapper by a quarter pound, and I took the biggest fish pool. I split it with the First Mate for not coming to retrieve my poor soggy a$$ from the deck and making me go back in the cabin.

It was a glorious day.


You tell that story so vividly I feel a little sea . . .excuse me . . .
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Bryn Mawr
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Boating, such a laid back and enjoyable pastime.

Post by Bryn Mawr »

FourPart;1491005 wrote: My ideal form of 'cruising' would be on a barge, plodding along the canal, pulled in the traditional way by a horse on the towpath. Just that 1 Horsepower Engine.


Would that CRT kept up the "veg pledge" and made sure that there was a clear line between the water and the towpath. The saplings and the number of boats with online moorings would make a horse drawn boat difficult on much of the system nowadays.
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G#Gill
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Boating, such a laid back and enjoyable pastime.

Post by G#Gill »

I understand, Bryn, that there are still one or two regularly run horse-drawn narrow boats on the waterway, but I can't remember where they are ! :-3

But I did find this interesting link !

https://uk.search.yahoo.com/search?fr=m ... oats+today
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Bryn Mawr
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Boating, such a laid back and enjoyable pastime.

Post by Bryn Mawr »

G#Gill;1491008 wrote: I understand, Bryn, that there are still one or two regularly run horse-drawn narrow boats on the waterway, but I can't remember where they are ! :-3

But I did find this interesting link !

https://uk.search.yahoo.com/search?fr=m ... oats+today


Yes, there's the Horse Drawn Boat society which is mainly Sue Day taking her boat around but it's quite limited as to where she can take it and she has to make special arrangements with CRT if she's going anywhere new.
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