Alice Griffin - Guest Posts on The Call of the Water

Alice (on the left!)

Today I have a special guest on my blog: Alice Griffin, a narrowboat wife. She is a mother, writer, traveller, dreamer, vegetarian, animal lover, seeker of peace, crafter and sometime gardener. On her blog Writings From the Wherever she talks about projects she is working on and connects with others… from wherever she may be... 

Over to Alice... 


The Call of the Water

When my family and I started looking into the option of living on a narrowboat, a friend said: “the winters can be hard, but the Spring and Summer more than make up for it.”

Right now I am writing this in my notebook sat on the roof of my boat. The sun is beating down, fellow boaters are cruising by and my daughter is peddling up and down the towpath on her bike talking to the ducks and geese… at this moment I simply cannot imagine a better way to live in England because for me, it is everything at its best: nature, friendliness and freedom.

We are in the first throws of Spring and winter is just a distant memory. Sure this winter was nowhere near as severe as last winter, but still I cursed to myself at having to lug big bags of dirty washing to the laundrette, thinking about what it would be like to just put the washing on in my kitchen and go about something else while it whirred away*. Or I would catch myself daydreaming about life in a house with rooms where you can shut yourself off in silence when rain is falling and family life gets too claustrophobic. But no, it’s not winter any more and as we untie the ropes of our mooring for the first time this year, I am reminded of all the things I love about boat living.

My hand-washed clothes are blowing in the breeze and there is abundant space on the doorstep where we can roam and find adventures along secret paths, in wide open fields and amongst the trees. I think that’s it for me, the attraction to this way of life: living right in the heart of nature. Each morning the air tastes more delicious and I feel more at peace as I lay still listening to the chaffinch who visits the window feeder or watch the Moorhens as they scurry in and out of their nest. The world is coming alive right on my doorstep and somehow, I am more aware of it than I ever was because it feels as though I am in some way cocooned within nature’s embrace here. And when I do have to do a laundrette run, it is no longer plagued by a cold walk lugging heavy laundry, to sit staring sorrowfully through steamed-up windows onto a dreary street. Now we ‘washers’ chat to each other with bright smiles as we watch our clothes go round, the Manageress plays guessing games with my daughter and we take breaks in the church grounds opposite amongst the Spring flowers. Somehow, now, I feel I would be losing a valuable people connection if I were to have a washing machine on my boat.

But as I write this I feel a sense of sadness for having emerged from another winter, but without the prize of seeing the first ducklings and moorhen babies outside my back door. You see, next week I will be heading off on a new adventure to the mountains of Italy where my family and I will be volunteering on a farm and although I will still be very much within the embrace of nature, I know I will long for my life on water, wondering when it will call me back…

* please note, it is entirely possible to have a washing machine on a narrowboat if you so wish!

 

Alice's book is an inspiring travelogue with practical tips: True stories of travelling with a baby. 

Could You Live Aboard?

There are almost 35,000 canal boats on Britain’s inland waterways*, but it’s quite difficult to estimate how many of those are floating homes. I was recently interviewed by a journalist who seemed to want to find out what ‘type’ of people are living within the boating community. The truth is that we are just as diverse as the community living ashore. Live-aboard boaters include middle-aged divorcees, retired couples, young professionals, people on low incomes, people ‘down on their luck’ and canal heritage enthusiasts. It can include people seeking an alternative lifestyle, or people seeking a cheaper lifestyle. Some boaters are foreign tourists discovering England and some people are able to choose a nomadic lifestyle because they work from home.

If you think you may be one of these people you need to consider the challenges. Confined space and a lack of storage will mean de-cluttering your possessions before moving aboard. Have you taken into account the extra chores such as disposing of your own domestic waste and sewage, and keeping your water tank topped up? Are you ready for an unpredictable electric supply that depends on the engine being maintained in good working order? Your gas will be purchased in bottles and the changing price of red diesel will affect your home budget. If your work or personal commitments make continuously cruising impractical you will need to find a mooring.

If you have considered all of these points then you are ready to take the plunge. Imagine the emotional freedom of releasing so many material possessions to move into a cosy narrowboat. Consider the sense of independence and achievement knowing that you are responsible for supplying your own gas and electric, and the environmental awareness you’ll gain when physically managing your own waste disposal. You’ll feel more connected with nature and feed swans and ducks from your kitchen window. You will learn to be economical with water and you may like to learn new skills such as marine engine maintenance, boat refurbishment or painting roses and castles. Will you exchange the gym for cycling or running on the towpath? Will you enjoy being part of a community in a marina or will you consider a new career as a roving canal trader?

When you have thought through all of these things and worked out your budget it’s time to begin browsing the variety of canal boats for sale at Boatshed Grand Union. If you’re already a leisure boater looking to exchange your current boat for a live aboard we would be happy to take your boat on brokerage for you.

*Source: British Waterways website


I wrote this post for Boatshed Grand Union.
For business blogging, social media and other virtual assistant services visit http://www.peggymelmoth.wordpress.com/

Winter Boating

Canal frozen, Angel Islington, London.

As part of my Living Aboard series of blog posts I wrote an article titled Is it Cold in Winter? The past two winters have been exceptionally cold and more of the same is forecast for the end of this year. British Waterways, with assistance from the Residential Boat Owners Association has recently produced a guidance document explaining what services will and will not be provided in extreme weather conditions. British Waterways will arrange for contractors to visit mooring sites to repair emergency plumbing problems, electric faults and frozen locks, (if there is no other access to the site.) They will organise follow-up calls if refuse collections are missed and will arrange grit delivery to sites with grit bins, (the grit is to be distributed on site by boaters).

BW will not organise emergency call-outs for frozen water pipes or pump outs, as these cannot be repaired until they thaw. They will not arrange for the removal of sewage from a boat where there are working alternative facilities on site. BW recommend that boaters stock-pile water supplies in advance of a forecast freeze, as they will not supply on-site water bowsers (trailer mounted water tanks). BW offices will be closed from 2pm on 23rd December until 3rd January, but customers can report any faults by calling the Freephone Canals number 0800 47 999 47. Cruising in winter can be a challenge. You will need to be aware of the dangers of ice and snow on towpaths, bridges and lock-sides. Keep well back from the edge and use handrails on lock gates. Hold on to something sturdy when getting on and off your boat. Clear snow from the gunwales and use grit when you can. De-icer and spray grease are useful for locks and padlocks on your own boat and on the boating facilities. Try to keep ropes out of the water as frozen ropes are difficult to work with! It may be an idea to keep spare, dry ropes indoors.

Winter can actually be a good time to buy a narrowboat, barge or canal boat as you can really get a feel for what the boat will be like during the colder months, and go into it with your eyes open. At Boatshed Grand Union you can see a great selection of photos of each boat before arranging a viewing.

Finally, I am going to re-iterate my previous advice for boating in the winter: Put a casserole in the oven and some mulled wine on top of the stove!

Image Credits
'Mulled Wine for the Party' by fieldtripp
'Frozen Canal' by D Melmoth
Creative Commons License

You may also like:

Living Aboard - Part 7 Computers and Internet

When I first started living on a narrowboat in the year 2000 my computer connected to the internet very slowly via a blue tooth connection to my mobile phone, but technology has improved a lot since then.
If you're looking for a used boat to buy as a live-aboard home then you're probably already using the internet to browse sites like Boatshed Grand Union, where there are up to eighty photos of each second-hand boat, barge and narrowboat for sale.

When you're using a computer on board, a laptop or net-book is a good space saving idea and can be run off a 150 watt inverter, (although you may have a much bigger inverter depending on your personal domestic requirements aboard.) A good sized domestic battery bank is important if you wish to use your computer a lot. However, if you have a mooring with a mains electric supply you could choose a full sized desktop computer, perhaps selecting a flat screen monitor to save space. When you're on the move a desktop PC runs best from a pure sine wave inverter. A small uninterruptable power supply (UPS) maybe be a good investment if you are depending on an unpredictable electric supply for a desktop PC.

A printer will work off your usual mains supply or from an inverter if you are cruising, but make sure that you store your paper reams in a completely dry place. A laser printer has particular power requirements, so check this when you are buying one.

If your boat has a permanent residential mooring with electric shoreline and a standard telephone line then your internet connection can be arranged the same way as it would be in a house. This could be perfectly adequate for you if you feel that you won't require internet access when the boat is out and about cruising.

Mobile broadband is provided by mobile phone companies, who will also sell you an internet dongle as part of the package. This is a small piece of hardware which is inserted into a USB port on your computer. Price packages offer a variety of data usage allowances which you will select depending on whether you want to just send an occasional email, or, at the other end of the scale live stream TV and music.  Your mobile broadband connection speed will depend on network capability, modem capability, signal strength, and the number of other users on the network at that time. There are booster antennas available for all types of dongle, but a cheaper solution is to first try using a 3 meter length of USB extension cable, male one end, female the other, and mount your dongle in a different place, away from your computer, perhaps in the window or in the cratch of the boat.

Alternatively, you may be happy to simply access the internet via a smart phone, such as an iPhone. It is now even possible to create a mobile WiFi hot spot on your boat, where your phone, computer and other devices can connect wirelessly to the internet with something like the Three Mifi device.
You might also consider the T-Mobile Wireless Pointer. This does the same thing, but can also accept an external antenna, which is useful in poor signal areas. The Boaters Phone Company can supply a suitable aerial.

Technology and the internet has improved so much since I was first looking for a boat to buy.

The Boatshed formula of traditional brokerage using local knowledge and world beating technology  has proved very successful on all of the Grand Union, including the London Canals, as well as the River Lee Navigation.

The Boatshed Grand Union website offers a search facility to make it easy to browse live-aboard boats for sale within your price range, and you can contact James or Phil directly if you have any questions about a particular boat. Use search terms such as "narrowboat", "broad beam" or "Dutch barge" and register on the website to see the full range of photographs of each boat.

Thanks to Andrew Denny of Granny Buttons blog for recommending the T-Mobile Wireless Pointer.

You may also like this post: MiFi changed my life!

Disclosure: I wrote this post for the Boatshed Grand Union website. It was my choice to re-publish it here where I hope it is of interest to you.

Visit http://peggymelmoth.wordpress.com/ for remote secretarial services, copywriting, business blogging or freelance writing commissions.

Living Aboard Part 6: Home Comforts

Living aboard a narrowboat

I am sometimes asked, have you got a TV, shower or toilet on a live-aboard narrowboat? Most boats for sale have all of the above and depending on your budget you can have all mod-cons including a bath, microwave, dishwasher and washing machine! The complicated part is do you have a big enough water tank and an electric system that can cope with the demands of modern life? Running these modern luxuries is easier if you are on a mooring with 240 volt electric supply and your own water tap. If you are continuously cruising you will need to find out about generators and invertors and make sure that you have a good sized water tank. Chemical toilets can either be the pump-out type, which is emptied at a pump out point (pumped out by a machine), or an Elsan (sometimes called a ‘porta potty’) which can be emptied by hand into a sewage disposal point. An Elsan toilet will need emptying more often than a pump out, but may be supplied with a spare cassette (sewage container).

The cooking will be done on gas, and may be a mini hob and oven in a smaller boat, but will often be a full size cooker. It will sometimes run off butane, but more commonly the gas bottles installed on the boat will be propane. Fridges can be 12 volt electric or alternatively they might run off gas. 12 volt fridges may drain your power if your battery bank is inadequate, so you could add a large solar panel on the roof. A gas fridge has a pilot light which will go out when the gas runs out and will then require re-lighting. Most fridges will have a small freezer compartment but a full size freezer is uncommon on a boat because of the 240 volt power that it requires. If you are on a mooring with a permanent 240 volt supply this may not be a problem for you.

Domestic hot water may be heated by a number of means. A common solution is a tankless gas water heater such as a Paloma or a Morco which supply instant hot water. This requires a gas flu to be fitted above it, through the roof of the boat. Alternatively you may have a hot water tank, heated by a gas boiler and this could also heat a radiator system.

A calorifier is a hot water tank containing one or more coils of copper pipe, which heat the water. The heat in the coils may come from the engine cooling system, a solid fuel back boiler or both.

Water tap to fill the water tank

If you don't have a big enough water tank and an electric system that can cope with the demands of modern life this can be more easily rectified than major alterations in a house. If you see a boat for sale that you like, remember that electric systems can be improved, domestic boat batteries can be added, a generator can be bought and water tanks can be expanded. There are live-aboard boats to suit all budgets for sale at http://grandunion.boatshed.com  Boatshed Grand Union has second hand narrowboats, wide-beams and barges for sale on the Southern Grand Union Canal and London inland waterways.

Wind generator on a narrowboat roof


Disclosure: I was commissioned to write this post for the Boatshed Grand Union website. It was my choice to re-publish it here where I hope it is of interest to some of my readers.

Visit http://peggymelmoth.wordpress.com/ for remote secretarial services, copywriting, or freelance writing commissions.

Visit Become a Mumpreneur for free eCourses and more.

Living Aboard - Part 5: Is it Cold in Winter?

The short answer is no. It is a bit of a running joke amongst live-aboard boaters that this is the most common question that people will ask. However, it may well be a question that you need to ask when you are looking for a boat to buy on the Grand Union canal in London or Hertfordshire. The longer answer is that it depends on your heating. Many boats and narrowboats for sale on the inland waterways are heated with a solid fuel stove. This burns coal or wood and a narrow steel boat can get very hot when the home fire is burning – enough to need opening the window in mid-winter! The advantages of burning solid fuel include a choice of coal or logs as fuel, and the romance of cosy nights in front of the amber glow of real flames. I've had casseroles and mulled wine simmering away on top of mine. The downside to solid fuel is that the fire can sometimes die down to an ember overnight making the mornings a little chilly. You will need to re-black the stove from time to time and sweep the flue regularly.

Solid fuel stove

When I was pregnant with our first child we invested in a diesel stove. It runs off red diesel from the engine tank and maintains a constant heat. It may not seem as cosy and romantic as a real burning fire but some models have an imitation coal flame effect. You can leave the stove safely burning all night while you sleep, and all day when you're out at work. They can, however be a bit of a pain to clean.

Narrowboats can also have a variety of panel or fin radiators which circulate hot water. Alternatively they may be heated with warm air ducting. They either run on diesel, or run off the existing diesel stove or from propane gas bottles. Some systems are electrically controlled so you will need to make sure your batteries are in good condition and regularly charged. Some central heating systems take up very little space but the diesel systems sometimes have noisy exhausts, or electric pumps which can be disturbing at night.

 

On 1^st November 2008 The EU Energy Products Directive stipulated that the full rate of duty should be applied to fuel used for “the purposes of navigation” of private pleasure craft. However, boaters can declare at the time of purchase what percentage of the fuel will be used for domestic heating, and this fuel will be sold to the boater tax free.

Diesel can be purchased at marinas and boat yards, and also from working boats who travel the waterways selling a variety of fuels. Working boats will often sell coal, smokeless fuel, diesel, propane gas bottles and other useful products such as kindling or chemical fluid for the toilet.

Both diesel and solid fuel stoves can be adapted to include a back boiler which may heat the radiators and the domestic hot water. On a live-aboard boat you may like to have more than one heating system, for example a solid fuel stove and a radiator system. However, when you're looking at boats for sale remember that most boats can be adapted to suit your requirements.

Have a look at Boatshed Grand Union to see several different types of heating on the boats for sale that are suitable for living aboard. There are up to 80 photos of each boat so you can get a good look at the options available. The real answer is that it is cosy on board in winter, and perhaps this winter it will be you snuggled up on board eating casserole with mulled wine warming on the stove!

Casserole image credit

Already have a narrowboat? Are you often being asked, Is it Cold in Winter? Contact Boat-Wife for a free postcard sized magnet to display on your boat. It is a small advert for this blog.

Visit http://peggymelmoth.wordpress.com/ for remote secretarial services, copywriting, or freelance writing commissions.

Visit Become a Mumpreneur for free eCourses and more.

Meet The Boaters: Nigel and Janet

Nigel and Janet

This is the last in my series of interviews about families living on narrowboats. Why do some families stay living aboard, and others decide that as their children grow older, it’s time to leave the waterways and live ashore? I came very close to living in a house this year, and it was partly my friends Nigel and Janet that changed my mind about leaving the water. Although I have referred to their interview in my article about jumping ship I wanted to publish their whole interview because I found it all so inspiring and interesting! 

Janet (46) is presently working as a disability support worker, but when I first met her she was a paramedic. She started looking at boats in about 1989. She was working for a bank, which used to be in Wembley and then relocated to Uxbridge, on the outskirts of West London. She was the kind of person who hated the office and at lunchtime would go to the park or off for a walk. That’s how she found the canal, by the ‘Swan and Bottle’ pub, and saw the boats and the people living aboard.

The Swan and Bottle pub, Uxbridge

“I  got out the local map and went a-wandering. I think it was the freedom that appealed to me, taking off in your own home to wander the countryside like a gypsy with never a worry..ha ha - sounds so romantic doesn’t it? Also I was getting too old to live at home and didn’t want a mortgage, house, and bills etcetera. I met Nigel while I was going to the boat yards and it was a brilliant idea for a shag pad!

 I bought ‘Amelia Rose’ for 15 grand and for the first few days lived out of water bottles, battery powered radio and candlelight as I did not have a clue how it all worked...don’t laugh!  I loved the lifestyle, the friends, chatting to strangers, moving around ...everything. I hated...er....er....er...um...the restricted space but only after having children and...er...running the engine to charge to batteries, (too noisy) and I think that’s it. 

It all changed in 2004, I just didn’t want to be there anymore, but to be honest I was hinting to Nigel to move before, for all the reasons you mentioned when we were emailing recently; laundry, cramped space - especially when it was raining, dragging shopping and kids from the car to the boat; and I was always paranoid about the water.

I do miss it terribly but would not go back for the reason mentioned above. What do I miss? The shock on people’s faces when you say you live on a boat, the friends, the pubs and social life, talking to complete strangers on the towpath and not being treated or treating anyone like a psycho murderer, the peace and quiet, no traffic, crowds, noisy neighbours and of course the beautiful English countryside like nowhere else on earth.

It was the best time of my life and I wouldn’t swap it for the world, a house is great...bigger though more expensive, more mod cons, and cleaning! Believe me cleaning a boat was fun compared to a big house. If we didn’t emigrate we would be still on the boat unless we moved completely away to the countryside, somewhere quiet, remote and beautiful, and I doubt that would have happened.”

Nigel - 'The Marine Engineer'

 Nigel (48) was a marine engineer, when I knew him on the Cut: A good one. He serviced my boat and everyone else’s that I knew.  He lived aboard from 1996 until 2008. Charlie was born on the 1^st February 2000 and Alfie was born on the 9^th April 2002.

“I moved onto Janet’s first boat as a very short term stop gap as I had nowhere else to go and needed a roof. It was only going to be for two weeks and I did not want it to be any longer. On my first morning I awoke to a frozen canal covered in snow and found that the fire had gone out...bloody freezing, but after one week at the end of a very cold January I had got the bug and Janet couldn't get rid of me. Prior to meeting Janet it would be fair to say that I knew nothing of the canals or the wonderful life that could be had on it. Janet had always wanted a boat though from her early twenties I believe.

We bought our first boat together in 1998 (Rebecca) and I was probably the catalyst for that as I didn't want to be a lodger and shagging my landlady for the rest of my days, (although it did fulfil some landlady fantasies!)

Charlie and 'Rebecca' (The boat)

‘Rebecca’ was a 70ft Bantock coal butty c1928 that had been converted around 1980 to a liveaboard. We did major work on her over the years but she was a trad style with an engine room cabin at the back for the boys, and then pretty open plan up to the front where our bedroom was.

The things I liked were that there was plenty of room inside for a boat, diesel fire, super big water tank: and moving every couple of weeks to do the toilet, water and bins etcetera usually involved a beer along the way somewhere.  My only dislike was the lack of headroom.

“If you never had a friend in the world then the Cut is the place to find them.” 

The lifestyle was brilliant, if you never had a friend in the world then the Cut is the place to find them. Summers are wonderful for socialising and getting together, moving around all the time was for me the greatest part of it all. A different view every couple of weeks and even when you were somewhere that was not great you knew that very soon you would be moving on again. Generally we always tried to find somewhere really remote and out of the way so there was no one around for miles, or we would be very close to the pub which was equally as nice but for completely different reasons. last but not least the pleasure of just picking up my rod and fishing whilst carrying on with the rest of my life, at times I fished from the moment I got up until I left the boat and started again as soon as I got home, wonderful . 

I didn’t like changing the gas bottle when you’re in the middle of a shower in the freezing cold. When we had a pump out (got rid of that pretty quickly) and it was full you had no toilet until you got it emptied. Another thing is having to be mindful of how much water and power we were using all the time.

Charlie and Alfie

Once we had Charlie and then Alfie, I think my feelings pretty much stayed the same. To be honest we had a better social life on the Cut with kids than we ever would have had in a house. You can be outside with friends and the kids inside asleep or outside playing with you, and when we moored out side or near a pub a really good quality baby monitor meant we could sit in the pub have a few drinks and the boys would be asleep inside a locked boat and very safe.  

We lived aboard for four years before Charlie arrived, and lived aboard as parents for 8 1/2 years in all. 

The advantages for kids are the outside lifestyle, growing up knowing and understanding a non orthodox way of life, great education of life and nature. Healthy living - having to walk to many places sometimes a long way to get to the shops or even just the car. Living in some of the most beautiful places in England. Oh yeah, and did I mention getting to have the pub garden (swings, slides and the rest) as your own little garden when you were moored up outside?

The disadvantage for kids are the dangers of water; you know what I am saying Boat-Wife.

As a parent the greatest thing for me was teaching and watching my boys learn how to swing a lock gate and lift and lower paddles properly etcetera, at an age where most other kids would not have a clue what they were even for.

The worst things I guess would be the lack of room for all, you certainly learn how to get along with each other but if you need a bit of space and be away from the kids for a bit of chill time then you are very limited, especially when it’s cold or wet outside.

Common questions would be,
Do you have a toilet or shower? Can you stand up? Oh it looks so small, how do you all live in that?

We left only to emigrate, and I think if we had not then we may still be afloat. Living in England I had no urge whatsoever to move to a house. Having since left and now living in a house I appreciate all the luxuries in life which people take for granted: such as a never ending supply of water from taps that never run out; toilets that never have to be emptied - let alone carried in hand, a big bath and a never ending source of electricity and room soooo much room. We have a front veranda with more floor space than the whole of our boat.

It was sad to leave the canal and all of our friends but everything comes to an end eventually and if you stay anywhere for too long it will eventually change, and no one likes change so you end up hating it and fighting it rather than just enjoying what you used to unconditionally enjoy.

 What I am trying to say is that of all the chapters in my life, the canal would be the longest, and holds truly some of the greatest, loveliest memories I could ever wish for. It also holds the most painful as well, so for us it was a good time to go. Never look back, just forwards but always remember what has passed, it makes you a better person at the end of the day and appreciate what you had and what you now have.

Learn from it all and then a house can be as enjoyable (for all the opposite reasons) as the canal ever was.

Uxbridge Lock

All drawings and paintings on this post are my own. (c) Boat-Wife.

If you enjoyed this post please share it on Facebook and Twitter. Thank you!