First Cruise of 2012: Warwick to Stourport

Well our fist cruise of the season was a roaring success, lots of locks, lots of different canals and lots of fun had by all! Our 2 new crew girls, Sarah & Hilary, are settling in well, and with the help of our lovely Abi who is an old hand at it, they are picking up all the tricks of butty steering and lock wheeling brilliantly, next week: tea-tray carrying over the roof & a crash-course in cake making!

For a bit of fun, this year the crew have devised a quiz for the guests, with a few general knowledge questions, a few about the boats themselves, and a handful about the cruise they are on. Go on, have a go yourself!

Snipe & Taurus Quiz

General Knowledge Round:

1) Name the most expensive painting to ever be sold.

2) What is the date of the Olympic Opening Ceremony for London 2012?

3) What are the names of the four children that form the central characters in the novel ‘The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe”?

4) Name 10 parts of the human body that are spelt with just three letters (no slang words)?

5) Name the planets in the solar system.

The Boats:

1) What is the correct term for the tool we use to operate most locks?

2) How many birds can be found on the outside of the boats?

3) How many Perry buoys (life rings) are there on the roofs of the boats?

4) “Taurus” is not the original name of our butty boat. What was it called before it became a hotel boat?

5) Which village is pictured on all the placemats on the dining table?

The Cruise:

1) How many locks have we passed through on this cruise (not including stop locks)? Multiple Choice: a) 70 b) 80 c) 90

2) How many tunnels have we travelled through? Multiple Choice: a) 3 b) 5 c) 7

3) What was the name of the pub at the foot of the Delph lock flight?

4) Name all the canals we have cruised this week (1 point for each).

If you’re keen, you can email us your answers and we’ll let you know how you’ve done. No cheating with google now! (total possible points: 42)

The Best Thing About the Canals is…

I’ve been thinking about the alternative wonders of the English waterways. What is the best thing about the British canals and rivers? Why do I live on a narrowboat? Why have Corrine and Neil chosen to live, work and travel on canal hotel boats? What are people looking for in a canal narrowboat holiday?

People sometimes ask me, “do you think you might ever move into a house?” When the engine breaks down, or the diesel stove is dodgy*, when the washing machine won’t work or the local tap is frozen in winter, then yes, I do think that a house would be easier. But I’ve been living on the canals for twelve years now, so what makes me stay?

Many live-aboard boaters say that it’s all about the freedom: Freedom to explore England in a peaceful, unhurried way. Cruising through a variety of diverse landscapes; from historic streets to unspoilt countryside, discovering canal side villages and quaint tumbled-down buildings appeals to my sense of adventure.

I like working the locks on a silent summer’s day, taking in a deep breath of fresh air that comes across the open space and green fields all around me. I like to spy a lonely farmhouse in the distance and discover an ancient waterside pub up close. I love the illusion of being away from modern life, yet travelling along knowing that I have all of my home comforts with me indoors. I am exploring new places, stood at the tiller with my own mug of coffee in my hand.

I never get tired of coming out onto the front deck in the haste of a Monday morning, and suddenly finding the time to pause as I notice the swans drifting towards my bow looking for some bread.  The moorhens and coots are across the cut, perhaps repairing their nests and a heron stands silent and watchful on the opposite bank; waiting for a fish to catch. I hear ducks and geese in the morning, ropes creaking when I’m in bed at night, and rain on the roof when it’s stormy.

It’s no wonder that small and intimate hotel boats like Snipe and Taurus are so inspiring for photographers, artists and writers.

So what have I found, by choosing to live on the canals? It’s the freedom, the tranquillity and the closeness to nature that have brought me here.

This is England: So alive and yet undisturbed.

What do you like best about the waterways?

Peggy Melmoth

 

*Please be assured, there will be no engine breakdowns or dodgy diesel stoves on our 4 star hotel boats!

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Time Travelling Hotel Boats

How much time could you spend on a canal hotel boat? Would a week on a hotel boat be enough? Does your perception of time change when you’re exploring the English canals and rivers?

 

A few years ago when I was travelling in India I heard the acronym IST which stands for Indian Standard Time. However, I often found the people of India to be laid-back and relaxed; affectionately referring to IST as Indian Stretchable Time. A friend of mine on holiday in Goa waited two hours for a slice of toast in a beach-shack restaurant. When he politely enquired about his order the waiter became agitated,

“It’s coming, it’s coming!”

A boy had been sent to the shops for bread. I often found restaurants had a ‘can do’ attitude when it came to hospitality, and would have hated to admit that they could not provide what a customer had ordered.

We also have something like IST on the canals. When you are planning a canal journey you can estimate the time it will take you. The ‘lock-miles’ system is a way of roughly calculating journey time: Add the number of miles to the number of locks and divide the result by three. This gives you an idea of the number of hours the cruise will take. We use the Nicholson’s guides to the Waterways which have little countable mile markers indicated along the cut. But then you may need to allow for service stops such as water, shopping, pump-out, and rubbish disposal. A flight of locks will take much longer if they are all ‘set against’ you. Then there is the ubiquitous canal-side pub that has caused many a leisure boatman to pause in his journey for a pint of ale. Because of this stretchable time twenty-first century boaters have to be a little flexible about their estimated time of arrival.

Not only does time stretch on the canals it also slows down. The official speed limit is 4 mph on most British Waterways canals, and to be honest that is pretty fast. It’s not good form for a boat’s wash to break against the bank or cause large waves, particularly when passing moored boats or anglers.

Our working lives are so often full of time-management challenges, despite time being totally unmanageable! No matter how well organised you get, time still marches on. Yet on the canals it’s very difficult to do anything in a hurry and this sometimes reflects in the character of the people you meet on the cut.

When you are cruising outside of the cities you may even find that time has stopped. Some old wharves, waterways workshops and pubs retain their original Victorian charm, and away from the roar of twenty-first century traffic there is a comfortable sense of calm and tranquillity. The wildlife too remains timeless; the resident waterfowl are the ancestors of birds seen (and poached!) by our boat-working ancestors.

If you’ve ever been spellbound, gongoozling at a lock, or strolled down the towpath and lost track of time then you may have been drawn in to the timeless ways of the waterways. So to me, this is the seventh wonder of the waterways: the strange stretchable, magical things that canals do to time.

What do you think? Can time be managed?

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Peggy Melmoth