BlueStringPudding

Hello all! Only a fortnight to go till Mr Pudding and myself embark on our jolly Christmas holiday “Ooop North”. The plan is to take a little narrowboat from the start of the Trent & Mersey down to the Coventry Canal and back again over a very leisurely Christmas week of cruising and drinking and drinking and cruising (but mostly drinking!) Here’s our itinerary of overnight stops along the way: Weston/Swarkstone/Barrow for some evening nosh and bevvies at the local Burton-On-Trent for a visit to the Bass/Coors brewery Christmas Eve/Day at Fradley Junction for lunch at The Swan pub and nice country walks Trundle down the Coventry Canal towards Lichfield for Boxing Day. Explore the city, perhaps even catch a show Gentle cruise back to Burton-on-Trent for a jolly in the town and possibly gatecrash the Christmas party at the brewery! Hung-over and delirious from dancing the night away, we cruise back towards Long Eaton and the River Trent. It’s a gentle 7 day pootle with plenty of stops along the way and only one full day of cruising. We’ve checked the stoppages and should be okay provided we don’t get iced in anywhere! I have to say we are really looking gorward to it, even with the cold and the damp!

That's fantastic! I've just sent it round most of the RSC - including the Wigs Department!

Hi Alan, Sorry to hear about your boat. Are you the same "Cragdale" that's selling a 47ft david piper on e-bay at the mo? The picture doesn't show so I can't compare it to your posted photo here, but if it's not you then that's a worrying coincidence and worth investigating. Here's the link: ebay

Hi Boo, Much like you I'll be working to a very tight budget to become a liveaboard. I'll be looking at £25k max (and that has to include survey and any extras I might need to get us started). But I've given myself a good year to realise the dream (and pursuade my boyfriend that it really is a good idea to sell all our crap and live in a floating sardine tin ) and hopefully a bargain boat will come along in that time. But because there's the two of us we will need some space - ideally the basics of a fixed double berth, showeroom, galley and living area PLUS one extra "cabin" that can be used as a study or a reading room. Whether that extra space turns out to be just a covered cratch area or squeezed around the engine on a trad, who knows?! 50ft + is a lot to ask for not-much-money but we will need it. We're not in a hurry and can bide our time as necessary. The layout of the boat will be as/more important than the length - as a giant open-planned nb won't enable us to "compartmentalise" and have a bit of privacy when we need it. We don't mind getting something a bit dated as long as the hull's sound and we have hot water and heating, a cooker and a fridge. The rest we can slowly work on. I'm a dab hand at making/fixing/painting/tinkering/ diy (once made a giant IKEA wardrobe on my own and moved it into position only to read the instructions later to find that it should have been tackled by a minimum of 3 people!). Although I have to admit unlike your multi-talented-self, Kev and I have zero welding/metal/engine/wood working skills at all. But his dad's a carpenter and a classic car/motorbike fanatic and had a boat for years, and my dad was an electrician so we may be able to draw on their talents a bit. I'm a great one for if I don't know how to do something, I'll bloomin' learn how myself! Hope that plus a lot of enthusiam will be enough to get us started!? Here's hoping... and searching the classifieds... and browsing these fine pages for inspiration and advice, of course. Good luck with finding your bargain. L

Thanks fuz! We'll check it out.

"Dong.... dong... dong..." (A distant church bell rings as a tumble weed rolls past...) I take it from the deathly silence that there isn't anything to see or anywhere nice to cruise along the Trent? D'oh!!!!

Believe it or not someone is actually entrusting me and my better half with their 35ft nb over Christmas. Hoorah! With my ambitions to liveaboard, I've wanted to spend some cold, damp winters on a narrowboat (just to test my resolve!) and what better way to do that than to combine it with Christmas hols? How excited am I? We'll be aboard 22nd Dec through to 28th Dec incl. somewhere along the Trent (we're picking up Shardlow way) and pootling around the area all over Crimbo time. Does anyone have any recommendation where to go, nice pubs, bits of scenery or owt else that we should try to take in while we're there? Thanks.

Haha! You'd be surprised - I find a handful of blackberries add plenty of sweetness. Let me know how it goes with the honey - I'll be intrigued to know!