Nat-g

Hello again! Thank you so much for all your speedy and very helpful comments!! I take on board all of what you are saying - for me, it's a mixture of wanting to be on the water as I have always been near to since a kid and also being into my watersports (won't mention which ones as they may be seen as 'dirty words' on here also! Since moving to the concrete jungle last year for work my soul has been slowly dying and in need of something to rejuvenate it. After a few long weekends on a narrowboat, it sold it to me. Having said that I understand that living on a boat will be different and by no means easy and there will be lots of adjustments to be made however, I think that the lifestyle would suit me as a person. I certainly wouldn't want to get on the wrong side of the CRT, and I would actually like to move it to different areas to see different places (albeit with the drunks as Bluestringpudding mentioned). I just wanted to make sure that if one fortnight I moved from Little Venice to say, 5 miles west that would be 'enough'. By the sounds of it, it would be, just didnt want to take the pee. All comments have given me food for thought to go away with - I'll be sure to have a look through other posts- please feel free to link me to others you feel would be suitable as I may have not come across it yet! Lastly, would be grateful if you could let me know how big your water tanks are and roughly how long that lasts for you with certain usage (just so I can get an idea on what I should look for to suit me!) Thanks again and will keep you all posted on my quest!

Hi all, For a while I've been toying with the idea of buying a narrowboat to continuously cruise along the London Canals, for a few weeks or so I've been doing a fair bit of research but for some areas I still haven't found the answers I'm looking for so thought I'd turn to you guys to see if you can help me out at all! Apologies in advance if some areas have been discussed already and also, if any of the questions sound silly... I really am a complete newbie to this... 1. As I mention - I'll be CC along the Canals in London, so have been researching what distance as I need to travel each week, obviously don't want to take the mick and want to stay on the right side of Canal and River Trust. However, their website isn't totally clear on how far - all I can see is that in a years licence, 15-20miles is expected, which seems more than fine. But how far is the minimum? Just for an example, say I started in Little Venice and was travelling East, how far would I need to travel to satisfy the Canal and River Trust for say one weekend I didn't want to travel 'that' far? 2. Which brings me on to my next point - as I read, each 14 days would be the time I top up water, which would top up my batteries (as I'm moving) and usually empty the loos out. May seem like a silly question but are these water points at regular intervals? Similarly, to electric points? (if I needed it half way) Also, are loo-emptying-places at regular intervals also? 3. Again, brings me on to my next point of water storage tanks and electricity batteries... my budget is around 25k and aiming for around a 40ft-er trad steel narrowboat so from what I've seen, many don't have a tank or seems quite small. If so, can this be retrofitted and to what cost? I understand becoming more frugal is all part and parcel of it (which I'm excited about) but for say a 10/15minute shower a day - what sort of tank should I be looking at to tide me over for two weeks? However, I guess this would hinge on question number two! In terms of electricity, I don't watch a lot of TV but would like to charge my phone, listen to music, have lights! Where should I even start with what to look for to tide me over 2 weeks again? 4. I guess this question is more to the nitty-gritty when I view but what are the main tips/points you'd recommend to look out for a bad conditioned narrowboat? Is there such a thing? Don't mind buying something that requires a bit of modernisation but in terms of 'behind the scene' stuff, what do I look for when looking at an engine? At the electric board? Heating system? Or should this all be taking care of at survey stage? Anyway, I think that's probably enough for now on my first post. I really would appreciate any tips/answers - no matter how big or small! Really excited to be buying - just need to get my head around it all first!! Speak soon, Nat