Alison Fitzgerald

Thank you this is brilliant!

Dear Dr Bob, Thank you for your input here, most appreciated. We are still planning where to start and where to finish as we will be using this trip to visit family and friends along the way. We most likely will need to travel by train in between canals in order to get around to see one and all. We have friends as far north as Darlington Yorkshire, and as far south as Teignmouth in Devon with a sprinkling of family in Faversham Kent so as you can see it is going to be well spread out. I don't imagine we will be able to do it all on a canal boat hence the train plan in between. Yes I imagine the cost will be up there as far as hiring a boat goes, but it's like hiring a car these days and we're used to high costs for rental vehicles, after all we charged moonbeams for our motorcycles (over $300 per day for some) so its relative I think. As there will be just the two of us we won't need a huge one, I'm thinking 48ft long for a two person boat? Or are there smaller ones? Tim and Prue were handling 60ft long ones at times, which to me seemed a bit too big for what we need. Also the handling would be harder I imagine..or at least that was my impression. Things I'm curious about at the moment are the practical ones like how do they refuel and where, and power on board. Do you need to recharge regularly? I can't say I've noticed any fueling up or power charging with Tim and Prue! Also water storage and do you empty the bilges anywhere? I'm hoping to get a fully equipped long boat that has a shower and loo etc but there is the laundry issue as well to think of. Laundrettes along the way perhaps? Once again I didn't see any of that with Tim and Prunella. Are there any good instruction videos or programmes you could recommend we watch? I'm afraid we will have to be there during the high season which is our winter time, there really is no getting around that and also we do want to be doing this in the best time for the weather so I'm thinking around July/August for us. Once again I really appreciate your comments and any wise offerings are gratefully received! Kind regards Alison

Hi, my husband and I are Kiwis and we are planning a long boat holiday in the UK for next year. Neither of us have had much to do with boats despite coming from a country that oozes sailing as a sport and pastime... However we have come up with this idea of doing this trip and would like any help we can get on long boating on the UK Canals. Yes we have watched Tim and Prunella on youtube....We are very capable people having run a motorcycle tour business for 33 years and built two homes so we will manage ok, but I'm here for knowledge first hand from long boat people. We have friends all over England we want to visit along the way and I imagine we would be traveling by train in between pick up and drop off points. Any advice will be very much appreciated!