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Single handing


Philip

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So, as well as myself, who regularly goes on trips on their tod here and do you enjoy the cruising aspect as much as if with company?

 

I occasionally get asked inevitable questions like "do you not get lonely or bored?" and I suppose there are times (mainly in the evening) when some company and socialising would be nice; eating out or drinking a beer in a pub by one's self isn't the same as with someone else and so this makes the occasions when I do have company more enjoyable. I suppose there may be a bit of a stereotype too against people single-handing cruisers especially, but this doesn't bother me too much as I'm out to enjoy the canal network and everything about it, nothing more. 

 

On the plus side, I find I can appreciate the aspects of the canal (scenery, locks etc) more when by myself, I do like steering my own boat and there's a real 'exploration' and 'getting away from normal life' when out on the boat by myself. Mobile communication means you're hardly cut off from normal life anyway when out. Working locks solo can be fun too (contrary to what a lot of other boaters seem to think), if they're single-hander friendly.

 

What do others think? For those who currently don't do any single-handing, would you be happy to go it alone if need be?

Edited by Philip
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4 minutes ago, Philip said:

I occasionally get asked inevitable questions like "do you not get lonely or bored?"

 

I nearly always get "Gosh isn't it really hard work doing it all by yourself?", if I happen to mention to anyone I'm single handling....

 

I love boating alone. Now we have internet on most canals I can post rubbish on here at the same time!

 

 

 

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12 minutes ago, Mike the Boilerman said:

 

I nearly always get "Gosh isn't it really hard work doing it all by yourself?", if I happen to mention to anyone I'm single handling....

 

I love boating alone. Now we have internet on most canals I can post rubbish on here at the same time!

 

 

 

Yep that's a favourite, especially at locks, as is "stay on we'll do it for you" (sometimes when I'm already up the ladders!).

 

I'm usually keen to get off the boat and work the lock and say so, but don't want it to sound like I'm rebuffing or ungrateful for the offer of help.

Edited by Philip
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15 minutes ago, Philip said:

Yep that's a favourite, especially at locks, as is "stay on we'll do it for you" (sometimes when I'm already up the ladders!).

 

I'm usually keen to get off the boat and work the lock and say so, but don't want it to sound like I'm rebuffing or ungrateful for the offer of help.

 

Uh oh!

 

Can open, worms all over the place.

 

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14 minutes ago, Philip said:

I'm usually keen to get off the boat and work the lock and say so, but don't want it to sound like I'm rebuffing or ungrateful for the offer of help.

 

Yes that one is difficult isn't it. Everyone likes working the locks, so a chance to 'help you out' by working your lock is often enthusiastically proposed.

 

The "stay on the boat" instruction often given particularly irks me as it is so presumptive and I get off anyway for safety reasons. I once got the bow fender caught and no amount of hooting the horn could draw anyone's attention on the bank as they were all gassing to each other. None of them was looking out for my boat (understandably)as it wasn't theirs. Fortunately the chain broke but since then I always get off in locks so I can keep an eye on the boat, windlass in hand.  

 

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  I know what you mean, you've got to enjoy your own company. Living aboard single handed is a bit more difficult mentally, that's why I like trying to mix town and country, a few days in each breaks it up, chatting in a pub, seeing the sights then back into the country to get away for a while.  I think a lot of these young Vloggers who live on their boats don't give a true reflection of life on the canal, take away all their social media inter action and it's not as rosy as they make out and as you say can be quite lonely at times, then again I've enjoyed my own company for the last ten years on the boat, but you have to keep your mind occupied and get out of the boat so it doesn't become your prison.

Edited by PD1964
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I always boat solo (family not interested,friends have their own boats)

Love the cruising and locking,but the evenings are tedious.Rarely anything worth watching on the telly,fed up with reading novels,a strange pub on your own is no fun especially if the beer is crap.Tried an "Arthur Marshall"  (practice my Trombone) and although a retired pro, my playing is now so awful,I couldn't stand it for very long.

Generally start cruising early and moor up late. Usually a weeks cruising is enough,then I go home and think about my next trip.

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3 minutes ago, Mad Harold said:

Rarely anything worth watching on the telly

 

 

 

My answer to this (albeit cruising as a couple, not single) was to buy a cheap tablet (e.g. Amazon Fire 10", particularly cheap if you buy it when on offer... track the price on camelcamelcamel.co.uk and get notified when the price drops) and then subscribe to Amazon Prime or Netflix and download a load of stuff at home before going to the boat. I can usually find several things on BBC iPlayer to download as well.

 

We almost never bother putting the TV on any more. Saves on amp hours too!

 

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I do most of my boating alone, hardly watch TV as I don't at home either. I take a lot of instruments (trombone, cornet, guitar, fiddle, concertina) and about three hundred books plus an ereader. 

If I lived on again, I probably would get a satellite tv system but for a couple of six week trips a year plus weeks here and there it's not worth it. 

What I do miss is the lack of 2nd hand bookshops to replenish my supplies - I used to navigate by them, but most have gone now and charity shops just aren't the same. 

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11 minutes ago, Arthur Marshall said:

I do most of my boating alone, hardly watch TV as I don't at home either. I take a lot of instruments (trombone, cornet, guitar, fiddle, concertina) and about three hundred books plus an ereader. 

If I lived on again, I probably would get a satellite tv system but for a couple of six week trips a year plus weeks here and there it's not worth it. 

What I do miss is the lack of 2nd hand bookshops to replenish my supplies - I used to navigate by them, but most have gone now and charity shops just aren't the same. 

Abebooks is a fantastic online alternative to the no longer so easy to find second hand bookshop.

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I do a mixture of single handing, boating with my wife and boating with larger crews. I enjoy single handing but having an extra pair of hands is better at locks and company especially when you want something to eat or drink without stopping. Having a larger crew can be more of a hindrance though especially if they don't all work locks in the same way 

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I find virtually nothing on telly to watch so I no longer have one. Radio is FAR better. If R4 is boring at any given time, I just browse through the R4 programmes previously broadcast on iPlayer and pick one of those to listen to. 

 

Then at the same time I can post rubbish on here :) 

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7 minutes ago, Rob-M said:

I do a mixture of single handing, boating with my wife and boating with larger crews. I enjoy single handing but having an extra pair of hands is better at locks and company especially when you want something to eat or drink without stopping. Having a larger crew can be more of a hindrance though especially if they don't all work locks in the same way 

 

I generally find if I'm following another single hander up a flight I keep up with them. If there are two of them it is a toss up if they are faster or slower than I am. (Some husband/wife teams are ASTONISHINGLY timid and slow in locks! Others very slick and organised.)  But if I am following a boat with a crew of four or more they generally tend to hold me up as they have no routine established and instead indulge in a lot of shouting, rope slinging and running about whilst all thoroughly enjoying themselves. 

 

 

 

Edited by Mike the Boilerman
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In a flight my wife goes ahead and prepares the next lock and I work the boat through the current lock as I find having a lock ready to boat in to the benefit of having another person with me.

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1 minute ago, Rob-M said:

In a flight my wife goes ahead and prepares the next lock and I work the boat through the current lock as I find having a lock ready to boat in to the benefit of having another person with me.

 

Quite. Lots of crews of two I manage to follow don't do this though, treating every lock as though it is a complete surprise!

 

 

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10 minutes ago, Mike the Boilerman said:

 

I generally find if I'm following another single hander up a flight I keep up with them. If there are two of them it is a toss up if they are faster or slower than I am. (Some husband/wife teams are ASTONISHINGLY timid and slow in locks! Others very slick and organised.)  But if I am following a boat with a crew of four or more they generally tend to hold me up as they have no routine established and instead indulge in a lot of shouting, rope slinging and running about whilst all thoroughly enjoying themselves. 

 

 

 

Is that allowed ?

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32 minutes ago, Mike the Boilerman said:

 

Quite. Lots of crews of two I manage to follow don't do this though, treating every lock as though it is a complete surprise!

 

 

 

35 minutes ago, Rob-M said:

In a flight my wife goes ahead and prepares the next lock and I work the boat through the current lock as I find having a lock ready to boat in to the benefit of having another person with me.

 

Ideally this is how I would like to do it. However, some of the older crews of two, including us, may be hindered by the fact that whilst one half of the crew is fit enough to jump on and off and operate the locks this would be difficult or even dangerous to do for the other half.  They therefore need to stay on the boat, hopefully willing and able to take the boat in and out of the lock.

 

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1 hour ago, Stilllearning said:

Abebooks is a fantastic online alternative to the no longer so easy to find second hand bookshop.

Abe is OK, but it's not the same as riffling through  a stack of real books, waiting for serendipity to hit you round the ear. And it's owned by Amazon now, like everything else. 

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I very rarely do single handed boating, as I always crew on someone else's boat. But there's been the odd occasion, such as when Emerald Fox had booked to go up through Tuel Lane but had to go away for the day at the last minute. So the third lock I ever drove a boat through on my own was the deepest one in the country, but I followed the lock keeper's advice and all went well. Not exactly single handed, but it felt a bit like it.

 

When I'm out on a trip with the NBT there's usually three or four of us operating the pair and we're meeting customers if we're doing deliveries, so it's quite a social thing. Plus being a pair of historic working boats still carrying we get a lot of attention from other boaters and the general public. But I remember once doing the New Main Line from the bottom of the Factory locks into Birmingham steering the butty on a line, alone for hours with only 20 tonnes of smokeless fuel for company. That was actually a real fun experience.

 

On the whole, I don't think I'd be happy living alone on a boat, I prefer some company and I've got to know a lot of interesting strangers over the last few years; you learn a lot about each other when you're on the same narrow boat for a week or so!

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Virtually all my boating is solo. Widowed many years ago I've become used to my own company. Being hard of hearing makes casual conversations difficult unless I ve got my aids in. The upside is that I have a very quiet engine.?

I've got a TV with DVD but no aerial. Buried in the shed is an unused dish. Hundreds of books and two tablets (I hate the I Pad preferring Android). My local library offers Borrowbox so I can download both e books and e audio. Most pubs now offer WiFi so thats my excuse going to them. Unfortunatly with most canalside pubs focusing on food finding somewhere to sit after about 6 pm is difficult. They don't like solo diners either.

I could drone on and on but to answer the OP (I think) I don't get lonely but 3-4 weeks is my max 

 

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3 hours ago, Lily Rose said:

 

 

Ideally this is how I would like to do it. However, some of the older crews of two, including us, may be hindered by the fact that whilst one half of the crew is fit enough to jump on and off and operate the locks this would be difficult or even dangerous to do for the other half.  They therefore need to stay on the boat, hopefully willing and able to take the boat in and out of the lock.

We are in that position currently with Mrs-M on the slow recovery from a broken knee so very difficult to get on and off but also unable to stand and steer so enforced single handing for me at the moment.

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11 hours ago, Arthur Marshall said:

What I do miss is the lack of 2nd hand bookshops to replenish my supplies - I used to navigate by them, but most have gone now and charity shops just aren't the same. 

Good second hand bookshop in Nantwich,  an Oxfam shop dedicated to books.  Also a very good independent bookshop in the square, which does good coffee and food as well.

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single handed most of the time, can be interesting at times, like lift bridges where the landing is on 1 side with no way of stopping on the other side and when you lift the the bridge you cant get back to the boat! but its all fun and make for problem solving more fun

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