canal boat obsession is causing me trouble

[nealeST]

Amusing and pleasant read currently in The Spectator. I won’t paste the article in respect of their paywall and the author of the article but you can read the article for free yourself if you visit the link below.

 

I liked the  article because the writers dilemma as

“someone who has flirted seriously with the idea of buying a boat to live in but then thought better of it” struck a deep chord with me personally….much like the writer I can’t give this idea up and I share the obsession.
 

The writer goes on to reference a book I now have a desire to read:
 

 

“In his classic Britain-by-boat travelogue, Coasting (1983), Jonathan Raban describes a recurring type: a divorced man who has ploughed the entirety of his share of the house sale into living his long-cherished boat dream, only to become semi-feral and borderline destitute. When trying to buy a boat himself, Raban finds that seemingly every vendor fits this profile – a warning that buying himself may not be the best idea.”

 

https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/my-canalboat-obsession-is-causing-me-trouble/

Edited July 25 by nealeST
Typo

[magpie patrick]

I will admit my second foray into this (and I had a permanent mooring) ended when I got skin cancer - I woke up one morning in my lodgings, the wound from the op had become infected and I both looked and felt like a mouldy potato, suddenly all those needless luxuries of houses, toilets connected to mains sewerage, taps that never needed their tank filling, endless hot water etc - weren't luxuries any more. 

 

I was reminded of this last week when we took Juno out for the day - I was recovering from a COVID type bug and found everything hard work, the deft step on and off became a major climb, pulling the ropes (on a Viking 23!) felt like mooring a container ship. 

 

I watch Canal Boat Diaries with a nostalgic pain for the great journeys I have made, and I will go boating again, especially as SWMBO is keen for us to do this in retirement (for once it's not me suggesting a two-three month summer voyage) but I will always have a land base with mains services to retreat to! 

[nealeST]

I am sorry to hear of the effects of skin cancer that you have suffered. I am very glad that you will go boating again and hopefully return to some of those great journeys you have already experienced. It is without doubt the most sensible idea to hold on to a land base….whichever way my plans unfold it seems inevitable a return to land could be a likely conclusion…

[MrsM]

I completely agree that it is addictive. We sold out boat last year (reluctantly) and won't be able to get another for the foreseeable. But I am still compelled to spend hours a week reading every thread about what size nut to use on an engine I've never even seen etc etc. I just can't stop. My name is Marianne and I'm a narrowboataholic 😫

[cuthound]

54 minutes ago, MrsM said:

I completely agree that it is addictive. We sold out boat last year (reluctantly) and won't be able to get another for the foreseeable. But I am still compelled to spend hours a week reading every thread about what size nut to use on an engine I've never even seen etc etc. I just can't stop. My name is Marianne and I'm a narrowboataholic 😫

 

At least your addiction seems limited to boats. Mine is boats and the waterways they float on. Yes I'm a canalcoholic...

 

Edited July 26 by cuthound

[magpie patrick]

22 minutes ago, cuthound said:

 

Yes I'm a canalcoholic...

 

Me too, and lest anyone get gloomy over how illness might affect canal exploration, here's a pic of me on the towpath of the long disused Horncastle Canal - and that thing running to my nose is portable oxygen... I'm not going to let a little thing like chronic illness get in the way!  

 

(For those wondering - i stay in hotels with creature comforts) 

[MrsM]

2 hours ago, magpie patrick said:

Me too, and lest anyone get gloomy over how illness might affect canal exploration, here's a pic of me on the towpath of the long disused Horncastle Canal - and that thing running to my nose is portable oxygen... I'm not going to let a little thing like chronic illness get in the way!  

 

(For those wondering - i stay in hotels with creature comforts) 

 

Edited July 26 by MrsM
TMI

[Gybe Ho]

5 hours ago, magpie patrick said:

Me too, and lest anyone get gloomy over how illness might affect canal exploration, here's a pic of me on the towpath of the long disused Horncastle Canal - and that thing running to my nose is portable oxygen... I'm not going to let a little thing like chronic illness get in the way!

 

 

I have heard the Horncastle canal path is an excellent route for walkers, did the canal drop into the Witham navigation? The Kingdom of Lindsey was almost an island is Saxon times, given the geography the area should have more navigable waterways.

[magpie patrick]

21 hours ago, Gybe Ho said:

 

I have heard the Horncastle canal path is an excellent route for walkers, did the canal drop into the Witham navigation? The Kingdom of Lindsey was almost an island is Saxon times, given the geography the area should have more navigable waterways.

The towpath isn't continuous but there is usually a parallel path (often on the old railway). I've found it easy enough to park a car for the bits I've walked - which is quite a lot of it. 

 

The last bit to the Witham followed the Tattershall Canal, which predated the Horncastle navigation