Trying to calm my fears...

[bohomon]

Boats are not subject to the same stringent emission controls as say modern motor vehicles for example, they don't require particulate filters for example.

 

Some boats have very old engines designed donkeys years ago that would not get close to being installed in a modern vehicle.

 

Overall of course boats cause less pollution than motor vehicles but as an individual consideration don't assume being a boater automatically means reducing your carbon footprint.

 

If you are prepared to exclude the environmental impact of their production, solar panels could be a way to go.

 

I never assume

I'm thinking personally, what I would do, how I would live, and what I would change if I could. I started a new thread on this topic as it's of interest to me.

OH, & Do you like Donuts ?.

 

 

You mean to suggest that some people don't?

[Paul's Nulife4-2]

I like you already.

 

 

(But they are MY Donuts, Right ! )

[luctor et emergo]

I think donuts are over-rated.

 

 

Well, apart from custard cream

donuts.. I could make an exception..

[DeanS]

I have a story about donuts....and "sharing".

 

A guy bought himself a pack of 10 donuts at the airport lounge, and went an sat on a bench next to a guy reading a newspaper. After a few minutes the guy reached out and took one of the donuts from the bag. He thought..." thats a little rude" but let it go. He took a donut, and sure enough for each one he took, the other guy reached out and took one as well. He was flabbergasted, but said nothing. Eventually there was only one donut left in the bag. The guy reached out, broke it in half,took half, and got up and left. The guy was incredulous, that someone would have the cheek....the rudeness.....the lack of social manners....

 

and then....

he looked down....

There next to him was the full bag of donuts he had bought. All of the time, he had been the one eating donuts belonging to someone else.

[MtB]

Ah, another thread telling you all the same stuff I've been banging on about in your other thread!

 

 

MtB

[bohomon]

haha, nice one Dean.

 

 

(But they are MY Donuts, Right ! )

 

Your donuts are your donuts, my donuts...you'll have to pry them from my cold dead fingers.

 

I think donuts are over-rated.

 

GASP a lynching a lynching!

Edited June 17, 2014 by bohomon

[Alan Saunders]

Welcome to the forum, Bohomon.

 

For me the primary reason for living on a boat is that I love being on or in the water. Boating, sailing, rowing, paddling, swimming on canal, river, estuary, lake or sea and I cannot afford both my ideal, isolated cottage, and a boat.

 

Living in an isolated cottage is similar to living on a canal boat; my cottage flooded but never sank, had mains electricity except for a week or so in 1987 and the occasional 'outage' due to fallen trees taking out the local, low-level power lines and, once, the failure of the substation with sparks visible a mile from our hillside home.

 

If you love the canals, their heritage and history, then being frozen-in for a month (yes, even on the K&A), or negotiating three inches of mud or snow on the towpath (you will need gas, water, food, fuel (wood/coal) and diesel, lots of it in winter) will not deter you or your six-year-old.

 

Moving on at least every fourteen days (Continuous Cruising) even if it is blowing a gale, pouring cats and dogs and/or freezing cold is part of the challenge. If you hire a boat for a week, you press on despite the cold and the rain but, eventually, as an owner you may come to resent the BW/CRT insistance that you 'move on' despite the danger or impossibility, e.g. high flow through a narrow bridge or thick (>1"), unbreakable ice.

 

Single-handing your boat with minimal help from your daughter (hold a rope etc.) will become easy if you are determined to learn how to handle a boat. Mooring in adverse winds can be a challenge and requires forward planning - at a popular mooring spot friendly boaters will often offer to take your mooring lines - learn how to throw a line and teach your daughter how to throw and catch a rope. Teach her to control the boat; imagine, you have leapt ashore, rope in hand, only to realise that you have left the gear engaged - "Sophie, put the engine in neutral" will save the day.

 

Of course, your daughter will be a good swimmer and wear a bouyancy aid when the boat is moving. If you are not confident in the water, you may also need to wear a life-jacket even though you can stand up, head above water, in most UK canals. Both of my children have fallen in!

1) Boat moored, clumbsy 8-year old, sitting on gunwale eating ice-cream, 'suddenly' in water, standing up with damp ice-cream, ha-ha, a hot shower and a replacement ice-cream.

2) Boat under weigh, agile 14 year-old moving forward along the gunwale ready to leave from the bow to operate the lock. Her friend 'suddenly' opens a window and sticks her head out - 14 year old in centre of canal. This is the time that the man-overboard drill is essential.

 

Aside from some swing bridges on the K&A which are/were hard to move and one difficult powered bridge I see no reason that you could not learn to travel single-handed.

 

I am not recommending it but I know of people who 'cruise' the long pound, 15 miles, Devizes to Wootton Rivers, maybe a few locks further east.

They ferry their children to excellent village schools but admit that life on the cut with children can be demanding.

 

I accord with Arthur Ransome (Swallows and Amazons, 1930) "If not duffers, will not drown. If duffers, best drowned."

 

Good luck, Alan

[magpie patrick]

Hi Bonhom,

 

A few thoughts: if I may start with low impact living.

 

There is no doubt living on a boat CAN be low impact, although many of the same disciplines can be applied to living in a house or a caravan. In fact, if living on a boat forces you to use a car when living in a house would not, that is something of an own goal. This is basically the position I'll be in when I move onto Lutine Bell in the Autumn: I work in Frome and as Frome hasn't got a canal, and I can't get a mooring on a bus route into the town, I'll probably end up needing a car or a small motorbike whereas currently I manage without. In case you are wondering, my current life is very low impact if you exclude the train trips to see Dad in Manchester, but it also involves renting someone's spare room and nice as my landlady is, at 47 I'm finding I miss my own space.

 

A boat tends to force upon you that you don't have power hungry devices such as microwaves, although if you hook up to the mains at a marina, that constraint is dropped at least whilst moored.

 

On the "low impact living", in Frome we are just making the first steps to champion "Tiny Homes", mainly to address the ridiculous cost of housing but the initiatives we are pursuing will also look to make such homes as "green" as possible, my colleague at the council, Anna, has responsibility to promote reduced energy usage and green energy generation, so clearly I'll be working with her on this one as well as on transport, as housing and transport fall under my remit.

 

Next, the Western Kennet and Avon: I hesitate to use the word "overcrowded" but it's certainly crowded. I've secured a mooring at Caen Hill Marina but my other inquiries drew a blank except for one towpath mooring being auctioned at Bathampton. It sounds the nomadic dream to just rock up somewhere and settle down for a week or two but on the Western K and A this is increasingly difficult.

 

This of course is why I'm promoting the restoration of the Somerset Coal Canal to Paulton from Dundas

Edited June 17, 2014 by magpie patrick

[Phil Ambrose]

haha, nice one Dean.

 

 

 

Your donuts are your donuts, my donuts...you'll have to pry them from my cold dead fingers.

 

 

GASP a lynching a lynching!

As Lord Protector of all things Donut I have been keeping an eye on these exchanges about Donuts, and may have to issue a reprimand to anyone who "disses" the wonderful, awesome and tasty treat

Phil

[DeanS]

As Lord Protector of all things Donut I have been keeping an eye on these exchanges about Donuts, and may have to issue a reprimand to anyone who "disses" the wonderful, awesome and tasty treat

Phil

 

Why is it called Doough-nUT, if it has no nuts INNIT

Edited June 17, 2014 by DeanS

[John V]

Normally a secretive donut addict, I feel I must stick my nose outside the closet to agree with Phil (I expect Paul will be along in a mo He seems to have a 6th sense where sweet things are concerned)

[DeanS]

ahhh...GOT IT!...Cause you have to be a nut to like them ;-)

[John V]

ahhh...GOT IT!...Cause you have to be a nut to like them ;-)

 

 

Someone loves living life on the edge!!!!!!!!

[Paul's Nulife4-2]

Normally a secretive donut addict, I feel I must stick my nose outside the closet to agree with Phil (I expect Paul will be along in a mo He seems to have a 6th sense where sweet things are concerned)

Did somsomeone mention Donuts !,

 

 

You see how the just bring people together,,

[Marjorie]

Welcome to the forum, Bohomon.

 

For me the primary reason for living on a boat is that I love being on or in the water. Boating, sailing, rowing, paddling, swimming on canal, river, estuary, lake or sea and I cannot afford both my ideal, isolated cottage, and a boat.

 

Living in an isolated cottage is similar to living on a canal boat; my cottage flooded but never sank, had mains electricity except for a week or so in 1987 and the occasional 'outage' due to fallen trees taking out the local, low-level power lines and, once, the failure of the substation with sparks visible a mile from our hillside home.

 

If you love the canals, their heritage and history, then being frozen-in for a month (yes, even on the K&A), or negotiating three inches of mud or snow on the towpath (you will need gas, water, food, fuel (wood/coal) and diesel, lots of it in winter) will not deter you or your six-year-old.

 

Moving on at least every fourteen days (Continuous Cruising) even if it is blowing a gale, pouring cats and dogs and/or freezing cold is part of the challenge. If you hire a boat for a week, you press on despite the cold and the rain but, eventually, as an owner you may come to resent the BW/CRT insistance that you 'move on' despite the danger or impossibility, e.g. high flow through a narrow bridge or thick (>1"), unbreakable ice.

 

Single-handing your boat with minimal help from your daughter (hold a rope etc.) will become easy if you are determined to learn how to handle a boat. Mooring in adverse winds can be a challenge and requires forward planning - at a popular mooring spot friendly boaters will often offer to take your mooring lines - learn how to throw a line and teach your daughter how to throw and catch a rope. Teach her to control the boat; imagine, you have leapt ashore, rope in hand, only to realise that you have left the gear engaged - "Sophie, put the engine in neutral" will save the day.

 

Of course, your daughter will be a good swimmer and wear a bouyancy aid when the boat is moving. If you are not confident in the water, you may also need to wear a life-jacket even though you can stand up, head above water, in most UK canals. Both of my children have fallen in!

1) Boat moored, clumbsy 8-year old, sitting on gunwale eating ice-cream, 'suddenly' in water, standing up with damp ice-cream, ha-ha, a hot shower and a replacement ice-cream.

2) Boat under weigh, agile 14 year-old moving forward along the gunwale ready to leave from the bow to operate the lock. Her friend 'suddenly' opens a window and sticks her head out - 14 year old in centre of canal. This is the time that the man-overboard drill is essential.

 

Aside from some swing bridges on the K&A which are/were hard to move and one difficult powered bridge I see no reason that you could not learn to travel single-handed.

 

I am not recommending it but I know of people who 'cruise' the long pound, 15 miles, Devizes to Wootton Rivers, maybe a few locks further east.

They ferry their children to excellent village schools but admit that life on the cut with children can be demanding.

 

I accord with Arthur Ransome (Swallows and Amazons, 1930) "If not duffers, will not drown. If duffers, best drowned."

 

Good luck, Alan

 

 

For what it's worth: I don't live on a narrowboat, but do live on a boat. I don't have children, but several of my neighbours do, of varying ages. All of us manage our boats and our lifestyles in slightly different ways, and it's all basically fine. OP, you sound self sufficient, and adaptable - those are the best ingredients for a life afloat I think (and a sound hull and well serviced engine, thinking about it). If you fancy the K&A, do it. If you don't like it, move. From your other thread - give scavenging for wood a try. If it doesn't work out, go buy coal. Listen to the people on these forums with bags of experience (although not always quite as much patience!), but make your own decisions. It's not like there's only one way to skin a cat. Above all: don't panic, and don't overthink things (I'm not particularly good at following my own advice).

Edited June 17, 2014 by Marjorie

[bohomon]

...

 

If you love the canals, their heritage and history, then being frozen-in for a month (yes, even on the K&A), or negotiating three inches of mud or snow on the towpath (you will need gas, water, food, fuel (wood/coal) and diesel, lots of it in winter) will not deter you or your six-year-old.

 

Single-handing your boat with minimal help from your daughter (hold a rope etc.) will become easy if you are determined to learn how to handle a boat. Mooring in adverse winds can be a challenge and requires forward planning - at a popular mooring spot friendly boaters will often offer to take your mooring lines - learn how to throw a line and teach your daughter how to throw and catch a rope. Teach her to control the boat; imagine, you have leapt ashore, rope in hand, only to realise that you have left the gear engaged - "Sophie, put the engine in neutral" will save the day.

 

...

 

Good luck, Alan

 

Hi Alan, thanks for the welcome, advice, and encouragement.

 

I'm too much of a wimp to want to rough it continuously (i.e, in a tent in the woods). I like a bed, toilet and shower. But the occassional hardship , like mud, snow, frozen in, is okay.

 

I lived 3-4yrs, off grid, up a roadless mountain, in a village of 5, in Montenegro, not speaking the language, with a baby, that wouldn't sleep. We used well water, foraged for fire wood, electric was cut off weekly, we had a back-up generator, frequent hair-raising storms, lightning actually hit ground areas around us.

The difference is that I was married and could leave the toughest physical work or technical things (electrics, plumbing) to the man (I did everything else).

 

I remember us getting a flat tyre once, while it was snowing, in the dark. I helped by holding a torch, and an umbrella over the man, but not in a million years could I have changed it myself. I tried changing a tyre once on my current small car, for practice, and just couldn't get the nuts off.

 

I'm very competent, and great in a crisis, just not strong.

 

So that's my real concerns - would I be able to handle the physical side and the technical side. I'm all for learning, and taking every nb course, but theory and doing aren't the same. I might know how to remove something but not have the strength to do it, you know?

Like with my car, I know a fair amount about the engine, but if I break down it's the RAC to the rescue.

 

Any security/safety issues are not about the water, but feeling more exposed as opposed to my current apartment, or nutters throwing stones or breaking in, and such things I've heard.

 

"will become easy if you are determined to learn how to handle a boat" - yes sir, once I set my mind to something I like to do it well.

[Marjorie]

 

I'm very competent, and great in a crisis, just not strong.

 

 

 

I hear ya. Same here. Mostly, I've always found there's someone close who is wiling to help, if you don't mind asking.

[Cosmic]

Hi Bohomon,

 

If you're interested in making boating as eco-friendly as possible, there are lots of ideas and examples of things other people have done on the LILO website.

 

It's been a bit in the doldrums lately, but I'm hoping it'll be possible to breathe a bit more life into it in the future.

 

Tony

[Paul C]

 

 

 

So that's my real concerns - would I be able to handle the physical side and the technical side. I'm all for learning, and taking every nb course, but theory and doing aren't the same. I might know how to remove something but not have the strength to do it, you know?

Like with my car, I know a fair amount about the engine, but if I break down it's the RAC to the rescue.

 

 

If you don't know much/anything about engines and other "technical" (they're not that complicated) systems on a boat then either learn quick (or get the basics right) or you'll be relying on friends/acquaintances helping out or paying high costs for marina workshops etc. This forum is a great resource for finding out and learning but (and I'm not saying you'll fall into this category) some people just don't get it and if that's the case on a liveaboard you'll either suffer the loss of something important that needs to work, or end up paying possibly a lot more if a problem isn't nipped in the bud so to speak. Boats are expensive to run (properly).

[bohomon]

 

 

I hear ya. Same here. Mostly, I've always found there's someone close who is wiling to help, if you don't mind asking.

 

I don't mind asking if I know that the community generally doesn't mind being asked

 

 

If you're interested in making boating as eco-friendly as possible, there are lots of ideas and examples of things other people have done on the LILO website.

 

woohoo, thank you. I'm off there now.

[muddywaters]

You might try reading the books narrow margins narrow minds and narrow escape by Marie Brown.

Also look up the narrow boat lad on you tube

[bohomon]

You might try reading the books narrow margins narrow minds and narrow escape by Marie Brown.

Also look up the narrow boat lad on you tube

 

Thanks a bunch. Love youtube.

[Phil Ambrose]

You might try reading the books narrow margins narrow minds and narrow escape by Marie Brown.

Also look up the narrow boat lad on you tube

Seconded, these 3 books were written by the wife of one of the forums members, factual in content, very amusing too and will give any prospective live aboard a very good insight into what its all about.

Phil

[bohomon]

I just downloaded the first free one for my kindle.

 

 

[you know you have narrowboating on the brain when your 1st thought on charging your device is - I wonder how much power this would leech on a boat?]

[muddywaters]

I just downloaded the first free one for my kindle.

 

 

[you know you have narrowboating on the brain when your 1st thought on charging your device is - I wonder how much power this would leech on a boat?]

Wait till your walking down the road see some dumped wood and think.

That would go great on a stove