What do you do?

[Supermalc]

With space being at a premium especially on a narrowboat, what do people, especially livaboards do with all the time.

 

I can (and do) relax, but when capable I prefer to be 'doing' something. One thing I have noticed is that people living on NBs tend to go to bed early, say around 10pm. Is this partly because they are 'bored' ?

 

Obviously the liveaboards who work, will have a lifestyle similar to living on land.....work, eat, clean, watch tv, bed. But what about the people that don't ?

 

On my week aboard last year, I preferred to cruise until around 9pm, then a couple of pints (well it was my 'holiday') If I did find myself moored somewhere I usually found someone to chat to, and can entertain myself that way. I also have a few books, so can do that. Leave the tv at home.

 

But unless you've a widebeam barge, with part for a workshop, there doesn't seem to be much scope for this, unless the weather is good and you can do the work on the riverbank.

 

This was just a comment my friend made last year on one of our overnights to Boston, when we were waiting for 'pub time'.

 

Not of the slightest importance......just curious.

[carlt]

One thing I have noticed is that people living on NBs tend to go to bed early, say around 10pm. Is this partly because they are 'bored' ?

 

No it's because we're amazing lovers.

 

Seriously though, when I'm not working on my boats I'm reading about them, talking about them. Then there's the land rovers and classic cars, my collection of 1950's bicycles, seagulls (outboards not a bizarre waterways version of pigeon fancying), coffee makers, furniture making and I'm a full time dad. I'm also drawing up plans to make a carvel rowing boat in my spare time.

 

Oh, and I'm an amazing lover.

[Yamanx]

Drink.

 

Seriously, I like to read, listen to the radio (Bit of a radio nut), may watch a bit of the box. Walk a lot too, explore the surrounding countryside. Yes I do tend to go to bed early most nights, because the early mornings are smashing out on the cut.

 

Oh and then theres the pub.

 

And drink a bit too

[honey ryder]

Theres loads of space on ours, enough to dance about, sit and listen to the radio or music, I can play my keyboard if I want to, I have a very large cocktail cabinet/shelf, I often spend hours at the sewing machine making stuff to flog and repairing clothes etc.

I also occasionally read a book, my other half reads books but also likes cooking, listens to music, we sometimes watch a film, we go canoing together, we go cycling together, I like looking after my plants on the roof...

 

we dont watch the TV because frankly i dont like being brainwashed. tv is a way of pacifying the general population to keep them dumbed down and clueless.

 

I imagine most of this summer will be spent fettling the boat, repairing stuff and modifiying stuff to suit us better. the engine area needs a right good old going over with Gunk, engine paint, engine room paint and so on. My next big job is to blank off the old boat name and paint the new one on. gotta wait for good weather for that.

 

we also go to bed early mid week as its a 6am start for us most days. plus we are amazing lovers.

 

i dont consider myself a "narrowboater" i am a boater. I dont actually like "narrowboaters" very much from my past experiences on a different kind of boat, very cliquey on the water and a lot are quite anal about the heritage side and seem to endlessley polish and buff, and dont get me started on a boatmans cabin on a new build.. whats all that about?

although they seem very friendly to people on the bankside.

in fact if i had the money to buy a proper boat i would have bought something more seagoing and more boat like.

I got a narrowboat as my first entry into owning my own boat that I can live on because they are cheap (relatively compared to proper boats) and theres loads of them about. I consider them the ford transit of the boating world. tonnes of them about in various states, some have been pimped up and others have gone to the dogs plus theyve been around for donkeys ages.

[Bones]

With space being at a premium especially on a narrowboat, what do people, especially livaboards do with all the time.

 

I have often wondered what people generally do wtih their time, afloat or not, in the evenings. I tend to read, chill, or lie in the dark composing songs or thinking of silly stories as the stresses of the day wash away. My mind is generally very active - which I find tiring at times, but doing work on the boat certainly helps me to 'switch' off, as does a bit of painting/drawing which I periodically turn my hand to. I also have some meccano and a couple of musical instruments so I can play some music. I think my life will be transformed when I can listen to the radio and play some non-self generated music! All of which is imminent.

[Gary Peacock]

Theres loads of space on ours, enough to dance about, sit and listen to the radio or music, I can play my keyboard if I want to, I have a very large cocktail cabinet/shelf, I often spend hours at the sewing machine making stuff to flog and repairing clothes etc.

I also occasionally read a book, my other half reads books but also likes cooking, listens to music, we sometimes watch a film, we go canoing together, we go cycling together, I like looking after my plants on the roof...

 

we dont watch the TV because frankly i dont like being brainwashed. tv is a way of pacifying the general population to keep them dumbed down and clueless.

 

I imagine most of this summer will be spent fettling the boat, repairing stuff and modifiying stuff to suit us better. the engine area needs a right good old going over with Gunk, engine paint, engine room paint and so on. My next big job is to blank off the old boat name and paint the new one on. gotta wait for good weather for that.

 

we also go to bed early mid week as its a 6am start for us most days. plus we are amazing lovers.

 

i dont consider myself a "narrowboater" i am a boater. I dont actually like "narrowboaters" very much from my past experiences on a different kind of boat, very cliquey on the water and a lot are quite anal about the heritage side and seem to endlessley polish and buff, and dont get me started on a boatmans cabin on a new build.. whats all that about?

although they seem very friendly to people on the bankside.

in fact if i had the money to buy a proper boat i would have bought something more seagoing and more boat like.

I got a narrowboat as my first entry into owning my own boat that I can live on because they are cheap (relatively compared to proper boats) and theres loads of them about. I consider them the ford transit of the boating world. tonnes of them about in various states, some have been pimped up and others have gone to the dogs plus theyve been around for donkeys ages.

Hooo! it's not just me that's not a fan of ditch crawlers then!

Edited February 16, 2007 by Gary Peacock

[NB Alnwick]

I spend a lot of time on this computer while Jane reads! In all honesty, we find that living on the boat has become a very busy routine and although I am still trying to earn a crust by writing, the lifestyle itself with its cleaning, battery charging and maintenance regimes is quite time consuming.

 

We usually go to bed at 10:30 because staying-up uses the batteries unnecessarily and we can read in bed with a single bulb!

[Carrie]

10.30!!!! Blimey, I'm usually in bed by 9-ish! Just feel knackered by then and don't have a tv. Well, I do have a tiny one that never works cos I didn't get round to getting an aerial I'm up really early and do lots of things - anything to put off the moment when I make myself do some illustration & writing work. Walk the dog, get chatting to other boaters, cut wood, cook, clean, read, do a sudoku, paint a bit more of my rear door mural, check e-mails, try to play my concertina - THEN realise there's nothing for it but to do some work! Which I love once I've got started.

[BGA]

Now Now Gary as a builder of said "ditch crawlers" it would be much better PR if you oozed enthusiasm about them. All this honesty could effect business.

[Gary Peacock]

Now Now Gary as a builder of said "ditch crawlers" it would be much better PR if you oozed enthusiasm about them. All this honesty could effect business.

 

Sorry but I really don't like them!

[WJM]

Supermalc - the people that live on boats are actually very similar to the land based ones (I think they have almost identical DNA) - so you will probably find their behaviour patterns have a lot of overlap :-)

[honey ryder]

gary, why do you make something you dont like?

[carlt]

gary, why do you make something you dont like?

I'm sure the majority of people on this forum/in the world would rather be boating than working. I don't like narrowboats (even nice wooden ones, which I love) but I do like sticking big lumps of wood together and I do like boats. Swmbo loves her work (and is paid well for it) so I am obliged to live as far away from real boats as you can get. It doesn't stop me craving a big seagoing boat, though, I'll just have to wait.

 

Also, if you read Gary's other posts, you'll see he hasn't actually built a narrow-beam craft for some time.

[Theo]

I have never lived for more tan a week or ten days on a boat, but I was in te merchant Navy for quite a few years. On narrowboats I read, play board games with the family and go to bed quite early. when we go away on theodora for a long time I woud think that I will maintain the web sites that I have built and, possibly continue with the Scout accounts (I am treasurer for the local group). All this depends on whether I can get a reliable internet connection on the boat. I would think that going fr walks will figure in our activities and generally tittivating the boat.

 

I have to confess that I am really looking froward to it. next week is half term for me so we hope to make a big difference to Theodora.

 

Nick

[magnetman]

Sleep. Wake. Eat. Dog walk. Shopping. Exceptionally interesting and varied daytime activities. Drink. Eat. TV. Sleep

&c

[NB Alnwick]

and do lots of things - anything to put off the moment when I make myself do some illustration & writing work. Walk the dog, get chatting to other boaters, cut wood, cook, clean, read, do a sudoku, paint a bit more of my rear door mural, check e-mails, try to play my concertina - THEN realise there's nothing for it but to do some work! Which I love once I've got started.

 

I know the symptoms well - used to be called 'writer's bloc' but really just procrastination!

 

Its amazing how many minor jobs you can find when you really need to start writing . . .

[tomsk]

gary, why do you make something you dont like?

 

Prolly to earn a living an put food on the table, if he can convert us all to wide beams there are prolly more akkers in it

[Gary Peacock]

gary, why do you make something you dont like?

 

I don't really make anything these days I am paid to try and sell the things. I do like broad beams and I sell quite a few of them which are more profitable than narrowboats so it keeps the bank happy, I kind of get the barge style narrowboats for people who want to live on a narrow canal. But I don't get all the traditional rubbish that comes part and parcel with "modern traditional" narrowboats.

 

It is sometimes a great advantage in this game to be not too involved with the product, it works very well when you can let the customer have what they wont rather than me telling them that's how I have mine you know!

 

One day someone might convert me to joys of narrow boating but at the moment they just don't do it for me I would actually fancy something like this HERE if I could afford!

 

I think I would then be heading in the direction of France to begin with and would spend my time watching the world go by until I got bored and then maybe I might get around to writing a book or something.

 

I have to admit I haven't had a great deal to do with narrowboats in their real environment so come on then convert me into a believer what do the have going for them? Besides the obviously fitting quite nicely in the ditch!

Edited February 16, 2007 by Gary Peacock

[Supermalc]

Thanks for your positive replies quite cheered me up in fact. I knew I'd laid myself wide open for a ribbing, but was prepared for it. But they are interesting answers.

 

It's one reason I took the keyboard (in vain) last year, and have been getting a guitar or two. I suppose this too will turn out the same as always, with no one interested, however many people can play instruments. So if while we are out, say at Boston, if we sit and just strum a bit, probably others will join us. As most people do like to impress if possible I can give them a guitar to do it

 

Often wish I liked painting, fishing, sunbathing, etc. as these are cheap easy pastimes, instead of all the cars, bikes, racing etc. that I liked, but had to watch, or help others with for most of the time..........but then ???????????

[Supermalc]

Theres loads of space on ours, enough to dance about, sit and listen to the radio or music, I can play my keyboard if I want to, I have a very large cocktail cabinet/shelf, I often spend hours at the sewing machine making stuff to flog and repairing clothes etc.

I also occasionally read a book, my other half reads books but also likes cooking, listens to music, we sometimes watch a film, we go canoing together, we go cycling together, I like looking after my plants on the roof...

 

we dont watch the TV because frankly i dont like being brainwashed. tv is a way of pacifying the general population to keep them dumbed down and clueless.

 

I imagine most of this summer will be spent fettling the boat, repairing stuff and modifiying stuff to suit us better. the engine area needs a right good old going over with Gunk, engine paint, engine room paint and so on. My next big job is to blank off the old boat name and paint the new one on. gotta wait for good weather for that.

 

we also go to bed early mid week as its a 6am start for us most days. plus we are amazing lovers.

 

i dont consider myself a "narrowboater" i am a boater. I dont actually like "narrowboaters" very much from my past experiences on a different kind of boat, very cliquey on the water and a lot are quite anal about the heritage side and seem to endlessley polish and buff, and dont get me started on a boatmans cabin on a new build.. whats all that about?

although they seem very friendly to people on the bankside.

in fact if i had the money to buy a proper boat i would have bought something more seagoing and more boat like.

I got a narrowboat as my first entry into owning my own boat that I can live on because they are cheap (relatively compared to proper boats) and theres loads of them about. I consider them the ford transit of the boating world. tonnes of them about in various states, some have been pimped up and others have gone to the dogs plus theyve been around for donkeys ages.

 

What a brilliant reply :lol: especially "we dont watch the TV because frankly i dont like being brainwashed. tv is a way of pacifying the general population to keep them dumbed down and clueless. "

 

Why IS tv so popular? Well I think I discovered this a few years ago. Apart from being one of the simpliest ways of keeping the idle, entertained, it is one of the few things, two or more people can do together. And when forced to lie down (I take my 'bed rest' on the settee) I admit I've spent hours a day watching, but as most must have realized from my posts ...... the brainwashing has not worked on me

 

As an aside, I see you are in Chertsey. Do you know Roger Mugford, the dog behaviourist?

[honey ryder]

ive spent quite a few hours on coast hopping trips and I whiled away many an hour making card houses! a tea towel on the table helped them grip and then I could get a good 4 storey going up, even up to a force 5 i still managed to get a small house going. imagine how you would spend 12 hours, in a boat with only 12v, the tv has no signal and even if there was a signal its daytime tv and theres nothing on, the engine noise and wave noise outside drowns out the stereo, theres hardly any land in sight so nothing to photograph and you've already eaten everything in the fridge except tomorrows breakfast.

 

card houses and books become quite interesting at that point, except you are trying to save your book for when you have to stay up on anchor watch or rope duty if you're tied to a tidal wall.

 

i still dont ever remember being bored, when it got quite rough i would go and stand as far forward as possible in the bow, the lurching of the boat off the top of each wave made me feel like I was weightless for a moment and it was a bit like a roller coaster. brilliant, I could stay like that for ages. simple things amuse simple people.

[Supermalc]

Supermalc - the people that live on boats are actually very similar to the land based ones (I think they have almost identical DNA) - so you will probably find their behaviour patterns have a lot of overlap :-)

 

Well they might have almost identical DNA, but from my experience they are about as far removed from the land based variety I mix with as can be found.

 

And as the posts have indicated, what they do is just about as remote as well.

 

As I've said many times now, the biggest surprise, and best thing about my getting a boat has been the vast majority are decent, genuine people.

[seaandland]

As I've said many times now, the biggest surprise, and best thing about my getting a boat has been the vast majority are decent, genuine people.

 

 

Hear hear

[salmiron]

I'm sure the majority of people on this forum/in the world would rather be boating than working. I don't like narrowboats (even nice wooden ones, which I love) but I do like sticking big lumps of wood together and I do like boats. Swmbo loves her work (and is paid well for it) so I am obliged to live as far away from real boats as you can get. It doesn't stop me craving a big seagoing boat, though, I'll just have to wait.

 

Also, if you read Gary's other posts, you'll see he hasn't actually built a narrow-beam craft for some time.

 

Was not Maffi's boat a 'ditch-crawler' completed last October? I may be wrong

[anonymoss]

Spare time on a narrowboat, not in this lifetime. Eg A simple job say clean the bilge pump. Estimated time one hour, add one hour for tools you remember you need when you are nose down in the bilge, plus add one more hour because as soon as you start a job the whole world wants to talk to you.

Please put your spare time in a bottle and e-mail it to me

Cheers

Alan