One for the nomads: how do you plan your year's boating?

[magictime]

I'm thinking mainly of people who live aboard full-time here I suppose, but maybe also people who do an extended cruise over the summer months.

 

If you're the sort of boater who covers hundreds of miles in a year, but takes it slow - spending a few days moored here, a week or two moored there, rather than cruising every day - I just wonder how you structure your year? Do you simply 'go with the flow'? Do you aim to be in certain places on certain dates, e.g. to attend events/festivals? Do you base it around seasonal work opportunities? Do you plan to do the busier routes at quieter times? Do you stay on a favourite stretch every winter? Spend summer near the coast? You get the idea.

 

And if work commitments etc. make nomadic boating impossible for now, but you'd like to do it one day as a 'gap year' or in retirement, how would you see yourself planning your year(s)?

[b0atman]

I am setting off off in April this year as was stopped by high winds and freezing moorings march 2015 . I will return oct nov time.

The tentative plan is new stern cover, new dinette ,Rudder top bearing , & some paint work .

I aim to do the Llangollen, Caldon & Ashby arms probably visit Chester ,Wigan with definite visits to Macclesfield and Upper Peak Forest.

Single handing but if a meet up with another single hander then I could deviate onto the canals of lift and swing bridges Ribble link looks good.

[eightacre]

We usually plan April - October, leaving gaps throughout - when we know we have to be somewhere or just so we know when we will get a break. It works reasonably well, and I try to plan work to fit around it. Looking to head up to Peak Forest and Manchester this summer.

[Nightwatch]

Don't plan. Guarantee any plan made will change.

 

Just head off and see where you get to.

[bassplayer]

I think the only way you can be totally nomadic is if you have no commitments. Even running a car adds complication if you have to run it around with you every time you move the boat. In my case I'd have to give up the band and my fiancée (she loves the boat but also her house!).

 

I've met a few CC'ers who seem to have been able to free up commitments for a year or two. It is difficult though, especially when you've got elderly parents. You could probably cover most of the system in a couple of years so you might actually get bored with it by then

[johnmck]

We do April-October out.

Last year we went north from our mooring.

This year south. Well, that's the plan!

[Bunny]

April to October , then winter moorings . Husbands work commitments usually one a day a week in the home counties , company pays travelling expenses . Last year left Aldermaston, Bath back to reading , wey navigation , Oxford ,Warwick Stratford on Avon, Tewkesbury , Worcester Warwick and back to Aldermaston . We were going to finish with a wander to Pewsey and back but the swing bridge in Newbury broke . This year , leaving Easter weekend heading towards Boston and back but don't know which way yet ..... but looking forward to the trip . Bit nervous of the Trent , but have traversed the Ribble twice , tidal Thames a few times and the Severn once , so hope to enjoy the river . Bunny

[metanoia]

I think the only way you can be totally nomadic is if you have no commitments. Even running a car adds complication if you have to run it around with you every time you move the boat. In my case I'd have to give up the band and my fiancée (she loves the boat but also her house!).

 

I've met a few CC'ers who seem to have been able to free up commitments for a year or two. It is difficult though, especially when you've got elderly parents. You could probably cover most of the system in a couple of years so you might actually get bored with it by then

 

Probably true

 

Definitely false (for me)

 

 

Don't plan. Guarantee any plan made will change.

 

Just head off and see where you get to.

Agreed!

Edited March 4, 2016 by metanoia

[DaveP]

Usual plan to do a ring (Yorkshire over the hills, head south, turn round somewhere, come back via the Trent). Work is in London, so once a month aim for a suitable railway station for the office. When I was claiming the dole, just kept going, changing my signing-on place as necessary. Now that I'm reverting to cc, Winter head for an area where I know there to be moorings, fuel, water and grocery supplies [this year, target is the Southern Oxford] in easy reach for holing up in case of inclement weather.

[colmac]

We do the April/October trip as well. We make an outline plan so we have some sort of aim point but remain totally flexible as we have had plans ruined in the past by the unforeseen such as weather, water shortages, technical snags etc. Can,t remember who said it but, the quote was " no plan ever survives contact with the enemy " So true. Will now go and google that and see who said it. Happy sailing.

[jeanb]

We've also done April to October for the last four years since we were cursed with retirement. We moor near Derby and we usually opt for somewhere distant, last year Skipton, the year before, Bath. This year we haven't yet decided but we have an invite in North Wales early June. We love the Macc and Upper Peak Forest, and the South Oxford, so with the Llangollen that will probably do us. We don't mind getting too wet but stating the obvious the weather makes a hell of a difference. Happy sailing!

[Cloudinspector]

We move around 12 months of the year staying within an hours drive from work. Where we are based means we can cover a large area and still be within an hour from work.

Don't make plans and just go with flow.

[bottle]

Don't plan. Guarantee any plan made will change.

 

Just head off and see where you get to.

 

That's my post.

[Alan de Enfield]

Its good to have a 'target' or at least a general idea of where you want to head for - that at least gives you an idea of which way to turn at the 1st junction you come to.

 

Elderly relatives 'needs & demands', Hospital appointments, weddings and funerals can be easily attended to from pretty much anywhere. Car hire is so simple and inexpensive and these days they even bring the car to the boat. Nowhere is more than a 'few hours' away from wherever you are and 'scheduled' appointments are easy to 'plan into your plan'.

 

Just imagine (if you were 'normal') in an emergency how quickly you would get back from a holiday in the USA, or Spain or ........

[magictime]

Thanks for the replies everyone. A lot of summer cruising, a lot of intentionally vague plans, by the sound of it!

 

I tend to imagine us starting out with a few fixed ideas about where to be and when - e.g. here at the time of such-and-such a music festival, there at the time such-and-such a family member has a week off work to come and do a cruising ring with us - and staying flexible in between those. Also maybe doing the busier canals at quieter times of year, maybe staying more northern over summer; and maybe spending winter in and around bigger towns/cities where there's more to do and we might feel less isolated than we would on the towpath on some rural stretch in stoppage season.

 

But who knows. It all depends on the realities of finances etc.

[magictime]

Its good to have a 'target' or at least a general idea of where you want to head for - that at least gives you an idea of which way to turn at the 1st junction you come to.

 

Elderly relatives 'needs & demands', Hospital appointments, weddings and funerals can be easily attended to from pretty much anywhere. Car hire is so simple and inexpensive and these days they even bring the car to the boat. Nowhere is more than a 'few hours' away from wherever you are and 'scheduled' appointments are easy to 'plan into your plan'.

 

Just imagine (if you were 'normal') in an emergency how quickly you would get back from a holiday in the USA, or Spain or ........

 

Cars, even hire cars, will be forming no part of our own plans Alan... we've got through the last twenty-odd years without using one and I don't see us starting any time soon! It'll be train travel or nothing, and given the expense of train travel and the fact that we're likely to be on a very limited income, I hope that'll only be for emergencies only.

 

Hence I expect a lot of our planning will boil down to making sure the boat is within cheap/easy visiting distance of different family members in different places through the year. And I'd love to think we'll be hosting kids and grandkids for weeks of cruising. It's all so up in the air though - who knows where our kids will even be living a few years from now, what with them going off to uni, starting their own families etc.