How far do you cruise

[Tolly]

I live on my boat most of the year, but spend the winter in a marina. Thinking of changing that next winter and wondered how far people travel on winter days

[luggsy]

We cruise all year prefer winter as it is a lot quiter and you can see more wildlife

[Top cat]

In the winter I find a couple of hours in the morning followed by a leisurely lunch then an hour or two in the afternoon is plenty, but on a day like today that would be too much

 

Top Cat

[ditchcrawler]

In the winter I find a couple of hours in the morning followed by a leisurely lunch then an hour or two in the afternoon is plenty, but on a day like today that would be too much

 

Top Cat

Now for me to stop for lunch is the end of the day, I don't want to start again, so I do 3-4 hours straight off and then call it a day.

[lampini]

We just had a week off and did the Ashby up and down again.. We looked at the weather and planned accordingly with short days of bad weather and one day of sun when we did dawn till dusk!

It helps of course if there are two of you who steer; and our burner was nice and warm so we just took it in turns to go and warm up, and make the tea!

I agree about seeing more wildlife, also with the leaves mostly fallen you can see more of the countryside too... We had a kingfisher using the boat to scare fish up (I think that what he was about!) and he kept pace with us for about a mile through the woods between Shackerstone and Snarestone... :-)

[Wanderer Vagabond]

I travel far enough to keep the batteries topped up. During the winter, even if I had solar, I'd have to run the engine so might as well be going somewhere . I usually find between 2 and 3 hours is sufficient (so no more than 9 miles).

[Horace42]

I am a cowered (and a big sissy some friends say) I stay moored at home in the Winter. Although, only once, I did venture out on New Years day on an ice breaking round trip for a couple of hours - good fun and enjoyable really - except for thick fog - but then back home to a lovely lunch in the warm.

[Greylady2]

I cruise all year round and use a home mooring as a rest up point now and then.

 

Yes winter is much quiter and enjoyable without too much fear of a speedboat coming around the next blind corner.

 

Yesterday was too windy by far.

[Naughty Cal]

Sometimes we might only cruise for half an hour, other times we may cruise all day, it very much depends on where we have planned to be.

 

This coming weekend we are heading out onto the Trent (assuming the river level is below the level of the Fossditch!), so we will have a couple of hours cruising on Friday night when we get to the boat. But then the next day we are only heading to Laneham so it will only be a half hour cruise.

[Neil2]

Our marina has a lot of full timers who just come in for the winter and from what they say it's more to do with navigation restrictions than weather/daylight.

 

Even in the depths of winter you could theoretically cruise for 5 or 6 hours, and we have done, but with closures it's difficult to plan a continuous cruise and then you have the issue of keeping the batteries charged.

 

I met one couple a few years ago that had taken the plunge and installed a proper diesel generator which meant that they has all the advantages of shore power but didn't have to bear the cost of staying in a marina every winter. Their reasoning was that although the generator was £5-6k to install, it would eventually be offset by all the money they were saving on mooring fees.

[Jrtm]

From sept we will have done mk-cowroast including all the little nooks along the way. But were limiting our movements by stoppages and working on the boat and dock work.

 

You can get away with moving lots or a little. If you use some common sence and plan you can save a winter fee and easly stick to regs and not move very far.

 

We were going to take a mooring over dec and jan but due to stoppages didnt.

 

But if you take a mooring over dec and jan when its xmas it could cost as little as £250 for a 70 foot boat on crt mooring.

[Dave Payne]

I travel enough every two weeks to keep crt off my back, tats enough for me, that day might be a five hour cruise though if I need to go empty the tank or fill up.with water.

 

Luckily no stoppage's on the cov up to atherstone or the ashby so plenty of miles.

[beerbeerbeerbeerbeer]

4 hours is about enough.

Days are short, with light anyway, and at the moment I cant be arsed to get up early in the morning.