TURF OUT
Following on from my last blog post, I should explain that my narrow-boat idyll came to an end last summer. I never mastered the hand-cranked engine. I picked up a bug on the canal and passed a squalid few days moored on the Grand Union before chugging into Braunston Marina.
Sadly my boating chum and guru, Geoff, decided against buying ‘Turf’. So I put her on the market and she sold within a few weeks. I lost some money. It could have been much worse. I still love canals but I probably won’t buy another boat.
Here are 10 things I learned about narrow boating:
- It’s more expensive than you think
- It’s a hobby/lifestyle best-suited to the mechanically competent
- Traditional, hand-cranked engines should be left to the enthusiast
- Diesel engines are really quite smelly and not environmentally friendly
- Chemical toilets are even smellier and not environmentally friendly
- The Grand Union Canal is very busy in the summer
- Boating people are friendly, helpful and generous
- Tunnels are not for the faint-hearted
- Solo boating is not my idea of fun
- Leighton Buzzard to Lancaster is much further than it looks on the map
Despite everything, I’m glad that I gave it a go. I hope ‘Turf’s’ next skipper has a long and happy spell at the tiller.
So what’s next? I’ve always fancied dog sledding…
