Wednesday, 15th December 2021

Waking this morning to a warm house, in a big bed and with copious amounts of hot water, I try to fathom my love of narrowboats and can only conclude it is the simplicity of life aboard that attracts me along with the ever changing scenery and variety of people that cross our paths, even if only fleetingly.

Yesterday we had to ‘winterise the boat’ which sounds quite painful and is alot more stressful than just returning a hired boat to its owner. Suddenly you realise you are responsible for making sure the pipes don’t freeze and burst, that all the batteries are turned off to prevent them being flat when you next return to the boat, and that the diesel tank is full to minimise the risk of ‘diesel bug’, a condition caused by unwanted moisture in a partially full tank.

My first task was to wash our bed linen and tumble dry it so that we could store it, along with our duvet and pillows in vacuum bags. Arriving at the laundry area at the same time as N, I instantly made a new friend as he graciously let me use the useable washing machine first, the second machine appearing not to work. We briefly chatted, enough for me to learn he was from Australia, has been living in the UK for five years and is about to become a UK citizen. He knows far more about our English heritage than I do! He has a successful vlog, mainly started to keep his family abreast of his travels, but now getting alot of hits from a far flung audience. I left him to return to my chores but an hour later as the washing finished he was there having successfully fixed the other machine. This time, as the tumble dryer tumbled (he didn’t need it as his boat is warm enough all day from his log stove to dry his washing) I learnt about more of his story, how he had been living on a 24ft ‘Springer’ boat that just wasn’t quite big enough; how he shares his life with a partner who since lockdown has worked from home so N made an office in the back of the spacious 60ft plus narrowboat and that the boat is in need of a massive amount of refurbishment. He has cleverly set up a conduction system to enable the heat from the stove to travel around the inside of the boat without the use of any heat pumps. I had a brief look at his ‘project’ and he certainly has his work cut out but he was very chilled and happy with his lifestyle and excited that he was about to return to the cut, leaving the comforts of the marina behind to explore the extensive Birmingham canal network. His main challenge will be maintaining internet coverage to enable home working. His partner is incredibly busy working for a company who supply components for the lateral flow tests. That got us into a conversation about how I wished they could be recyclable, along with disposable masks. It troubles me how in the panic of the pandemic we seem to have ceased worrying about the impact on the environment the disposable PPE is having alongside the manufacture of billions of testing kits. I realise we need them but I do wonder if they could be made more sustainably. N and I exchanged boat names and hope our paths will cross – at least I can keep abreast of his adventures via his vlog. He showed me how easy vlogs are to create so who knows, you may yet get to see us in action as we travel along.

Having been thus distracted and fortified by a cup of coffee, which R also gave to a guy fixing a nearby narrowboat that appeared to have no galley facilities, we set about filling large polythene bags (not very sustainable!) with our bedding and clothes, using a small hand pump to suck out all the air. Extraordinary how small the bag became and thus easily storable in the space under the dinette. Then we filled a couple of large dehumidifiers with crystals that will absorb excess moisture from the air over the next few weeks. Finally we started to empty the water tank so that the pipes would be less likely to burst in freezing weather. We had totally miscalculated how long this would take. A good 40 minutes later we were still watching the water trickle from the taps but eventually the system was emptied and we could set about our last task of the morning – covering the stern with our ripped tonneau cover. We were pleasantly surprised to find that, even with the recent rain the extra strong duct tape had lived up to its name and was still sticking. Gingerly we poppered the tonneau in place and then as an extra precaution against inclement weather, we flung a large tarpaulin over the top of the tonneau covering. Precariously with a long piece of rope R found a way to secure this on the side of the boat adjacent to the water whilst I remained on the safety of the pontoon. I was expecting a loud splash or at the very least R to fall off the boat roof into the canal. Luckily no such incident occurred and we hope we have fully secured the tarpaulin. Only time will tell! I do feel we are rather letting the side down with our ‘Heath Robinson’ cover over the stern but looking around, there are one or two other boats looking a little the worse for wear!

Leaving Naomhog thus suitably trussed, we embarked on our journey home, me certainly feeling rather sad at having to part company after such a brief period of time getting to know my little boat. A time of reflection on how best to use Naomhog so that we can share her to enable others to enjoy the tranquility of the waterways and how on our journeying we can listen to the stories of those we meet, giving them time to be heard and prayed for if they so desire. For us, a time of waiting and patience, a bit like advent itself, in which christians use the time to prepare themselves for the arrival of the Christ child. In the waiting there is time to pause and reflect on Jesus’s birth, of how he came to transform us so that we might live lives more akin to his, putting others needs before our own.

We plan to visit Naomhog on fine dry winter days, hopefully taking her out for day trips (visitor’s welcome) to charge the batteries and run the engine but I don’t feel up to a repeat of the damp and cold mornings of last winter! They are still too fresh a memory in my mind. Perhaps next year we will have acclimatized ourselves once again to being hardy winter boaters and we will continuously cruise the system. So another blog pause whilst we return to home life and a house that is surprisingly quiet at present. No doubt I shall do my best to upend that!

Seasons greetings to you all as we continue to negotiate our way through the pandemic, living a day at a time, by faith not fear and hope not despair. May we all look out for one another in a spirit of love and kindness, sharing tears and laughter, as we face both the joys and the challenges that 2022 may well bring our way.