Trevor asked: snipped: > ** Is a 50/60foot narrowboat manageable by one person, with care
LOL, you've been speaking to the guy that can tell you all about single-handing just such a boat around the system. Mind you, I doubt you'll ever keep up with him. Come out Terry Streeter, where are you? ;-))) > Quite as an aside, I've noticed rather a dearth of > fenders - are narrowboaters extremely tidy in this respect or are they not > considered a necessity of life on the waters? IMHO, fenders (other than bow and stern fenders) are an absolute anathema on a narrowboat (Apologises to those who have them). It's a contact sport with a steel boat...say no more ;-)) > ** 'Continuous cruising' was my initial idea - and certainly the main reason > for looking at the lifestyle, in the first instance. It may well be that I > would be forced eventually, as age increases, into a residential mooring > (presumably one can still 'cruise' albeit more locally perhaps) - but I > would prefer to be able to experience the localities before choosing where, > and when, to be settling down. As much as it grieves me to have to say so, take a look at Sheila Napier's site http://www.nbsanity.me.uk/ and her blog http://nbsanity.blogspot.com/ which will give you a lot of day to day info and 'feel' for what it's like to be a continuous cruiser. Oh, I nearly forgot, she's married to a bloke called...ummm.....oh yes, that's it....Bruce. He helps Sheila with the boat when he can be bothered to get out of bed ;-))) > ** Unfortunately I'll probably have to keep the 'bricks and mortar' in the > mid-term as the kids are still living at home The simple answer to that is to kick 'em out ;-))) OK, perhaps not. - and I'm also not too certain > just how much time my wife will manage on the boat, at least initially, > because her father is getting closer to the 'old and decrepit' stage. The > kids are both independent now, and both have cars, so I guess they will do > most of the longer distance ferrying around. If the worst came to the worst > then I guess the boat would go back on the market - or be used as a holiday > home of some sorts. It's absolutely amazing how you get over the bricks and mortar and kids stage of life and then, just as you're breathing a sigh of relief and beginning to appreciate what it's going to be like to be unshackled and carefree, you start to have to look after aging parents ;-))) Roger
