Animals on board

I love following the tales of all the animals on board various boats, especially Caxton, Dogs on tour and Matilda Rose. I can’t believe how Jill on Matilda Rose managed to get Daisy trained enough to come back aboard. How do you manage when you decide to move off and she isn’t there. As a cat owner I know how hard it is to get them to come in when needed, especially if they are not hungry. More animal pictures for me please (especially the cats). I hope you like these of our two (large Cream Maine Coons)

They really are supposed to be this big. You can just see Jon hidden behind them.

Cinammon the boy is unfortunately recently deceased but his sister Tamarin (Tammy for short) is still with us and seems to be enjoying the extra attention she is getting.

Cinnamon looking smart for once

Cinnamon in relaxed mode.

Cinnamon was always an absolute scruffy urchin boy and his sister acts like she is a little princess.

Tammy in a box.

I find it amazing that cats can have such different characters even when siblings and brought up exactly the same way. They were however bad travellers and I don’t think Tammy will ever get to the boat (she would immediately hide in the bilges or disappear forever if we tried it).

Sowerby Basin and pubs

Shire cruisers offices with some of their 'counties' lined up (Tormentil used to be Somerset).

Looking from Sowerby basin towards Halifax tower (not sure what it was for but obviously built as a status symbol by some victorian gent).

Greygal is thinking of moving up to Sowerby basin for the summer. The picture at the top is Tormentil moored there currently. We are moored to the restaurant boat Cassoulet (the superstructure cabin belongs to them not Tormentil) they weren't open last weekend but I think they do cruising whilst feeding customers. The buildings behind are old warehouses being done up slowly (the new windows have only reached a few floors). The blackbirds are enjoying nesting in the upper floors, but the other buildings around the basin have all been done up. One is the Moorings pub and restaurant. It’s a large popular pub with good beer (so I’m told), the steaks looked good but I haven’t tried one yet. Below it is the Temujin restaurant serving Mongolian food.

Again sounds interesting but not tried yet. We did eat at the Village restaurant at the top of the wharf road and that had Indian and Indonesian food, very tasty but the meat was a bit dry. The buildings are very tastefully lit at night and the basin looks very nice then with the buildings reflected in the glass-like water. We wanted to take a picture but didn’t think it would do it justice. Despite the crowds in the pub (which you can’t hear) we had two very peaceful nights there.

Positive reactions

Since we are stuck at Sowerby Bridge for a couple of weeks because of the Cooper Bridge hold-ups I can’t talk about our travels so I will ramble generally about other things. One of the (good) surprises we’ve had is everyone’s reaction to our news about buying a narrowboat. All have said ‘wow that’s great’ or ‘I’ve always wanted to have/try a narrowboat, to live on or holiday’. Not one has said ‘you must be mad’ or made any negative comments. I think narrowboats (or maybe boats in general) must hit some buried wondrous memory from childhood (some would say steam trains do the same), also, so far on our meagre travels most people on the towpath (except perhaps anglers) smile as you go by. I think it’s the tranquil aura and slow pace of the boat that helps, at least on the straight bits, it’s not so tranquil at the locks.

I can’t believe it, it’s now on to plan B. The Manchester route is shut for several weeks too so we are stuck. We have re-planned the holiday and will go at Easter and the week after, that should be enough time for the Pennine ring to open.
At least it gives me time to get this blog up and running and maybe some readers too :-).

The galley and lounge.

The twin bedroom.

Since we couldn’t move the boat this weekend we decided to go up to Sowerby Bridge anyway and spend our first few nights on Tormentil and experience life aboard finally. Luckily this weekend has been glorious weather, arrival at about 5pm on Fiday and then on board. It took a while to get the gas going but we finally figured it out. Despite the nice weather we still need the central heating for the evening. Being a whimp I am amazed and pleased to have central heating on a boat, it’s very quick to heat up because of all the insulation I guess. Because we will not be living aboard we were happy not to have a solid fuel fire even though they do sound very cosy. Pushing a button to turn on the heating is however much easier. After unpacking and sitting down to a cup of tea in sheer delight at our new boat owning situation, we ventured out to the nearest pub as all good narrowboaters do. We bought the boat from Shire Cruisers based at Sowerby bridge basin and were very happy with the whole process.

On Saturday we took her out for a run with Jon driving and me navigating. We were going to try to go down the first few locks on the Calder and Hebble at Salterhebble to see what the journey will be like when we move her finally. However the navigator let us down and we missed the turning for the first lock (a very sharp right turn). Jon’s skills at turning and controlling the boat were sorely tried and we were sideways across the canal when the only moving boat we saw all day came round the corner (of course it would). Happily they waited whilst we faffed about trying to moor up by the locks. We managed to set the lock and were trying to push open the gates(they wouldn’t move for some reason, I don’t think we have our technique right yet) when Jon noticed a sign on the locks saying that the ‘guillotine lock’ (the next one down the flight) was only useable by the lockkeeper and would only be working for one hour a day between 12 and 1. Since it was ten to twelve we waited for the man to appear. He confirmed that if we went through we couldn’t come back until 12 the next day. Since we hoped to be back at Sowerby early the next morning we decided not to go through. We moored up in Halifax basin and went for lunch to the pub. It was a lovely day so we walked down to look at the offending guillotine lock and the next few on the Calder and Hebble. It is obvious that narrowboating only happens at ‘canal pace’ and all plans are provisional. So we still haven't done our first lock in Tormentil. Still in all we really enjoyed the weekend and sleeping afloat and have no regrets. Hopefully the trip round to the Leeds and Liverpool will go ahead we fewer hitches after Easter.

How it all began 2

It's been a week since the last blog, it's amazing how difficult it is to do this often enough, however we continue with the tale.

Last summer (2008) during one of our holidays to Lancashire we went for a cycle on the Leeds and Liverpool canal. We try to do this everytime we go up there and its great fun, nice and flat with no hills (you can walk up the slopes at the lock) my sort of cycling. On our way home we saw the beginnings of a new marina and thought wouldn’t it be great to have a narrow boat to stay in, instead of the house, when we come up here to visit. On our return home investigations into narrowboat prices had us believing that we couldn’t afford it. Having only paid 5,000 for the house we thought it would only be worth about 15,000 and you can’t get much of a boat for that. However looking in the local papers (we should have tried that first) we realised that even houses in the cheapest part of Lancashire had gone up over 15 years. Cue my turn for an instant decision (it must be catching), in September on another visit to Mum (on my own) I went to the opening of the new Marina and got over excited. I put down a deposit on a berth.
The next two months were less hectic than I imagined, after our last experience we thought it would possibly be up to a year to sell the house but we found a great estate agent (is that possible?) and we had an offer within 4 days. Yes I know it’s not fair so many people are having trouble at the moment, I couldn’t believe it. I think our estate agent had someone in mind all along and suggested a price she knew they would pay, but we were happy with it. We now had enough to buy a (second hand –or pre-loved) boat so off we went scouring the Apollo Duck site for weeks.
We settled on one we could afford at Hebden Bridge (on the Calder and Hebble canal) and arranged to go up north to see it. The day before this Jon found another one on Apollo Duck- new to the site, an ex hire boat, much newer than the one we were supposed to see and much better fitted out. I had had doubts about the Hebden Bridge boat since it was variously described as 60 or 62 foot long. We needed to get it onto and around the Leeds and Liverpool canal and those locks are only just 60 foot long so I was a bit worried.
Sooo- we cancelled the first viewing and arranged to see the second boat at Sowerby Bridge luckily just along from Hebden. We took her out for a ride and fell in love. Next day we put in an offer and finally become the proud owners in November 2008. Below is a picture of her during survey not looking too pretty.

Hurrah boat tales at last you say.

We had hoped to have her moved before Christmas to our new mooring on the L&L but delays in re-painting and the over-winter lock closures meant this was delayed.
So now the locks are supposed to be open and we thankfully now have the time to move her ourselves. We have re named her Tormentil after the lovely yellow flower that grows on the Lancashire and Yorkshire moors.
She now looks beautiful and new and shiny (see header picture) but not for long I fear when we get started on those bridges and locks).
Our plan was to start Friday 20th March and blog our travels as we go along, however the best laid plans and all that…
We now hear there has been a collapse just east of Sowerby Bridge on the Calder and Hebble Navigation and the canal that way is shut. This was our preferred route through some of the loveliest countryside and finally getting to do the Bingley five rise (we chickened out last time and only had a look at it). We may have to go via Manchester on a more rigourous (124 locks) route and I fear not so pretty. We should find out at the last minute tomorrow which route we can take.

How it all began. 1.

I have to confess I am hooked. It's like a drug. I have been reading all the narrowboat blogs I can find (thank you Granny Buttons for the list) and everything has gone out of the window. It has inspired me to create our own. I would like to indulge in a bit of history before getting on to the more interesting topic of narrowboat travels. Our travels start this Friday so I will put out the 'how we got here' over the next few days and hope that someone is interested enough to have a look.

'We' are Jon and Ali, we have been together for many lovely years and first experienced narrowboating about 25 years ago for a week on the Leeds and Liverpool canal courtesy of Snaygill Boats at Skipton. It's great to see they are still going strong. Jon and I (Ali is writing this) are probably a case of opposites attract, when it comes to purchases I will think things over, and over , and over to the point that by the time I get round to buying anything the interest has gone or whatever I wanted has been sold. Jon is the opposite, he goes with his heart and buys more or less instantly and sometimes on a whim. This is all very well for christmas presents etc. but when it comes to major outlay (houses, boats) I'm not sure which is best. Our first house together was the third we looked at (we had put in an offer on the first we saw-I told you he was impetuous-but it fell through). Strangely enough Jon's method seems to work and we stayed in the house for 23 great years. The next house was one we saw whilst driving past one day. It was in a village in Surrey that we love and had a for sale sign outside. Very soon after we were in the middle of a nightmare (the last time house prices fell- ours took 12 months to sell and with a bridging loan costing more than our combined income the nights were sleepless). However it all came out right in the end and we now love this house. I feel for the couple (?Caxton) who were trying to sell their house for so long, I hope all goes well now with the swop.

Patience people there is a boat link here soon.



My roots are in Lancashire and my Mum lives there so we often visit and in order to make life easy, about 15 years ago we bought a little 'coronation street' type of terraced house there. Again Jon's whim, we saw the house across the back street from my Mum's was for sale (image of the credits on coronation street with back street and outhouse with cat on it-just like that), so we looked into it. The following conversation with the bank manager took place

Jon I'd like to borrow 7,000 pounds

Bank Manager certainly sir, can I ask what it is for.

Jon To buy a house

Bank Manager for the deposit sir ?

Jon no-to buy the house

Bank Manager what! 7,000 pounds for a house

Jon Certainly not, 5,000 for the house and 2,000 to do it up

Bank Manager I think you ought to buy the whole street



Yes 15 years ago you really could by a house up there for 5,000.

In hindsight with house prices rising we should have followed his advice and bought the whole street.

I think that enough for now and I need my lunch so the next instalment will be tomorrow, unless I get bored this afternoon