First Narrow Boat Trip – 12 October 2012

I think I must start this with a bit of background on myself and why I wanted to do this so very much.

I was born in the USA in the land-locked state of Arkansas. I lived all my childhood and a good deal (so far) of my adult life in Arkansas and not really near water (with the exception of the Arkansas River, which I rarely spent time around). The funny thing is, I've always been drawn to the water. I was 25 years old before I ever laid eyes on the sea (my first glimpse, the Gulf of Mexico). When I moved to Scotland, we lived sort-of near the water but now where we are living, we can be by the seaside in less than a minute’s walk.

In 2000, I came for a visit to the UK, starting out in Manchester. I took a short train journey to Chester to visit and walk the walls of the city. When I was on the train, a lovely couple (who I'm still in touch with) pointed out that I needed to walk from the train station by the canal. So I did. I don’t remember ever reading or studying about the canals here in the UK while I was in school. I was fascinated. I also saw a narrow boat for the first time that day. I asked someone passing by what they were, and instead of treating me like an imbecile, he explained how they used to work the canals and that nowadays they were mainly for living on and holiday makers. That was it – I wanted to get on one as soon as possible.

Many times over the years (in the USA) I tried to put together trips to come over and go on one of the canals and things just never worked out.

Fast forward to 2012: After a discussion with a colleague at work, we put a plan in motion to do a trip in October. We chose the route, a boatyard, a beautiful narrow boat, and before long, we found ourselves loading our belongings onto NB Sweet Basil just outside Skipton (in North Yorkshire) on the Leeds and Liverpool Canal.

Neither one of us had ever been on a narrow boat before. It was something both of us wanted to do for a very long time and here we were – unpacking and getting ready to set off.

The boat was a wee bit bigger on the inside than I had expected. Still quite tight for space, we actually did find a place for everything. We completely unpacked and we waited for our tuition (they had a couple on another boat in front of us).  Andrew boarded the boat and showed us around, how to turn on the engine, run the bilge pump, told us we needed to run the boat at least six hours a day in order to keep the batteries charged, told us about how to keep the engine lubricated by turning a dial clockwise a few times every morning before setting off, and explained how to steer and stop the boat. That was it. When we set off, we were on our own.

He talked us through turning the boat around (we were going West towards Liverpool and the boat was pointing towards Leeds!) and we were off! It did take a few minutes to get the feel of moving the boat the way I wanted it to go and even longer before I felt comfortable leaning against the railing on the stern. I made it through the first of many of the original 18^th century arched bridges and to our first swing bridge. This was a trial – we didn't use the centre line (three ropes, one on the bow, one on the stern, one in the centre) but there was a nice lady who was walking her dog past us. She suggested we use it by keeping it within reach of the stern (for non-boaters, stern=rear of the boat) and helped us by giving us suggestions to temporarily moor the boat while the other one was working the swing bridge.

I feel I have to explain a little to non-boaters here. Swing bridges are usually just foot bridges but you get some that are also for cars. This particular one was just for pedestrians. It’s an easy way to put a bridge over the canal without a huge level of construction to arch it so high that it would be unusable for strollers and wheelchairs, so they make it swing to one side so boats can also get through. Some are mechanical, some are manual. All the ones we worked were manual, although one in Skipton had a mechanical set of traffic barriers.

We continued on coming up against a few light showers (and one heavy shower) while we cruised at between two and three miles an hour, only passing a few other boats going the other way. When you pass other boats, either also cruising or moored, you’re supposed to slow down so you don’t move them much. When passing another boat that is also moving, going too fast can pull the two boats together and can also pull the water out from under the boat you pass. The canals are not known for being too deep (in fact, we learned that the section we were on was not even five feet deep). If you take the water from another boat, it can make them scrape the bottom – which is not good.

We saw a lot of wildlife (mainly birds – swans, ducks, kingfishers, & moorhens) and a few people walking along the tow path. For my non-boaters, the canal was built as a sort-of motorway for the industrial revolution – this was before steam engines, so the boats were pulled by horse. The horses obviously needed to walk along the side of the canal, so they gave them a mostly level area of earth to walk on. It’s now used for walkers and cyclists, who share it with the boaters.

Time was getting on but we made it to our first lock before nightfall. This is where I found that my boatmate was afraid of heights. I steered the boat into the lock and she worked it with someone from the hire company, who gave us tuition on how to work the lock. It was a very strange sensation to be on one level of water and then begin to rise to ground level while the lock was filling. I filmed some of it but it was quite low light in the guts of the lock! It was better once I got topside and the gates opened up and we were off for our first mooring of the night. I was informed that I would be working the rest of the locks because my poor pal was afraid of falling into the canal.

We finally made it to our mooring – moored the boat up (quite well, especially since we’d never done it before) and headed into Gargrave to have our dinner. I don’t think I've been quite that hungry for some time!

My pal had the set-up double bed in the back of the boat and I had the to-be-made-up bed in the front. After dinner and a cold walk back to the boat, we got ready to crash (ourselves, not the boat). I made up my bed and climbed in, thinking I would sleep like a baby. Well, let me tell you – I don’t think I've ever woke up so cold! I was violently shivering with the cold and I don’t think I ever warmed up that night! It was more like a series of short cat-naps but I did get some rest.

The best part of the day was actually being on the canal. Knowing that although there is continually maintenance being done on the canals, the lock gates, bridges, etc – it works just like it did all those years ago using the same techniques and mechanics that it did when it was built. I was living a dream that I’d had for more than a decade and it was just beginning!