THE SHITTER'S FULL: And Other Narrowboat Tales

THE SHITTER'S FULL: And Other Narrowboat Tales

By Lawrence Turner

Volume 1

INTRODUCTION

4 years ago, my best friend and I sold the house in Kent and moved on to a canal narrowboat. Seemed like a good idea at the time. We needed a change in our lives. The old 'getting stuck in a rut' played on our minds. Neither of us was getting any younger and we thought a drastic move was for the best. At first, the project took on a more traditional search. If we move to another house, where would we locate? My best friend and I are very creative and we wanted to be around other like-minded people. We both loved the Devon and Cornwall area of England. We also favoured the south coast of England around Kent. Being near water was important to both of us.

We had walked along the canal around Camden Town on occasion, admiring the passing canal boats and wondering what it would be like to travel on one. We decided to take a trip on a tour boat at Camden to see what it was like. When my best friend was 5-years-old, she had taken a trip on a narrowboat called The Jenny Wren. It was still there, many paint jobs later, of course, but the same boat. Up the Regents canal we went, turning around at Little Venice and back to where the Jenny Wren moored. We loved it, even though my best friend said, "It's very narrow, isn't it?".

Well, yes, so it seemed. But it had chairs on either side with a passage way down the middle. We decided to investigate the whole thing further. My best friend is a stickler for research. By the time we were ready to buy, she knew as much as she could without ever living on one. We had an idea what we wanted, and the search began. The only way this was going to happen was to sell the house first, forcing us to stick to our decision. Many a narrowboat, canal living wannabe ever gets past the desire stage. The house sold quickly.

We looked at quite a few boats at various marinas around the country. Too long, too old, too short, too little storage space, the wrong colour...the search continued. Then, one day, there she was. We looked at a boat that was nearly new (5 years old), the right colour and its name had sentimental attachment, for me anyway. The broker took us through the interior. My best friend put the boat through rigorous scrutiny and as we came back up to the stern, she said, "I just want to have one more look through." Down she went. I sat on the side seats at the stern with the broker talking about sales and so on. After what seemed a ridiculous amount of time, my best friend emerged saying, "I think I could live on this one." No hesitation, we put in an offer and waited.

Our offer was accepted. We had a boat. We also had a residential mooring secured in a marina before a boat had been purchased. We weren't taking chances. My best friend worked in London back then and we needed to be close enough for her to get to work every day. Our marina was 5 minutes from the local train station. Perfect. We had a few jobs done on the boat that needed doing before moving it from where we bought it, down to its new home. That was a trip, let me tell you. You'll read all about it later.

When we told family and friends what we had done, most were supportive in a polite way. Some thought we were mad...crazy even...others called us brave. We were just doing what we said we wanted to do, while we were young enough to do it. The big winners from our big move were the local charity shops. We had to get rid of lots of stuff from living in a house. We managed to sell a few things, but very little. So, we gave it away. It's amazing what you can live without.

And so, the adventure continues, or rather it begins over the next pages. These stories have been taken from a Blog I wrote about our adventures. We thought we'd gather them up, add to them and put them in book form. There are so many stories that I have decided to publish in 2 volumes. This is Volume 1, as I suppose you've already guessed. If it sells well, I'll release Volume 2, probably 6 months later. Basically, this little book tells you almost everything you need to know about narrowboating and life around it from an amateur's point of view. What I'm trying to say is, if we can do it, anyone can. It has been 4 years since the journey began and we are still learning, still loving it.