I bought the boat in 1989 - seems a hell of a long time ago… I think it must have been an early hire boat originally, as it has a large open area at the pointy end and a big cruiser stern, and when I got it, it had a double bed in the saloon and two sets of seats at the back which turned into single beds.  And a 23 foot cabin on a forty foot boat, which was a bit of a poor use of the available space, really.

Anyway, it initially acquired some bunk beds for the kids, and then when it became a boat for living on (just for myself) it lost the bunk beds and one of the sets of seats and acquired a solid fuel stove and an armchair. Later it lost the other single bed too and gained another comfortable chair and a storage box that doubles as a seat on the rare occasion there’s a visitor!

It’s powered by an old Lister SR2 diesel, which for years leaked diesel into the sump, much to my annoyance. After a big engine rebuild, it actually got worse, which the engineer refused to believe, also much to my annoyance.  But that’s engineers for you…  and then it overheated and broke down in the middle of the Harecastle Tunnel, which was not fun at all. And then I found the engineer who cured it.

But it runs - noisy old bugger that it is.  And it’s given me a huge amount of pleasure of all the years I’ve had it, saving what’s left of my sanity on many an occasion. A month or two of total solitude in glorious surroundings does wonders for the soul…

It’s been replated twice now, first time at Charlie’s yard near Ellesmere Port (now sadly defunct) and in 2015 at Stoke Boats, who did a masterly job in rescuing the old tub from a premature submerging.  And with luck, it’ll see me out till I can no long shin up lock ladders or hang on to a rope.

There’s a series of links below that will take you to the various year’s trips… mostly  in pictures and a bit of waffle about where I went, when I can remember.  And a few songs…

They go back a few years although I’ve possibly only got pictures from the time digital cameras were invented… I started this lark before the invention of such things, or of mobile phones for that matter.  Anyway there it is, and here they are.

There’s also a page showing some of the repair work done in 2015 when the damn thing nearly sank…

Mostly on the Caldon

Finally, many years ago an offline Canal Planner was coded and sold. The final version was much improved but unfortunately is no longer supported and won’t run without an online code that is no long available.  However, the previous version does run and I’ve put Nero versions of the two discs on a page here, should anyone want it.

It doesn’t rival the online CanalPlan site, but has its uses.

Arthur Marshall