Narrowboat related

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FranTastic444
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Narrowboat related

Post by FranTastic444 »

Conscious of the fact that I was trampling all over B&B's pics & looks post, I thought I'd break this out into a separate off-topic post.

I'd started a conversation (or thread hijack, depending upon your view of these things :-) ) in response to Big & Bashful's pics & look thread where early on in his thread he documented spending some time on a narrowboat.

By chance, our recent Covid binge-watch material centered around the various vlogs that a number of narrrowboaters in England and Wales are now producing. I mentioned Country House Gent, Cruising the Cut and Narrowboat Experience.

B&B came back with Foxes Afloat (otherwise known as Britain by Narrowboat on Amazon Prime, for those who are interested in checking it out). We have now watched the first few episodes, so I thought I'd report back.

First off, this is certainly one of the best produced vlogs I have ever seen. It comes as no surprise that one of the protagonists (Colin) has a background in multimedia. If you look at their kit list on their website (here) you can see that they have invested in some decent kit (though still at the 'am' end of pro-am to keep things affordable, I think (don't they use the word prosumer now???)). They have made really good use of the drone (presumably one of them has a license for that thing :-) ).

I like Colin's delivery style - a slightly smoother and more balanced version of Andy Kershaw maybe? I like the way they have tried to put a bit of history and background of the places they are visiting into their narrative as well, rather than it just being about them and their boat.

Where I think the show falls down (and this is probably our fault rather than anything they have done) is that we are yet to fall for their double-act charm. I think they have already referred to themselves as the Chuckle Brothers. Maybe their style will change over the episodes or we will get accustomed to it (we didn't take to Annamarie and Kath on Narrowboat Experience immediately).

Looking forward to their upcoming episodes on how they specced and then commissioned the build of their boat and also the mental illness content. One of my brothers took his life at the age of 21 and another has daily bipolar battles, so this is an area of interest to me.
Big and Bashful
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Re: Narrowboat related

Post by Big and Bashful »

I am glad you have checked them out, I like their humour and find them more natural than most vloggers, like you say Colin has a background in radio and that helps him. They have got a very nice boat to live on but aren't made of money, they had to sell the kayak to replace a camera that had an accident. The work they put into researching the history of the canals and surrounding buildings have really made their vlogs more interesting than most of the others I have seen.

I found another canal vlogger who has a series on BBC 4, only found the BBC series last night, I am fairly sure that there pompous vlogger also has a series on Amazon, it must be the "in thing" this here vlog + low budget tv series combination. I am glad these programmes and vlogs are happening, since I didn't get my canal holiday and am now facing up to the reality that by the time I can retire I will be too old and knackered for a life of towpaths, locks and single handed boatery.
I am the God of Hellfire! and I bring you truffles!
Big and Bashful
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Re: Narrowboat related

Post by Big and Bashful »

OK, just to widen the theme of this topic, doesn't count as narrowboat related, but if you look at narrowboat them as floaty thing on top of wet stuff, featuring locks, Here is a link to a video about a floaty thing on top of wet stuff, featuring lochs.

In 2013 I decided to take Good Golly out of the Clyde, around the Cape (Mull of Kintyre) and onwards up the coast through the Sound of something to spend a night or two on a really secluded loch, and then back again. Circumstances conspired against me as a person who worked for me lost their wee boy, less than two years old, to some undiagnosed illness. I shortened my trip to allow me to give the family some support at the funeral. Anyway, it was a great week, just me, my wee boat, some food, some wine, some bottled beers, no trousers, just a few skirts, my favourite Midas cargo denim, a Macabi and a light short full circle wafty thing. Oh and a lot of water. To make the trip work I had to cover 30 miles a day, as the winds were not exactly helpful there was a lot of engine running so I could make my destinations. 30 miles- basically 6 hours at 5 knots, so if I wasn't making 4 knots in the right direction, the engine was required.
I have stuck to the "Slow TV" idea, the video is about 2 hours and there is a lot of just motoring, As it was likely to be a once in a lifetime trip for me I spent a long time close to Ailsa Craig trying to capture the millions of seabirds on video, also the voyage round the Mull of Kintyre and up to West Loch Tarbet was a long long day, I left most of that video in, because I probably won't be there again and wanted to capture as much of the experience as I could, this footage on YouTube will be my memories once I clean it off my PC.
For anyone who doesn't know the Scottish West coast, The Kintyre peninsula is West of the Clyde estuary and if you head West the next land you hit is Ireland, there are very significant tidal flows through this gap, at the Mull, the Southern tip that is, the tide flowing South past the Mull meets and clashes with the tide from the Clyde. When I went round the weather was pretty calm, in heavy weather I think it would be very dangerous for a small boat. As I tried to head North I had to stay very inshore, close to the rocks, where the current against me was slightly less, I had to keep a very close eye on the depth meter and just hope there weren't any nasty rocks just under the surface. When I eventually got to drop anchor and relax I remember relaxing on deck, while I could hear an angry shepherd chasing some sheep along the shore shouting "Come back here you Ba******s!", great technique I thought!
Looking at the tide charts, for the return I headed right out to catch the tidal current but only found a couple of knots of help, had an engine problem while completely out of sight of land and with no wind, motored then sailed back to Sanda were I had 2 attempts to anchor on a very steeply shelving bay for the night, then finally making my way back up the Clyde.
As I keep my skirtery off YouTube and Facebook I have removed footage of me sailing and doing stuff on board where skirts are visible, unfortunately that took most of the sailing footage out of the video! Also when single handed sailing there are many things to concentrate on and so much of the time I was unable to record, these days with waterproof tiny Gopro type action cams it would be far easier to record more of a sailing trip, I even bought an action cam once I discovered them, but then my knees told me to stop sailing.
I did go ashore, skirted (no other option with me) in my Midas skirt, I spent a night in Troon marina, went ashore, drank a few and had a pretty good meal (Don't remember what), as always, almost no mention, I did hear someone on a boat saying "There's that man in a skirt", not in a mocking or surprised way.
The week did end on a bit of a downer, sailing back onto my mooring on the Gareloch, as I was furling the genoa in the high winds that day, it flapped itself too hard and a seam let go, so I moored the boat, went ashore and just asked the boatyard to take the boat out of the water for the year, that was followed up by the wee boy's funeral the next day.

https://youtu.be/25g7w8OFavg

One of these days I will sit and do the friendly URL thing, today, after typing all that, I can't be bothered!
I am the God of Hellfire! and I bring you truffles!
pelmut
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Re: Narrowboat related

Post by pelmut »

I'd like to put in a word for the volunteers who keep the canals running and get derelict ones brought back into use.  Our little gang is going to have the first work party since lock-down this weekend on the Somersetshire Coal Canal.  If you've never heard of it, that's because it was closed 120 years ago, but quarter of a mile at one end was re-opened about 10 years ago and 300 yards at the other end was brought back into water recently.  We've only got to restore the 10 miles in between and it will be ready for the boats.

Video
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Big and Bashful
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Re: Narrowboat related

Post by Big and Bashful »

pelmut wrote: Fri Jul 10, 2020 5:58 pm I'd like to put in a word for the volunteers who keep the canals running and get derelict ones brought back into use.  Our little gang is going to have the first work party since lock-down this weekend on the Somersetshire Coal Canal.  If you've never heard of it, that's because it was closed 120 years ago, but quarter of a mile at one end was re-opened about 10 years ago and 300 yards at the other end was brought back into water recently.  We've only got to restore the 10 miles in between and it will be ready for the boats.

Video
I have a load of respect for you guys out there bringing dead canals back to life! It's a fantastic thing to do and its fantastic for the network to have derelict canals restored to use. We don't have any waterways around here needing restored, the closest waterway to me is maybe 200 feet away and the far side is well over 1 mile away. Pretty quiet, just the daily oil tanker, some tugs and the occasional submarine wandering past. I am looking forward to them finishing off modifications to a jetty further up the loch, it is being embiggened so that the new UK carriers can visit to do things and stuff. I want to see them, camcorder in hand and ancient DSLR round my neck to capture the moment.
Right, back to removing personal conversations somehow from my next canal video upload.
I am the God of Hellfire! and I bring you truffles!
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