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| Always another lock |
Freedom
There are some people, lots of them, who live on a boat and never want to move. Others may be unable to stray far from wherever they have a job or a family – but for many liveaboards being able to go ‘on tour’ for at least a substantial part of the year is a vital part of charm of the lifestyle.
As you cast off you are about to become a water gypsy, someone with a nomadic lifestyle as the dictionary puts it.
Personally I revel in the idea of being different and outside the normal tedious regulations of land-based life.
Despite the frustrations and the annoyances, from supercilious boaters to suspicious BW officials, the life of a continuous cruiser is largely free from stress.
Most of the time is spent exploring new, or old, places; enjoying nature in an up-close and personal way or meeting wonderful people in unexpected places and circumstances.
Some personal highlights of this year alone have been getting together with old friends at boating festivals on the Grand Union and making some wonderful new friends as we travelled together.
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| Fishing Kingfisher |
I have sat on my cruiser stern watching a Kingfisher plucking small fry from the Shropshire Union above Adderley locks and gazed with admiration at the high shapes of soaring pairs of buzzards as I puttered along the North Oxford.
I have been soaked to the skin through several, supposedly waterproof, layers of clothing and burned to a sort of semi-permanent ruddiness by baking sun and brisk winds.
Much of my itinerant life is outdoors and that satisfies the country lad inside me. It is seven years now that I have lived afloat, but I am still learning the best way to get the most from a fabulous lifestyle. Over those years I have been slowly learning not to be stressed, even by the inconsiderate, the bigoted and the arrogant of both water and land.
Water Gypsies?
For us the term water gypsy is a romantic way of describing our lifestyle but gipsies are different and there are some who choose to use it as a term of abuse.
I have to say that both British Waterways and some leisure boaters are, at best, ambivalent about those of us who live afloat - and especially those of us that use the canal system all year round.
Every now and again BW floats the idea of charging continuous cruisers a premium on the basis that they use the system more – only to be ridiculed by those who point out that the system should be accessible to everyone year round and that the slow and relaxed travelling pace of the liveaboard is far less damaging to canal banks and locks than the private leisure boats, share boats and hire boats determined to rush around a ring or a route to a fixed schedule.
I make the point simply because the experience of most liveaboards is that they are envied by the majority of other boaters but regarded as second-class citizens by a few.
Why?
Earlier this year Rex Walden, Chair of the excellent Residential Boat Owners Association (RBOA) – which I would urge every liveaboard to join – said: “We need to steer away from the view that (the waterways are) a playground for well heeled retired folk, or a paradise for dropouts.”
In doing so he touched on that ambivalence about liveaboards. Anyone who travels our system will have come across both the well-heeled in new boats who have decided to spend summers living afloat whilst retreating in winter to their villa in some country with more sunshine.
Equally there are a substantial number of people, sometimes families with young children, living on older boats whilst they attempt to improve or upgrade them.
Most of us fall somewhere between the two but we get the best out of our travels by being tolerant and accepting all the varied lifestyles of those who live on our waterways. As a result I have met some fascinating people with tales to tell that go far beyond their appearance – or that of their vessel!
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| Some wonderful country moorings |
Tying up
We will deal with permanent moorings next month but those who decide to cruise the system still have to deal with the issue of moorings in various ways.
There is the question of how long you want to stay in one place before moving on. For most of us that will vary – you may want two or three weeks in London to see all the sights, but only a couple of hours outside a convenient canalside supermarket.
Whatever your needs, you are likely to have to deal with the issue of enforcement of the moorings rules at particular sites.
Despite BW’s national remit the reality on the bank is that there are no hard and fast rules and methods that apply across the country.
Increasingly in the southern part of the country you are likely to come across the ‘mooring warden’ – boater who has been given official permission to set up a permanent mooring and is paid by BW to ensure that everyone else sticks to the rules.
But what rules? In London and the South East it is common to see mooring signs that say you can only moor for 14 days in any one year. Yet the practise is very different. Talk to the mooring wardens in London and even the BW enforcement officers and they will tell you that boats are allowed to stay the full official time but can return after a month or two to the same spot.
There are also much more tolerant rules on how far a continuous cruiser must move and in London it suffices to shift along to the next mooring spot. The result is that some boaters can live on the water in the capital by moving between three or four moorings within a short stretch.
North of Braunston I have not come across mooring wardens, but BW officials are much keener to enforce the rules, insisting continuous cruisers move substantial distances and don’t come back for much longer periods of time.
At least that seems to apply to most boats. Almost everywhere you will come across boats that seem immune to the rules, whatever they are. At any popular mooring spot on the system it is probable that the local moorers will tell you of boats that are on ‘visitor’ moorings but have been allowed to stay there for months or even years without action.
BW is currently intent on setting up localised mooring regulations in consultation with local people. I suspect the result will be more very short-term moorings designed for the hire-boater and holidaymaker, pushing continuous cruisers out to the periphery.
The irony is that BW is currently on difficult legal ground in enforcing any time limit shorter than the universal 14 day restriction and it doesn’t have the staff to police those mooring limits it advertises.
Then comes the winter and the question of whether you should tie up in one place or keep moving. The great boom in marina building has meant lots of spaces and most marinas are keen to take your money for a winter mooring. You may well pay £200 plus a month for a 60ft boat but it is well worth haggling as there are lots of empty berths.
But months spent gazing at other boats within a foot or two of your windows or portholes is too much for many of the free spirits who live afloat – even if it comes with an electrical hook-up.
They would prefer to be on the bank, but even there BW is keen to make some extra money and keep those pesky boats from moving about.
I have never understood how BW can justify charging nearly £200 a month in some locations for the privilege of mooring on visitor moorings, sometimes without even a water supply or facility block within miles.
Many liveaboard boaters get quite upset with those who agree to pay up for the sake of being able to stop in one place. That makes it difficult for the rest, they argue, and enables BW to, in effect, penalise continuous cruisers for not moving at a time when getting around the system is next to impossible because of winter stoppages.
Whatever the rights and wrongs it certainly seems greedy to charge nearly the same as a marina berth and offer nothing in return.
Homeless?
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| Home is where you tie up |
Living afloat without a permanent mooring is not difficult until you come into contact with officialdom.
Dealing with the NHS is an issue for many and some simply hang on to the GP they last had when living ashore, even if it means travelling hundreds of miles. Even if you have a GP on shore it can be difficult getting prescriptions from them.
It is always possible to go to the nearest GP with a copy of your repeat prescription, sign in as a temporary patient and ask them to issue a new one. The same applies if you are sick or injured.
If you are on the move and don’t have a shore base it is probably sensible to register with a GP in a town where you have easy access from the canal system and in an area where you are most likely to be over winter.
Most flexible NHS practises will allow you to register using a post restante address of a Post Office in their area – although it is best to explain that you live on a boat and ask if they could phone you with anything urgent. If you are really lucky you will get one like ours who will allow you to send them a stamped and addressed envelope with a repeat prescription. That way it can be returned to the nearest Post Office wherever you may be.
If you want a bus pass life gets more complicated – you need an address you see. One way is to go into the local council and ask. I found one that was particularly helpful. They explained that I needed to be on the electoral register to get a bus pass.
I was then sent to meet two embarrassed ladies in the electoral register office who explained that although they knew we lived on a boat the only way they could put us on the register was if we declared ourselves officially homeless and stated that we had ‘link’ with the local area.
I think they expected us to be offended but we are accustomed to such nonsense and signed the official form, giving the local Post Office as our post restante address.
Once on the register I could apply and the pass was in my hands a couple of weeks later. There are usually ways around the system and my advice is to be open and honest with officials, try to see them in person and be ready for the idiotic rules that are only geared up to deal with land-dwellers.
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