Clayworth to West Stockwith, Chesterfield Canal Monday 18th September 2023 The start of this part of our journey to Cheshire had been less than auspicious. Train services south from Newcastle, and into Newcastle, were severely disrupted because of an incident near Northallerton. Some trains were delayed, and some were cancelled, which meant that the ones […]
I wasn’t going to write about this part of our boating experience. We were taking Derwent Lass to Goole to have her bottom sandblasted and epoxied. It wasn’t going to be a fun trip, it was going to be work. We were on a tight schedule and there wouldn’t be time when we’d finished for […]
Monday 17th April 2023 Bank Newton to Foulridge After a bit of a hiatus caused partly by the need to recover from my total hip replacement, and partly by cold weather, we were able to resume our boating activities. This time, Bob and Shirley took the boat to Leeds and then turned west on the […]
One thing about the waterways is ‘stoppages’. A stoppage is when the waterway is closed, for whatever reason. Sometimes they’re planned, to allow necessary and welcome maintenance of the locks or towpaths, and these usually happen in the winter when not many people are cruising anyway. But sometimes they are announced by the Canal and […]
20th April 2022 – Mirfield to Wakefield Ian hadn’t specified a departure time, but I knew it would be about half an hour before I was ready to go. Predictably, the summons to ‘cast off at the front’ came while I was still consuming my second cup of tea. Derwent Lass was pointing in the […]
We realised we could stay on Derwent Lass without actually doing any boating, and once I’d recovered from Covid, Ian couldn’t wait to go down to Yorkshire for a few days and make sure everything was still in working order and shipshape for our next trip as soon as it was warm enough. The boat […]
What Ian really wanted to do was to go on a long cruise. Four to six weeks. The Diary Queen had other ideas though, and eventually a compromise was reached. Just under four weeks, with leave of absence for me on 6th October to go to the dentist, babysit Ali, and go to book group. […]
23 August 2021 One thing we had hoped for when we bought the boat was that the family would be able to share the boat with us. The end of the school summer holidays seemed a good time to initiate Lucy and Dominic into narrowboating. We coordinated our respective departures from home so that we […]
14th June 2021 The plan was, that we would spend a week on Derwent Lass, reserving two days for Ian to install some solar panels on the roof, and have an additional battery fitted by Bronte Boats. I could amuse myself in various ways according to my whim – sorting out cupboards, cleaning, taking photographs, […]
Oh the excitement when you have a home on the water again. There was some urgency about finding a permanent mooring for Derwent Lass. She had been moored at a boatyard in Shipley while she was having her bottom blacked, and they needed the space and wanted us to leave as soon as possible. After […]
Narrowboating in Yorkshire 