So, 455 miles,
330 locks, that
sounds like the first six months of me living on a narrowboat.
6th of February I took delivery of Alice, my new 60 foot narrowboat.
I'd never lived on a narrowboat before so it was all completely new. I'd been on a holiday and had a two-day
Helmsman course, but that was about it. A
brand new experience for me and for Molly
and we've already put in some distance, and it certainly feels like I've let the nomad inside me out.
Starting on the Trent and Mersey canal we travelled southeast and then northeast up to the sort of Nottingham and Derby
area onto the River Trent, then the Upper Trent, then we came back down onto the River Soar.
Carrying South down the Leicester Line to the Grand Union Canal
which there we travelled west over to the South Stratford Canal.
Travelling down that to Stratford-upon-Avon out on to the River Avon. I was a bit wary about this
but the weather conditions when I went on it were fine, out onto the River Severn down to Gloucester
did the Gloucester and Sharpness Canal in full, then back up onto the River Severn up past Worcester.
And then we joined the Stratfordshire and Worcestershire Canal
I stayed for a short period of time at the Shropshire Union Canal
and that's where I changed my mind and decided to come back to Nottingham.
So we went back onto the Stratfordshire and Worcestershire Canal,
the Trent and Mersey, the River Trent, and to where I am now at the River Soar.
So it's been quite a busy six months, am I pleased?
You bet I am! it's a complete feeling of freedom, I
can go anywhere,
It feels like I can do anything, I know I can't, but it really feels very, very, very different.
There's no longer this sort of trapped into a house, trapped into a mortgage, trapped into debts.
I've met so many fantastic people along the way
As soon as you're on a boat for some reason
absolutely everyone talks to you, not only other boaters
but people on the towpath, people walking past. I have spent hours and hours and hours
talking, drinking with people I've never knew before
about the boat, about living on the waterways
and of course getting loads and loads of hints and tips from other boaters
everyone's very very open, very
friendly atmosphere
and that's the same virtually in all the cities and the countryside everyone's sort of very similar
and there certainly is a feeling that if ever you are in, in need of help
then boaters would stop and stop and help.
I've really enjoyed learning about Alice as well. How, how she navigates through the water
where the pivot points of turning are.
How fast she'll go, what erm, what it's like in different weather conditions.
when it's windy, when to travel, when not to travel.
I've done
359 hours on the clock so far
So I've done two services
That was also an education. I'd never serviced a boat in my life before
but I feel quite confident now that the next service will be fine.
I'd been through doing up a house, so I was familiar with living amongst
clutter, tools, mess, things that hadn't been finalised, that's what I was sort of used to.
I really enjoyed the travelling, I
drove back to Nottingham, specifically to fit Alice out and get all that job done.
But as soon as I got there I got a little bit bored, and I think I caught a bit of the the nomad bug
and I just wanted to travel I wanted to
see loads of different styles of canals, rivers, wide, thin, deep, shallow,
Six months on of course I've haven't even touched the surface of the amount of canals and waterways I could do
but I've done quite a number of miles. I've
got quite a number of different types of canals under my belt and now it feels right to
settle down in the in the Nottingham area ready to do the fit out
I'm aware that I need to do the fit out before the winter sets in
and I need to get
the paint job done before the winter sets in. I'm not worried with the amount of time It's taking me to do the fit out.
What, six months ago? I had, as my old neighbour called it, a
foam lined corridor to live in,
and now I've got a bedroom,
I've got a semi sort of bathroom, a semi sort of kitchen, and a semi sort of sitting room area.
all rough-and-ready, I'm aware of that, but
I've got hot and cold water. I've got central heating, got multi-fuel stove, the shower etc. So I've got all the essentials
Major points?
Throughout the, the time,
have been when I first installed the shower
washing out of the sink or
only at Canal and River Trust showers was, was tough.
I don't know if any of you have washed out of a sink before now, but that's, it's not marvellous.
So that was a major step when I had the shower installed,
the next major step
was the cooker.
To be able to cook
actual food
rather than everything being in ready meals in the microwave
It was really really fantastic.
The outside I haven't really decided yet
I'm toying between spraying
getting it sprayed probably with something like 2 Pack
Putting it into a polytunnel and getting that done
versus the Roller and Brush method
I'm tending towards, tending to lean towards the latter purely because
I can touch up and I can
repaint bits and pieces when they get damaged as I cruise along rather than think "right okay? It's now time for
spray painting again"
If there's a scratch or a nick or I drop something I
can just touch the paint up if I've done it with a roller and a brush, that's my thinking
please let me know in the comments below if you think spraying is much better than
painting by
roller and brush, or if you think that roller and brush is much better than
spray, please do let me know because I'm still a bit undecided.
That's probably why I haven't actually had it done yet because I don't really know what I
want it's almost as though I don't know what I don't know.
We're so lucky in Britain for the amount of wildlife we have.
Constant amount of
fish in the water
different types of birds, there's Moorhens, there's Swans, there's black Swans. There's Herons
and there's loads and loads of other wildlife
I don't even know the names of, but you're constantly seeing them and they are so close to you
you know never before have I been
preparing breakfast
and a Swan sticks its head through the window
or
have I ever opened the front door and had a couple of Ducks
sitting in the bow deck
soaking up the sun. It's very very different. It feels very back to nature and it's absolutely fantastic.
Some of you have asked about Molly, has she enjoyed it?
how has she taken to the water? how has she taken to living on the boat? Well, as far as I can see
She's absolutely loving it. She loves the outdoors. She loves running up and down
towpaths, Rivers, jumping in the water
She's learned very quickly not to jump in the water when on the boat
even though she sort of,
you would think a Lab would because Lab, Labradors absolutely love water
I've now trained it into her enough that
when she's on board she stays on board, and there's no thought of even going in the water.
And then what? Eleven and a half weeks ago, I started this new crazy thing called
Journey with Jono on YouTube, I'd never had a channel before
Okay, I've had the filming and editing experience for News.
I struggled at the beginning. I thought how, why on Earth would anyone want to watch
Molly and I
cruise along the canals or fit a boat out
and I was worried that I wouldn't even get to like, a hundred subscribers
Four thousand one hundred and something or other later, I'm
absolutely
blown away
with
how many people across the world are interested in living off the grid, living on a canal boat
and how
fitting it out, and how living with Molly and what it's like.
So many questions so many comments. Thank you, so so much for all of you
I'm absolutely blown away by it all
It's not easy!
but the the thought of the comments and the views coming in is just
It spurs me on every single week it's fantastic.
Even though I've done some 359 hours of engine time and
hundreds and hundreds of miles around the network.
I have only
scratched the surface of the amount of canals and rivers I can explore.
I've got so much of the network I haven't even touched
and that's going to take me years and years, and I'm really
excited about the prospect of having
constant new areas and new things to explore.
The Boat Will improve,
you know once it's fitted out, once it's painted.
I'll enjoy the relaxation inside.
Instead of sitting on some garden furniture watching the telly.
I've got all this to experience. I've got the complete freedom.
It's not particularly easy I must say,
living off-grid as I've said in other videos, It's quite a task,
but I'm really grasping it and I'm learning it and I'm loving the experience of learning it.
I've got so much to learn, so much to do,
It's going to take me years and years and years
and that, the thought of that is very daunting to some I know it would be and the thought of
not having a boat completely fitted out before you move onboard not alone live onboard
is quite
scary to some but I'm absolutely
loving it. So many different people, different places, different things, learning different things and changing things as I go along
it's like a moving target and
best thing I've ever done.