chances are you're watching this video because you're curious about living on a boat
today I want to show you what the narrowboat life looks like from above
our boat is called Alba and she's a 62 foot narrow boat which means she's less than seven foot wide
foreign
miles and I have been living on it for the past four years full time
we are continuous Cruisers which means we don't have a mooring or
an address and we travel around and move our home from place to place
please
foreign
boat can go on most canals and navigable Rivers and the canal Network in the UK stretches from
basing stroke in the South to Ulmer Scotland in the North going into Wales through Birmingham
that actually has more canals than Venice true fact so we could go almost anywhere
we've seen all sorts of weather on a boat winter snow spring snow Frost fog sunshine and everything
in between living So Close To Nature and having this opportunity to truly be in it is very special
on our boat we've gone through some amazing historic places one that stood out is Ken Hill
a flight of 29 locks with a rise of 237 feet over two miles and we did it twice on the way to Bath
and back we started our journey on the Grand Union canal and spent a year in London so we know all
about double Moorings and four hour water keys but there are huge perks of living in London on a boat
such as not having to rent but we're left after 10 months as the pandemic started
thanks to simple and genius engineering boats can go up and down Hills the easiest way to
understand a lock is by imagining it as a bath you open the puddles at the top
and open the ones at the bottom as a drain to empty it
generally there are no pumps or electric motors
River Thames is the exception though as looks here are mostly Electric
we Moor up in different places but our favorite Moorings are remote
hidden in The Meadows away from big cities and towns
narrowboats move pretty slowly around three miles per hour which is a walking speed
however on the River Thames the speed limit is eight kilometers per hour
the whites in kilometers so going Downstream can be more quick
boats require constant maintenance one of the biggest jobs we've done on Alba was painting the
roof this is the only time we stayed in a Boatyard that was in the marina it took two weeks and we
scraped the roof to Bare Metal as it had so many layers of paint on it that was completely flicking
off that was also the place where Alba was blacked it was taken out of the water the underneath was
painted with special anti-corrosion paint while we were painting the roof
we use our roof for storage as our home is so small but after painting it we had to keep
everything offered for weeks to let it dry getting everything back on was quite nerve-wracking
to get power in the summer we use solar one of the best investments we've ever made was
installing these rigid panels these two have already paid for themselves and for a few months
each year we don't need to run our engine for electricity at all we also have some affordable
solar panels that are very handy and in Winter we run the engine for one to two hours per day
this energy is stored in the batteries that we can use during the rest of the day and night
there are a few ways of getting water on a boat most of the time a way more up on the wood point
and fill up the tank sometimes it requires creativity currently we walk with a hundred
liter tank to a wood point on a trolley and then fill up the main water tank this way and once we
filled up straight from the river using one of our neighbors filtration system that pure Magic
living on a boat is teaching us a lot of lessons it's kind of like having a
part-time job looking after a boat but at the same time we're learning a lot
the engine needs to be serviced and maintained regularly batteries require special mindful
way of using and of course we use very little water making our water tank last us two weeks
all these skills and habits we acquired since
becoming voters and I doubt we would have learned them living in a house
a year and a half ago we had a couple of friends cruising with us
so we officially had a food tiller traveling together in a convoy on the river
there is a lot of other Craft on the Thames which is different from a canal it's fun to
see people taking advantage of the river as much as they can
in 2020 we came out on the river for the first time and to be honest we fell in love
so since then every summer we spent on the Thames it's just so nice to be able to go for a swim
whenever we want to and we also since acquired a paddle board which basically means we never leave
last year for the first time we decided to stay on the river over winter and experience
what it's like we knew it might flood so we were prepared and one day the flood came
the river passed its banks and The Meadows next to us turned into a lake it was so beautiful
also knowing it was a fleeting moment that comes only for a day
or two and not even every year made it feel even more special
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