I woke up with so much excitement
Today is summer solstice The sky looks really pretty in pink
Even Myles got up with me even though he pretended to be unhappy
So we watched the sunrise together
I made a cup of cacao and set an intention
for today and for the year ahead
It blows my mind when I stop for a second and just think
About what I am witnessing
There is this
incredible force of gravity that spins our massive cosmic body
our beautiful Earth around the Sun
It's just a miracle and we get to
witness it every day
We just need to stop for a second and look up
Mornings like this is just another
opportunity to get out of my head and look beyond
myself, feel more connected to Nature and what is going on in the great big
world outside my skin
Welcome to Cruising Alba
We invite you to join us on our adventure living off-grid
and travelling the UK canal network
I'm Myles
and I'm Marina
(music)
Hello!
You've made some progress today
Because it's an awkward shape I'm just
cutting them out one by one and I think i've got the shape right
I just need to take some length off
The electric saw that we bought unfortunately was completely useless
so Myles cut the door out using a tiny
hacksaw
(music)
You ready to have a door?
What do you think so far about living in a river
versus canal?
It's not as different as I thought it was going to be
I feel a lot more people especially here using
the river
everyone here has got a canoe or a paddleboard
or even a day boat in the village marina
I think that's really nice
I love the river purely because you can swim in it
and it gives you a different
meaning to having a boat
a bit more boaty, yeah a bit more boaty
And the place that we are moored at this time is
beautiful because there is no tow path next door we're just by the field
We've got this massive garden with cows so it's been a really
really fun
(music)
They are really close
They came up really close
They were a meter away from me I was so scared
Today was amazing
We built a bathroom/bedroom door that we dreamed of for a whole year
The bedroom should stay drier
because the shower steam wouldn't escape there
The bathroom feels a lot more complete and the bedroom feels
super cozy
We are so pleased with ourselves
NO! Why are you eating my plants? Get away!
You can't eat the flowers!
In the morning the cows came back to
lick the boat Their tongues must be so rough that when
they lick the steel it sounds incredibly loud inside
a lot more dramatic than it actually is
It's as if they are scraping the paint off with the sandpaper
At 5am
Cows!
It's a glorious day today so i'm treating myself to my own version of a
triathlon
Something that I can't do on a canal
It's lunch time i'm gonna go to the shops because I need to get Myles
a specific brand of hay fewer tablets
And also we are running really low and Oatly
and that is not acceptable
It's about 20 minutes walk and I should be able to get an ice cream
It's really hot today it's 29 degrees
I reckon I'm gonna go for a swim more than once
I just came back from the shop and I'm really happy that I went because I found
a health food store
I've got a few bits
First of all, they had natural clothing
that was ethically we made and I spotted a couple of blankets
that I really want to get for the boat
They've got a range of organic spices so
I've got cayenne pepper and soda I've run out of soda for
washing because I need to wash all of these curtains
oh this
Look at this
Found this amazing new notepad which I
absolutely love
so I'm really happy that I found that shop and I will go
back there
Is that it?
I'm going in I just need a second
I do want an engine though I would use this so much if I had an engine
I would use it every day at least every weekend
I really would
There's an army of swans Is it safe?
Get away!
We touched that up not long ago but not very well
I knew a sausage dog that had to have a cup of tea
What?!
Yeah it was decaf
What?! Decaf tea
It might be a ferret or something
We made friends with our neighbour John and he invited us over one night
So we had a few drinks and exchanged some boat stories
It was a lovely lovely evening
Oh yeah I just chucked all the chips in there
Are they in the water? Yeah i took them down here
No they're, they are they're eating them chips
Okay they're really funny because they come really close you can like look in
their eyes
They're really cool ones I like these ones
There is the last chip on there You can do it! You can take it!
Almost there! How long am I gonna sit here?
Yes we need to clear out these little drain holes on the window
Because it's raining this is filling up with water
and then running down to the back of the boat where it's lowest
and then dripping down and pouring down
Done!
Our poor apple tree was eaten so we use the cow putty as a fertilizer
Hopefully that will give it enough nutrients to grow new leaves
So many fun things happened while we were in Lechlade
One day a cow fell in the river
Myles jumped
in the dinghy to try and guide the cow from the water
but our friend Gregg who was visiting had a smart trick up his sleeve
that worked wonderfully
Well done good boy
Hey, hello! he's like dry me please!
We are going for a walk maybe about half
an hour walk there's a really nice old Roundhouse that we've been
recommended to check out
and we need to get some food looks like
it's not gonna rain for the next few hours
(music)
We trusted a weather report that it's not gonna rain and we didn't bring it brolly
So we're now hiding under a tree hoping that it's gonna go away shortly
It will
What have you done today?
I took the
dinghy out of the water drained all the water that built up
inside underneath the fiberglass patched up some holes, what else were
It hasn't rained for ages and then
all of a sudden we have a bit of rain and we found a leak
underneath the window so I sealed up some bits of the window hopefully
that helps
the cows have eaten our apple tree
Hold on tea is ready!
and tea is ready
We've got about three leaves left probably had
I don't know 50?
so I cleaned the insides of the windows today but we
really need to do the outside
but we can't do those ones because
they'll get licked by the cows
Why are they licking the windows?
I don't know!
What else are they licking? Everything!
The dinghy, I've actually left it out in case they clean it maybe I should flip
it over so they can get the bottom
Maybe i should flip it over!
They lick the boat, they lick the windows the tire
literally everything, they suck on the ropes try and pull the pins out
they're they're not nice cows
I'm trying not to laugh and
not to shake the camera
They're adorable though i'm gonna have
to scare them away so they don't come back
No, they're very curious creatures
Yeah they are curious
It's 9:30 I woke up this morning at about 5:45
and I did my cacao and I wanted to
meditate but i was sitting at the back and
all of the cows came over and started chewing ropes, licking the boat and stuff
so kind of got interrupted so I was just
about to sit down and meditate now but I heard something
in the water so i ran out and I couldn't see I just heard
something there and I had to run up to it and it was a dog
in the river trying to get out but the
banks are quite high and it's quite deep by the bank so it couldn't jump up
so I saved it and then I kept looking around I couldn't see the owner
and then maybe a minute or two later I could see
this man coming over
He lost her he couldn't find her anywhere
obviously you
couldn't see her
The only reason I heard her because
I'm a boat so it's quite low in water so
I'm kind of on the same level with where the dog was
Attempt number two at meditating I'm gonna try and do it now although I'm
really excited
As we didn't make it to the Roundhouse the other day we're going for a row
and try and get there by boat instead however it's pretty windy This is our last evening in Lechlade too
We are leaving tomorrow
I used to be a very important town because it is located on the intersection
of road and river traffic between London and Bristol
and especially in times of war when sailing the channel was dangerous
(music)
Thank you so much for watching guys
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Next week I get surrounded by cows
and completely cut off from Alba but i'll be okay
and we set off from Lechlade to discover the rest of the river
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