Retirement with No Problem

Moored Norbury Junction, Shropshire Union Canal

The refit of the back half of No Problem is going well despite Norbury Wharf Boatyard’s staff having to get ready for a big Open Day on Saturday.  There is a beer tent open from noon onwards and lots of boaty things going on including a canal art demonstration.  I will do both those two for a start!  I have always fancied doing a bit of canal art but doubt I would be any good as I was always bottom of the art class at school!

I remember getting a detention once for not being able to draw.. Very demoralising that was, so the next time we had art homework I asked my Dad to help me.. guess what, I got a detention for that too because it was too good!!

Anyway I will look in at the demonstration on Saturday and see if I can have a go..

In the meantime we have been doing some maintenance aboard No Problem.  Vic doing a balancing trick on the front deck renewing the tyre around our front fender..

I am rather hard on the front fender inside the locks tending to sit NP on the gates.. we gonna have to renew that fender too at some stage, but it is good enough for now.

Today we caught the little mini bus from the pub here to Stafford to fetch some fresh groceries.. it went through loads of little villages picking up people along the route.  This bus only runs on a Thursday would you believe, and the passengers all knew one another.. oh apart from us.  I think it is the same passengers every week!

On the way back one old fella got off the bus and complained to the driver that the bus was too crowded, not only with people but with all the bags full of goodies from the town.. “The bus is too crowded now, it is suppose to be for us country folk!” I guess we were the strangers.. but hey it is a proper bus route albeit in a tranny mini bus!

Some pictures for you from 2004, it was at the beginning of the year that I retired fully and we would be really brave and go north to the Leeds and Liverpool Canal..

Leaving the Kennet & Avon Canal we travelled up the Thames.. my first time on the river.  I remember being very nervous, but once I settled down I really enjoyed.. Here is one moment that I will always remember…

Two rowing boat eights passing me, one on each side.  We had a great trip along the Thames in glorious weather during March, and we made our way north during the spring via a trip on the Caldon Canal, which we really must visit again.. We joined the Leeds & Liverpool at Wigan..

This was an exciting time because it is where my family on my Mother’s side comes from.  There are none left that I know of now though.  I would love to have visited the town again, but we were quite unsure about leaving the boat.. not very experienced at that time, this was our first cruise..

In Blackburn we picked up what is still the largest object every caught around the prop by us..

It actually stopped us mid channel, and we drifted for a while before another narrowboat came along and nudged us into the side.  It took Vic over an hour of cutting and hacking at this before it finally emerged…

And with the help of another boater we managed to drag it out and on to the towpath, a 4ft interior sprung mattress no less.  I guess it was probably pushed back into the canal at some stage later, but it was far too heavy to carry it anywhere.

We really enjoyed the canal travelling through some spectacular countryside, and it was at Gargrave on the 1^st July 2004 that the first No Problem Blog appeared.  I had been to see Elton John at Wembley and my first nervous short post was about that.. well I had to start somewhere!

The pictures are somewhat smaller on the earlier blogs, I think that was down to the fact that mobile internet was not good in those days and anything larger would not upload to the servers.

Through York and Leeds and on up.. to the furthest place that we could cruise to.. and time for thought of our first spring and early summer…

This is Ripon Canal Basin.. I was just sitting there with Lucy thinking what a wonderful life living on a narrowboat was.  But a hairy, exciting return to the canals would be in the future, more of which tomorrow..