My narrow escape (Home)

As a prelude for my journey, which will start on Wed 10th May, I went to see the "Idle Women of the Wartime Waterways " show by Alarum Theatre in Horsenden Farm in Perivale this week. The day was cold and rainy and the show was supposed to be outdoors. Fortunately at the last minute a great indoors venue was found in the hayloft. The room was full and the audience enthusiastic (especially in the singing at the end). The home-made ginger beer laced with rum might have helped, too. The show deals with the stories of the young women, who were recruited to work the canal boats during WWII, while many of the men were off to war. The work must have been extremely hard and also dangerous, but judging from the show those who lasted through the training (some fled immediately when they saw the cramped living conditions and lack of plumbing on the boats!) took great pride in their work. For middle class women in the 1940s it must have been a hugely empowering feeling to manoeuvre 50

So many people write boat blogs about their journeys travelling the UK waterways and abroad, why add another one? I am not assuming that I can add something overly exciting or unique. But friends and family have asked to be kept up to date on what I am up to, so this is going to be my medium. And if anybody else finds it interesting, even better. (Do let me know if you do, I may need encouragement!) I bought my narrowboat Willum in summer 2016 in the West Midlands, cruised down to London and moved on board properly. After staying in a marina in West London throughout the winter and working to finance this little adventure, I am now setting out to cruise the English waterways over the summer together with my old and faithful cat Edward and friends in various places along the way. It has been a steep learning curve so far coming to grips with leaks, muddled electrics, rust, broken bits and bobs and making some improvements to make the boat more suitable to my own style of living aboard