Do you always plan your journeys or do you ever just set off?

[Zayna]

We've not had chance to do much boating this year due to circumstances, but we've a week off work shortly and are going to spend it on the boat.

 

Every journey so far has been researched and planned because they were missions to get the boat from a to b, but I fancy just setting off and seeing where we end up. Is that reckless? I will look where the stoppages are before we leave, but we've had a tough old year and we just feel like getting lost for a while.

[Paul C]

This summer we planned a trip but stoppages prevented it and at one point we were literally making it up from day to day. If you have a little flexibility on your return time, then its not too much of a worry. We ended up going to places we'd never have done otherwise (and a few we'll never do again!)

[Naughty Cal]

We have to plan our trips in advance as we have to plan them around tide times.

 

I actually quite enjoy sitting down and planning the trips and working out the tide times.

 

For bigger trips like next years summer holiday to the Scottish Borders planning starts well in advance. We have started planning that one already working out fuel stops, ports to stop at and places to visit. Then there is the route planning and calculating waypoints and then inputting them into the plotter.

 

Have just done the chart plotting for our trip to Kings Lynn at the end of this month and working out the tide timings.

[Guest]

Both ~ Sometimes we plan sometime we just up sticks and head off.....

[mrsmelly]

We've not had chance to do much boating this year due to circumstances, but we've a week off work shortly and are going to spend it on the boat.

 

Every journey so far has been researched and planned because they were missions to get the boat from a to b, but I fancy just setting off and seeing where we end up. Is that reckless? I will look where the stoppages are before we leave, but we've had a tough old year and we just feel like getting lost for a while.

That would depend on circumstances. We plan a bit when rivers etc are used on say just a short trip of up to a month but on long trips of say six months or a year or so we just set off and do whatever we please.

 

Tim

[Kwacker]

We just go .... on our first 1 week cruise we stayed for 2 nights just 1/2 hour from our mooring because it was so beautiful at that moment in time. I don't like having a target, as it means deadlines, and narrowboats are not good at those.

Go, and take it as it comes.

[Mac of Cygnet]

 

For bigger trips like next years summer holiday to the Scottish Borders planning starts well in advance.

I'm presuming you'll be going to Berwick, then. Or further north? How far up is the Tweed navigable in your boat? You won't be in the Scottish Borders unless you go up the Tweed or past Berwick (which is of course in England).

[Naughty Cal]

We are hopefully going to Eyemouth.

 

Of course much will be weather dependant with a trip like this. We could end up stuck in Grimsby for two weeks which wouldn't bd great!

 

The only thing that will stop us doing this one is foul weather or bad sea conditions. I just hope we have not used up all of our good luck this year!

[Nightwatch]

We used to plan our trips and went miles and miles passing through many locks etc.

 

We have found that the enjoyment is not diminished in any way by just setting off and see where we end up. For a recent two week break we got as far away as an average two day cruise.

 

Martyn

[NickF]

I get almost as much pleasure from the planning as the doing! I never plan right down to the detail of where to stop each night as I prefer to just moor up when we have had enough or when we see somewhere nice! The less rigid the plan the more relaxing the trip.

Nick

[DeanS]

I think it's best of both worlds. You work out where you need to get to to fill up water etc....and then spend the days between competely unplanned...mooring up when you see something you like etc. SOOOO much is missed when you "have to be somewhere" . The point was driven home on the L&L......I came through a bridge...and was immediately in a wonderland...a steep hill to one side with 3 goats grazing....overhanging trees....beaaauuuuutiful....unfortunately another boater had already found it, and was well and truly moored up....so I had to go look for another piece of heaven.

 

edited to add....and VMs....are NOT where you want to spend your days.......the BEST places are moored on a towpath, with a plank to get on and off your boat. FACT.

Edited September 8, 2013 by DeanS

[mrsmelly]

I think it's best of both worlds. You work out where you need to get to to fill up water etc....and then spend the days between competely unplanned...mooring up when you see something you like etc. SOOOO much is missed when you "have to be somewhere" . The point was driven home on the L&L......I came through a bridge...and was immediately in a wonderland...a steep hill to one side with 3 goats grazing....overhanging trees....beaaauuuuutiful....unfortunately another boater had already found it, and was well and truly moored up....so I had to go look for another piece of heaven.

 

edited to add....and VMs....are NOT where you want to spend your days.......the BEST places are moored on a towpath, with a plank to get on and off your boat. FACT.

Hi Dean

 

For a newbie you sure have hit the nail on the head. VMs are a last resort for us, middle of nowhere is vastly superior in most cases. It is usual to only have to moor about half a mile from vms and be in a vastly superior location.

 

Tim

[DeanS]

Hi Dean

 

For a newbie you sure have hit the nail on the head. VMs are a last resort for us, middle of nowhere is vastly superior in most cases. It is usual to only have to moor about half a mile from vms and be in a vastly superior location.

 

Tim

 

I think the penny dropped when we did the L&L trip last month....when you have so many miles of towpath and beautiful scenery....WHY would anyone want to moor bow to stern with other boaters on a VM, and look at iron mooring rings, concrete, and security gates....no thanks I left a baby birdie , and came back having learned to FLY...lol

[Kwacker]

I think it's best of both worlds. You work out where you need to get to to fill up water etc....and then spend the days between competely unplanned...mooring up when you see something you like etc. SOOOO much is missed when you "have to be somewhere" . The point was driven home on the L&L......I came through a bridge...and was immediately in a wonderland...a steep hill to one side with 3 goats grazing....overhanging trees....beaaauuuuutiful....unfortunately another boater had already found it, and was well and truly moored up....so I had to go look for another piece of heaven.

 

edited to add....and VMs....are NOT where you want to spend your days.......the BEST places are moored on a towpath, with a plank to get on and off your boat. FACT.

Spot on! (run out of greenies - sorry)

[mrsmelly]

 

I think the penny dropped when we did the L&L trip last month....when you have so many miles of towpath and beautiful scenery....WHY would anyone want to moor bow to stern with other boaters on a VM, and look at iron mooring rings, concrete, and security gates....no thanks I left a baby birdie , and came back having learned to FLY...lol

Hi Dean

 

And yes thats why I am not worried about CART and their maybe/maybe not position of reducing or charging for vms after a couple of days or whatever. There is still a huge amount of places just outside most villages/towns/citiesto moor as there always has been.

 

Tim

[Québec]

“Wanderer, your footsteps are the road, and nothing more;

wanderer, there is no road, the road is made by walking.

By walking one makes the road,

and upon glancing behind one sees the path that never will be trod again.

Wanderer, there is no road-- Only wakes upon the sea.

 

Caminante, son tus huellas el camino, y nada más;

caminante, no hay camino, se hace camino al andar.

Al andar se hace camino, y al volver la vista atrás se ve la senda que nunca se ha de volver a pisar.

Caminante, no hay camino, sino estelas en la mar.”

 

Antonio Machado

 

(yes, I plan, but it's always in the knowledge (and hope) that something will happen on the way for them to change)

[Ange]

We bimble sometimes. We dash sometimes. If you don't live aboard your boat the real secret to canal freedom is being happy to leave your boat, go home, then go back and move it over a series of weekends when you're back working again. That's what we did when we first moved aboard - it's scarey at first (I cried!) but you soon find out that the canals aren't full of robbers and thieves and you'd be very unlucky to have your boat interfered with.

 

As for plans - we were meant to be on the K&A this summer - we've bimbled up the Shroppie, been down and up the Anderton lift twice and are now on our way to the Macc

[Burgiesburnin]

If I just wing it without a plan then I am always afraid that there is a better place to overnight just around the next corner. Often there isn't and having gone past a good place, the pot of gold around the corner isn't there and you wish you had stopped after all.

If you make a plan and keep to it you don't worry what's around the bend.

[paddy r]

every year i say to the boss"i think we'll go to Ellesmere port this year"..........Still haven't got there!

[PaulG]

We usually only get one chance a year to do a 2 or 3 week cruise, so our general route is planned, and usually the first couple of days stopping places. Usually we need diesel, water, gas, food & drink etc. and rather than rush around doing all this before we go, we find it's more relaxing just to get these things as we go along. After that, we tend to just stop where we feel like it, usually somewhere with a tempting pub nearby.

E'r Indoors and myself often have a chat first thing in the morning over a cup of coffee and Pearson's, and, having received my orders for the day, off we go.

I've found that cruises that are planned to the last detail, like most battle plans, don't usually survive the first contact with the enemy.

[i love my narrowboat]

We've not had chance to do much boating this year due to circumstances, but we've a week off work shortly and are going to spend it on the boat.

 

Every journey so far has been researched and planned because they were missions to get the boat from a to b, but I fancy just setting off and seeing where we end up. Is that reckless? I will look where the stoppages are before we leave, but we've had a tough old year and we just feel like getting lost for a while.

If its anything like the year we are having,just go for it and enjoy your journey.

[Zayna]

We bimble sometimes. We dash sometimes. If you don't live aboard your boat the real secret to canal freedom is being happy to leave your boat, go home, then go back and move it over a series of weekends when you're back working again. That's what we did when we first moved aboard - it's scarey at first (I cried!) but you soon find out that the canals aren't full of robbers and thieves and you'd be very unlucky to have your boat interfered with.

 

As for plans - we were meant to be on the K&A this summer - we've bimbled up the Shroppie, been down and up the Anderton lift twice and are now on our way to the Macc

This is what my chap wants to do, leave the boat, go back to work, go back to the boat at weekend and move on. It scares the bejeepers out of me, I don't want to just leave my boat in the middle of nowhere... or the middle of somewhere come to that...

[Kwacker]

This is what my chap wants to do, leave the boat, go back to work, go back to the boat at weekend and move on. It scares the bejeepers out of me, I don't want to just leave my boat in the middle of nowhere... or the middle of somewhere come to that...

We've done this on several occasions, and the boat has always been fine. However, the resulting weekends are not very relaxing in my opinion, as you spend almost as much time driving as boating, with very little time spent relaxing and admiring the view.

[Naughty Cal]

This is what my chap wants to do, leave the boat, go back to work, go back to the boat at weekend and move on. It scares the bejeepers out of me, I don't want to just leave my boat in the middle of nowhere... or the middle of somewhere come to that...

We have had to do this a couple of times (both due to flooding) and even though we have left the boat in places we know and believe to be safe places it has still been difficult.

[Zayna]

We have had to do this a couple of times (both due to flooding) and even though we have left the boat in places we know and believe to be safe places it has still been difficult.

When you say difficult, do you mean you don't like leaving your boat or it's been difficult to find somewhere safe, or difficult logistically?

 

Sorry to be a pain and keep going on about it...