Boatwear

-

July 2020

Having now lived on the boat for over a year and survived all four seasons, I have concluded that I don’t need most of the clothes I brought on board with me initially and that got me thinking about another article to write about. What exactly do I wear living on a boat in England?

The clothes I recycled included a couple of pairs of dress jeans, suit pants and smart-casual business type shirts, none of which I’ve worn since moving onto the boat. Living on the canals is one of the most casual of anywhere you’ll find in the country. I dare say the same applies to boating communities in most other parts of the world. People wear what they like…it’s all very casual and not formal in any way. 

Summer

Over the summer, I’ll wear a pair of shorts and t-shirt or vest (singlet) but sometimes on cooler or wet days, I’ll often put on a pair of lightweight trousers and a pair of hiking boots with cotton socks. That’s it for summer…all fairly easy.

Winter

Winter is quite complicated in comparison to summer. Layers is my word de jour. I never understood the concept of layers until I arrived in Manchester at the end of April to realise how important your layering system needs to be. 

Keffiyeh - a versatile piece of clothing



Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Community

-
In the 4 years I’ve lived in the UK, one of the things I love most about boating life is the sense of community. When we moved to Stockport, south of Manchester, one of the first tasks I did was to go around to each of my neighbours with a jar of my home cooked jam to introduce myself. Since then, only one of neighbours bothered to befriend us. Now I’m not saying I expect everyone to become my best overnight but at least it would have been nice to get to know my neighbours.  One of them, a lovely old lady called Peggy actually went out of her way to get to know us, invited us round for tea and looked after our cats when we went away. She was the only one in the entire 2 years we lived there. Most never bothered to give us the time of day, let alone anything else.   With boating, there is always an opportunity of getting to know your neighbours. Again, I don’t expect everyone to become my best friend but in the year I’ve been cruising I can honestly say I’ve developed more...
Read more

Biodiesel: The future of fuel

-
Image
With the economic climate pinching at all levels, one of my mates has taken it upon himself to make his very own biodiesel. The blend still uses diesel fuel but at significantly reduced quantities.  The ingredients for his unique blend consist of the following:   He takes used vegetable "chippy" oil, combines it with engine oil (which also includes products like gear box oil, transmission oil etc) and filters it down to 3.5microns using Hoover vacuum cleaning bags.  Then he adds diesel, a proportion of petrol, white spirit and cetane. The end result is a lovely mix of biofuel, which not only uses 75% less diesel but also uses products that would otherwise be discarded and possibly not recycled.  With a 180L fuel tank, it costs me anywhere between £150 and £200 to fill my tank. With my mates biofuel, my costs would be reduced by 75%. So once the warranty is up on my rebuilt engine, I plan to try out his biofuel.  He said he already uses his biofuel in his ca...
Read more

Cabin Fever

-
Being cooped up in a small space for extended periods of time can have adverse affects on one’s wellbeing, especially when one lives in a very small cruiser. Flying on a long haul flight can have similar affects on your body and mind.  When I first began cruising, after only a month, I was up on the Macclesfield Canal when I suffered from cabin fever for the first time. Not realising exactly what was happening, I woke up at midnight. It had been raining constantly for 4 days and I hadn’t been outside and I began to get depressed. I began to worry about anything and everything and it seemed like the world was about to cave in.  At the time, I was moored up with other boaters and one of them I befriended, invited me into his boat for some tea and a chance to chill out. He told me this little saying which has stuck with me ever since.  “Your Boat Is Your Shelter. It’s where you eat, sleep, shit, keep warm and dry. Life is on the outside.” My friend is absolutely spot on. For...
Read more