Community

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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 friends than I have ever in the 44 years I’ve lived in a house both here in the UK and back in Australia. 

When I bought my boat, it was almost like I joined an exclusive club. We all look out for each other. To give you an example, one boater recently knocked on my door as he’d lost his tap attachement for the water point…so I lent him mine. Moments later when his tank was full he returned with my tap attachment. It’s simple but this is just one of many example of how we help each other out. 

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