Winter

Winter is one the most challenging times as a fulltime liveaboard on a cruiser, well for any boater really but I think especially if you’re living on a cruiser. The days get shorter with the sun setting at 4pm. It gets cold, it rains a lot and is generally much more unpleasant than during spring, summer or even autumn. 

First Winter (2019/20)

This is my first winter on board my boat and to be fair, it hasn’t been as bad as I was expecting…in fact it’s been quite mild. The coldest it’s been was when I was up on the Ashby Canal at the start of December when the temperature dropped to -5C with the canal freezing over on several occasions and many frosty mornings. 

At one point I didn’t cope when I had run out of coal and was trying to keep warm, lighting fires with damp foraged firewood. It prompted to think about booking myself into a marina so I’d have an electric hookup or find a winter mooring provided by the CRT so I’d be around other boats for support. But after the ice had melted, I decided to try and get as far south as possible as many others had hinted that the weather is better down south than it is up north. So that’s what I did. I left the Ashby canal, rejoined the Coventry canal and then hit the Oxford canal just after Christmas. At the time this article was published I got as far down as Napton on the Hill. Unfortunately my boat became stuck on the flight there so I turned around and spent a week at the bottom of the flight, and several nights at an awesome pub called The Folly. As I couldn’t do the flight of locks, I returned to Rugby. 

One of the hardest parts about winter is cruising with exposure to the elements. Even with multiple layers and my wool cap, being stationary in one spot while cruising I would get quite cold after just a couple of hours. My hands would get cold and while I wore gloves, my hands would still get cold and of course, wearing gloves makes it difficult to operate my video equipment. Also I’ve found that my toes would get cold, again, even with multiple sock layers on. On the flip side, the canals are generally a lot more quiet than in the summer time…less boats means you have more canal to yourself and doesn’t take as long to do locks etc. 

Winter isn’t over yet and I could still endure weeks of unfavourable weather but so far I am coping with it. We’ve past the winter solstice and the days are gradually getting longer now with some beautiful sunny days to be had. It’s still cold and at times extremely windy which is another element that isn’t exactly good for cruising around in. But it appears as though the worst is over and very soon it will be spring again…and then summer. AB