Americans Try Narrowboating the UK for the First Time

down-town bath is something no Englishman has ever said!

My wife and I took a Black Prince narrow boat out for a few days on the Worcester Canal and had the absolute best time and so many laughs. My wife was still in recovery from cancer treatment so I did all the locks. At one point coming out of a lock in Worcester, she panicked about potentially hitting other boats so she left without me before I could jump back on so I just watched our boat chug away into the distance as there was no way other than to run around the marina. A kindly person on the tow path asked my wife if she needed assistance so when she said yes, he asked her to throw him a rope, which she did. Just a shame it wasn't attached to the boat. I eventually caught up by which time the rope situation had been resolved. Fun times. Would do it all over again in a heartbeat.

americans + a narrowboat + UK locks is a sitcom waiting to happen 😄 looks like such a good time

Love it. Great to see Americans doing other than the usual tour stuff over here. You did so well. Where I live in Warwickshire there are the Hatton locks. A flight of 21 locks. 'Stairway to heaven'.

Always keep a few bottles of beer and a few pies for the volunteer ' Lock Angels ' 😄

Thanks so much to you both, as well as, Black Prince! We had such a wonderful time on the Carmel. What a fantastic boat and beautiful adventure! A trip we’ll always remember. ❤️

You can't beat having a dog on a boat :-)

A lot of people are told that a City is a City because it has a Cathedral. This isn’t actually true. A city is given city status by the monarch. A town gets a royal charter to be a city, and then it’s a city. There are several towns with Cathedrals in the UK.

We had a family boat on that stretch of the Kennet & Avon for several years. Our kids grew up experiencing countless days on the water. My parents, us and our kids, often with a visiting friend or two along for the ride. Over the years we rarely slept overnight because we lived so close. The whole canal culture is something Britain should be so proud of and anyone who ever gets an opportunity to experience even a small taste of it really must. Life a 4MPH is how we were made to live it.

Glad I found your video, I worked on that cannal back in the eighties I made 12 sets of gates for that cannal over a year long contract. That was one of the best jobs I've had!

So glad you enjoyed your time on the canals, various groups around the country are working on bringing more sections of canals into water for people to enjoy.

Love holidays in England and I’m English!! great vid

I was the same the first time I hired! I was a nervous wreck but loved it so much that I’m having my own boat built! 🎉😂x

This looked HARD but also strangely enjoyable! Really forces you to slow down. Now I’m gonna go win that narrow boat trip!

I owned a narrow boat for over 10 years, when my wife and I retired we moved onto the boat and spent a year cruising from London to the north of England at 3 mph. It was wonderful, waking up in the morning trying to remember where you are and where you are aiming for that day is strange, then there’s the boating community which is lovely, if you ever break down, the first boat to pass will probably stop to help you. Then there’s the fact you’ve suddenly become a tourist attraction, everyone wants to talk to you and take photos and videos of you. Best of all is you’re so close to nature, surrounded by wildlife and fantastic scenery. Then there’s the challenges of the locks and tunnels. The longest tunnel was on the Huddersfield Narrow canal, which was made by men with pick axes and dynamite, it took me over an hour to get through it and it was scary. You have to wear a hard hat as the roof is so low which makes it hard to see where you are going, it’s pitch black and very damp in places, and it is not straight as you would expect of a modern tunnel. Instead it snakes left and right, with large rocks protruding from the sides. It certainly got my adrenaline going but it was also the highlight of our journey

I am a Bathonion ,and my sister has a canal boat at Bathhampton

Now do this with your youth center when your 10 12 and 14 years old in the early 90s with about 20 of you and then let the hilarity ensue great times. big up Ellesmere port boys club

My parents currently have a river cruiser but they used to have a wide beam boat. Those are the same as narrow boats but much wider. My husband and I borrowed it once. Just once. We made such a mess of using it! We were parking at Slimbridge and managed to accidentally break someone else’s mooring. They weren’t there and their boat was floating in the middle of the canal! Luckily, another couple were there with their boat and they helped us maneuver toget on board the floating boat and pull it back to shore. All of this was in front of about 30-50 people who were watching. It was so embarrassing!!!

Welcome to England❤. Glad you had a lovely time. Back in the ‘90s I was on a holiday on the Oxford Canal and met an American couple who had bought their own narrowboat and had retired to England. She played the harp and had her’s onboard. The wonderful thing about a narrowboat holiday is that it is two things - a boating holiday, and a walking holiday. For your next one, go from Napton on the Oxford Canal down to Oxford, then turn west on the Thames to Lechlade. It’s about a week for the return trip.

I love that you're doing something other than the regular tourist stuff. I love that you touched on the history of the canal network - a couple of thousand miles of waterways... dug entirely by hand! I had an uncle who lived on a canal boat and, although I've often considered it (so I'm very familiar with Black Prince) I've never done a canal trip like this. I'm quite envious. :-)