Some people live on the water.
Some in a sedentary fashion, others in a vagabond style.
According to British Waterways which cares for “2,200 miles of the country’s canals and rivers”, the inland waterways in the UK, some 3000 ‘continuous cruisers’ got a license from them.
What distinguishes these ‘continuous cruisers’ that they have to move to a new spot every two weeks.
According to Wikipedia, “British Waterways
(BW) defines a continuous cruiser as a boat which is always on the move
(subject to a maximum stay of 14 days in any one location) and making
“reasonable progress” (limited backtracking and reasonable journey
lengths) between successive moorings. Anyone genuinely touring the
network has little difficulty meeting these criteria, except when
travelling conditions are poor or when canals are “stopped” (and
exceptions are allowed for these circumstances). Controversially, BW
“recommend” that a boater who keeps a log of their trip is less likely
to have problems justifying their CC credentials [2].”
In a detailed and humorous way, RBOA member Peter Earley gives his take on Life as a Continuous Cruiser, from toilets to arcane rules to weather warning.
RBOA by the way stands for Residential Boat Owners Association.
Self described loner, Narrowboat Bones offers us a view of Somerton Deep Lock (picture below, from his site) on August 14.
One of these Continuous Cruisers might be a good addition to our No Vacation Nation, Is Vagabonding the Right Medicine panel at South by Southwest.
Voting on the Panels ends on September 7 so You Can Still Jump in and give us the Thumbs Up.
It would add some color and expand the discussion beyond the US borders.
Life in the slow lane…