Getting there slowly

I know that this is all a bit amateurish but we all have to start somewhere. I am learning, albeit slowly. I have now managed to post a picture of GUELROSE onto the blog. This photo was taken at Snarestone on the Ashby Canal. Further photos will follow which will hopefully be in keeping with the text! Unfortunately this blog will not be a blog of what we are doing now. Elderly parents needing a lot of care has curtailed our cruising so this will be a little bit more of what we and ours did over the years since GUELROSE was built. I have written a couple of small articles for canal society bulletins, I am not too sure of copyright laws but as I wrote them I seen no reason why I shouldn't be able to repeat them here, although in a somewhat abbreviated form.

How it all began

N.b Guelrose was built by Colecraft in 1989. It was originally 60 feet long but was 'stretched' to 70 feet in 2004. My wife, Jenny, and I have lived on the boat since 2001 and have extensively cruised the canls of England and Wales. This will be our story.

It all began for me in 1958 when we hired a converted lifeboat from a boatyard at Maidenhead on the River Thames. We later went on to do the Fens and the Medway. In 1973 we ventured onto the canals. This was to be my wife's first boat trip - we have not looked back since.