Author: travurple

We spent a week in the Isle of Man lockdown packing up the house so we could leave the island on the Sunday evening Steam Packet ferry. 

Thankfully we have some very good friends who are arranging to remove the piles of stuff we have been unable to take to the charity shops and tip, due to the lockdown – thanks again you know who you are!

Given that the ferry doesn’t get in to Heysham until 23:45, we planned to stay in a Premier Inn in Lancaster, which we are able to do under the current UK Covid restrictions as we are moving home. 

The plan was then driving to Rugby to the Narrowboat!

Plans Change! (recently it appears all plans change!)  Our Ferry crossing was cancelled as the Steam Packet had an issue with staff self-isolating and they were running a reduced service,  so we then booked onto the 8:45am Ferry on Sunday, 

On the Friday, after loading 75% of our stuff in our van, we drove it to Port Erin and it lost power a couple of times ?? thinking it might be us not using the gears correctly, we took it out again just after 5pm and it lost all power, only managing about 15/20 mph. We rang the garage where we bought it (Phil Shaw) who told us he used Bailey’s garage for all his mechanical work, so we rang Bailey’s, after a couple of calls , we were told someone would be in the workshop Saturday morning at 10am if we could get the van there. As we were heading to Douglas anyway, we took the van straight there.  Garage all in darkness and locked up L, however one of the team appeared asking if we were looking for them, he opened up again, connected the diagnostics to the van there and then !! …. sadly not able to fix it,  but provided a courtesy car and said they would look again at the the van first thing in the morning, as it is only 2 years old this may involve a trip to Ocean Ford (it still has a Ford warranty) ! 6pm on a Friday in the middle of a pandemic lock down – stunning service !!

Rolling on to Saturday morning, the garage rang back  to say a fuel injector was not working, and given the van is still under a ford warranty, it needed to go to Ocean Ford to be fixed! got to Ocean Ford at 10am, who managed to fix it by 11: 45am, So we were still good to go!

After an early start on the Sunday, a bit of a shock to the system after a video dinner party with friends on the Saturday evening, we had a smooth crossing to Heysham and an uneventful drive to Rugby.

Premier Inn at Rugby North Newbold – friendly staff and comfy bed!

Monday 15^th March – Picked up “Life in Slow Motion” at 2pm after the engineer replaced the fridge!

Spend two days unpacking – what fun! 

Up to Tuesday 16 March 2021 ….. to be continued.

We were not planning on doing a blog, but after so many people have asked us how we were going to keep in touch and how could they follow our travels, we have succumbed to the peer pressure, so here goes for our first blog entry. 

The original plan was to leave the island on 1 March 2020 and spend a month in an AirBnB in Pocklington (near York) close to our family, after not seeing them for so long due to Covid restrictions. Unfortunately the Covid restrictions relating to the mixing of households in England have not yet been lifted, so there seems no point in going to Pocklington. 

Then on the 1^st April, we were to pick up a narrowboat called “Peter Pan” on the Grand Union canal, somewhere near Watford.  But plans change! We are now picking up a narrowboat called “Life in Slow Motion” near Rugby on the Oxford canal on the 15^th March; our new home until 30 September.  (photos of “Life in Slow Motion” to follow)

In these strange times, we will be “live-aboard” boaters, however currently due to Covid restrictions only essential boat movements are allowed,  essential being shopping, fuel, health care etc. Therefore like everyone else we will be glued to the Government updates to ensure we comply with the changing rules. We will cruise the canals when permitted.

When we talked about leaving the safety of the Island, which had been Covid free from late May 2020, until early January 2021, we received a few raised eyebrows questioning our sanity, but it was a considered decision based on the fact that we will be on a narrowboat, in the countryside on our own, effectively self-isolating. Unfortunately the Isle of Man currently has a significant outbreak, with higher numbers than parts of England, so it currently feels like an easier decision, but that is just caused by timing and hopefully the Island will get on top of this outbreak soon.

In the last few days, and weeks, we have been organising, downscaling and packing all our belongings, a daunting task but we are getting there.  The plan is, for everything we choose to keep, to be in our newly purchased van when we leave the Island, and whilst on the canals the van will be stored at a boat yard.

Wish us luck !