I ditched my house for life on a canal boat – here are THREE common mistakes first timers make
- Shannon Lane, 29, paid £900 a month to share a house in Clapton, Hackney
A woman who swapped her room in London for a 30-foot narrowboat has revealed the three common mistakes people make when living on a tour boat for the first time.
Shannon Lane, 29, was paying £900 a month to share a house in Clapton, but when she found out her landlord was raising the price to £1,000, she decided she was done renting and took out a loan to to buy a £24,000 narrowboat. .
The freelance artist and video producer now spends £300 a month paying it off and cruising London’s canals as a companion with her pug Gilbert.
Before making the switch, she said she “suffered from severe anxiety and depression,” but now she “wakes up happy every day.”
However, there are some negative sides, as Ms. Lane revealed, citing the three common mistakes first-time canal boaters make when choosing to live on a canal boat.
A woman who swapped her London room for a 30-foot narrowboat has revealed the three common mistakes people make when living on a tour boat for the first time
They tie their ropes too tight
As a novice skipper owner, there is a lot to learn.
Shannon found out the hard way when she tied her center rope to the towpath and other ropes too tight.
This meant that, alarmingly, she was tipped out of bed in the middle of the night.
She told MailOnline: ‘I went out and the water level had dropped (this is due to locks) and my boat was leaning to one side.
‘If this happens, too much water can end up where you don’t want it and it can sink. Luckily I noticed, untied my ropes and went back to bed safely.’
Waiting too long to empty their toilet
One unglamorous aspect of life on a narrowboat is dealing with the toilet.
Shannon says she has a cassette toilet on her boat and has to drive the sliding cartridge to an Elsan point, a communal waste area.
It’s not a wise idea to leave it on for too long, as Shannon has learned from experience: “You can imagine the smell.”
Leave food outside
Shannon emphasizes that it is important to dispose of your food waste properly and not leave anything outside the boat.
She says: ‘Eating outside attracts animals, and we have a lot of scavenger animals near our boats, such as rats, foxes and birds.’
Shannon Lane, 29, was paying £900 a month to share a house in Clapton, but when she found out her landlord was raising the price to £1,000, she decided she was done renting and took out a loan to to buy a £24,000 narrowboat.
However, there are some negative sides, as Ms. Lane revealed, sharing the three common mistakes first-time canal boaters make when choosing to live on a canal boat.