Narrowboat Maid of the Mist Blog

We hope you enjoy reading about our travels around the British Inland Waterways

About Us:

Graham and I have been married 41 years. We met whilst serving in the Royal Air Force in 1968. It was a whirlwind romance. We met 21 October 68, got engaged on 21 November 68 and were married 12 April 69. We had originally planned to marry in January 69 in London, but my mum wanted us to marry in Liverpool, my home town and 12 April was the first available date we could get.

Graham was born in 1949 in Leeds, and I 1948 in Liverpool. We have two lovely daughters, Lea and Zoe.

We are very much travellers by nature, having spent many years travelling with the Armed Forces. On retiring from the forces in 1989, we 'settled' in Telford, Shropshire. What I mean by settled is that we bought our first house there and spent the following five years making it our home.

In 1994, the girls having left home, we decided to sell up and spend a year in the USA. This was a life changing decision and one we have never regretted. We learned how to take a step back and view life in a much more relaxed manner.

On returning from the States in October 1995, we had no home to come back to, so we decided to import the motorhome we had bought in the States so we would have somewhere to live whilst looking for another house.

We spent that winter searching quite avidly for our new house. But, as we were enjoying living at the very pleasant caravan park, we soon slowed down our search and eventually gave up altogether. We discovered we had money in our pockets that we had never had before and were quite enjoying it. We were enventually there for 10 years.

In 1998 we took a week long holiday in a 35' narrowboat (Rhonwen) on the Llangollen & Montgomery Canals. It was in early May and I think it rained 4 out of the 7 days. We loved it. I knew that then that I wanted to spend my retirement on a narrowboat.

From that moment on, we saved every spare penny we had to achieve our dream, which at that time we thought would be a secondhand boat. We spent the next five years walking towpaths talking to boaters, getting their advice and opinions.

We visited the boat show at the NIA in the summer of 2002 and saw a new lined sailaway, which we thought would be perfect for our needs. We made arrangements to visit the boatyard in Peterborough and talk through possibilities and costings.

We placed our order for a 60' narrowboat as a lined sailaway, but with a bathroom fitted. Nobody, and I mean nobody, in the five years of towpathing told us of the traumas involved in having a boat built to your own specs. I won't bore you with the details, but suffice it to say we would not recommend our boatbuilder to anyone.

We finally took delivery of our boat in July 2003 and cruised it all the way from Peterborough to Otherton Marina on the Staffs and Worcester Canal. There we stayed full time for the next three years whilst we turned this boat into our home.

Once we had both retired from work, we were able to take the boat out full time.

Author: Jean Beven

Rhonwen - Our first holiday on a narrowboat

Well, one of us hasn't changed much in 20 yrs. Sadly our dog Paddles never made it to the launch of our own boat. She would have loved it.

This is the both of us enjoying a rest after a day out. The photograph was taken by the Baldwin family from Orpington in Kent. We spent a good hour chatting to them and listening to their very interesting travel stories.