LIFE IN LOCKDOWN

Liveaboard Emma celebrates her birthday in the strangest of times

Normally at this time of the year, we are making plans for our spring/summer cruising. We were heading towards Chester on the Shropshire Union Canal when the UK went into lockdown, due to the Coronavirus crisis. The UK rules state that we are not supposed to go out unless it is for essentials such as shopping. The Canal and River Trust has imposed its own rules on travel. They have suspended the 14-day mooring rule and we are only allowed to cruise for essential things such as water, emptying toilets and shopping. We can also cruise to get gas, diesel or coal. Leisure boaters are not allowed to visit their boats and all hire boats were asked to return to base.

Over the past couple of weeks, the canals have got increasingly quiet with regard to moving boats. Some days we see no boats moving and other days a few cruise past. The same cannot be said for the towpaths. No matter where we have moored the towpaths have been busy most of the day, even after dark. We moored outside the Cheshire Cat Pub near Chester and there were people constantly walking, cycling and running past the moored boats. When we went to Waverton, to do some shopping, the walk to the shop was incredibly quiet and we saw a lot more people on our return to the boat. The lovely weather and the boredom of the lockdown seem to be drawing people to the canals for their daily exercise. This has caused some boaters a lot of stress, particularly where the towpath is quite narrow. The CRT has been trying to reduce the numbers of people on the towpaths by putting up signs asking people to avoid moored boats, but they don’t seem to be having any great effect.