I arrived on mainland Britain in 2000, to do charitable voluntary work outdoors, initially by training young people in my favoured environment on a Brixham Trawler Over several years, I meandered through several different charities, in the outdoor, with varied and various roles including ...
forestry volunteering
outdoor training
plotting rights-of-way
And then in 2007, by offering my time to a Canal Charity I found Inland Waterways. I came to Canalability at Burnt Mill, to 'add specific expertise' to a skilled gang of old codgers volunteering on Fridays to service a fleet of purpose-built canal boats which later would bring out 'less able' people for a day afloat, using volunteer crew.
Later I was invited to attend familiarizations on Thursdays to be able to man the boat on Weds. Increasingly, I was at Canalability three days a week during 2007. Then I was invited to "build on experience" and train as a First Mate. It was only when they started measuring me for a skipper's hat that I had to call a halt and scarper.
Life is too short.
England is maintained by volunteers and without volunteers inland waterways would not exist. I paid my moral debt by putting in volunteer hours to balance the training they enabled, and what an experience.
I got first-class training and common sense grounding at Canalability Little did I realize then how well this would serve me later. Canal boating is totally different to sea-sailing. It would take five years before it would dawn on me just how different it is.
2007 is recalled or forgotten for another important event: the collapse of Northern Rock and the realisation that money is worthless.
2008, as far as I recall, was the year my wife suggested I wave goodbye to the tide ...
It was also the year the Icelandic economy collapsed and focused perceptive people on the total worthlessness of money as an asset. Savings could vaporize overnight.
It was put to me that the acquisition of a canal boat might make sense. It would bring me in off the sea, protect my funeral plans and allow me to discover the secrets of a hidden England that Canalability had opened my eyes to ... I knew about ditches, dykes, rivers and locks and I also knew I could write about them if I wished ...
forestry volunteering
outdoor training
plotting rights-of-way
And then in 2007, by offering my time to a Canal Charity I found Inland Waterways. I came to Canalability at Burnt Mill, to 'add specific expertise' to a skilled gang of old codgers volunteering on Fridays to service a fleet of purpose-built canal boats which later would bring out 'less able' people for a day afloat, using volunteer crew.
Later I was invited to attend familiarizations on Thursdays to be able to man the boat on Weds. Increasingly, I was at Canalability three days a week during 2007. Then I was invited to "build on experience" and train as a First Mate. It was only when they started measuring me for a skipper's hat that I had to call a halt and scarper.
Life is too short.
England is maintained by volunteers and without volunteers inland waterways would not exist. I paid my moral debt by putting in volunteer hours to balance the training they enabled, and what an experience.
I got first-class training and common sense grounding at Canalability Little did I realize then how well this would serve me later. Canal boating is totally different to sea-sailing. It would take five years before it would dawn on me just how different it is.
2007 is recalled or forgotten for another important event: the collapse of Northern Rock and the realisation that money is worthless.
2008, as far as I recall, was the year my wife suggested I wave goodbye to the tide ...
It was also the year the Icelandic economy collapsed and focused perceptive people on the total worthlessness of money as an asset. Savings could vaporize overnight.
It was put to me that the acquisition of a canal boat might make sense. It would bring me in off the sea, protect my funeral plans and allow me to discover the secrets of a hidden England that Canalability had opened my eyes to ... I knew about ditches, dykes, rivers and locks and I also knew I could write about them if I wished ...
