Fire, police, ambulance, and … A correspondent sent this account to the NBTA recently:
“Here is a list of things that have come to mind that I have personally done, or participated in, most of them quite frequently. I have since spoken to other boaters, who, much to their own surprise, quickly come up with equally long lists of similar stuff. We do all this automatically, we do not need praise or reward. Perhaps this explains why boaters come to resent the persistent vibe from CRT administration that we are a nuisance!
*Cut down overhanging vegetation
*Fill up potholes in the towpath
*Give out water to thirsty cyclists and walkers
*Lend pumps and puncture repair kits to cyclists
*Rescue capsized canoeists in hire canoes and lend towels
*Moor up unattended boats that come loose (frequently), sometimes donating a mooring pin if the pin has been lost in the cut. I collect abandoned pins for this purpose.
*Ask speeding boats to slow down, and other forms of ‘policing’ and keeping the peace.
*Provide tourist information, directions, location of the nearest pub or cafe, bus stop, how far to the next town etc, local history, wildlife and foraging knowledge etc
*Keep the canal safe by our presence, especially at night
*Provide a tourist attraction, as many people come to the canal to see how boaters live and look at the liveaboard boats and how we live, which are far more interesting than non-liveaboards. I must be in a thousand photos by now. Holburne Park in Bath has used a giant road hoarding with photos of liveaboard boats to advertise its newbuild houses.
*Talk to people about boating, living on a boat, how to operate locks, how to buy a boat, information about CRT and the canals
*Show people how to do locks, and let them help as part of their canal experience. Some have never seen it before.
*Teach hire boaters what to do, eg, not moor on winding holes, water points, lock moorings, how to operate swing bridges and locks, how to moor up, how to steer a boat, how to get out of difficulty, how to slow down, how to get leaves out of the propeller, where to moor etc
*Look after locks, bridges and levels. If I am moored near a lock for example, I consider myself the temporary lock keeper. I will make sure it is secure at night, and keep an eye on the levels and the paddles, and help boats through if needed.
*At least twice, I have averted a level-dropping disaster when a novice has tried to go through a lock with paddles up on both ends.
*Clean up litter and dog poo from the bank and towpath, and litter from the water. I keep a trowel on deck specifically for the dog poo as it is frequent. When I leave a mooring, it is left clean. It is not always clean when I arrive.
*Clear the towpath of puncture producing thorns
*Make small repairs to infrastructure, eg. I have repaired a swing bridge that was jamming at every use, and had been left un-repaired by CRT for some time, donating a spare D bolt to do so. I know of many other stories of water taps being fixed, etc, as we are generally quite practical people and we have tools for fixing our boats available to use. And perhaps above all else, we are actually here…
*Call emergency services if required. I have called all three at some point. For example, a possible heart attack, a fire at a cottage, a speeding motorbike on the towpath. As boaters we know what should and shouldn’t be happening.
*Rescue people that fall in from narrowboats. On one occasion an elderly lady fell in, and her husband seemed unable to do anything. Her screams quickly brought boaters running as if from nowhere on a quiet evening. Between us, though we did not know each other, we calmed the situation, brought the lady safely to shore and got her out, pulled the boat in safely, and got her back on board. No harm done, but it could have been otherwise had we not been there. I am constantly amazed at this repeating pattern of boaters collectively responding in a crisis.
*On one dark winter evening, a fire broke out at a cottage. Boaters quickly appeared from nowhere, with someone checking the residents were out of the building, another helping the fire engine to find it (not on the Satnav), another making tea for the fire crew etc.
*Clear a fallen tree at Avoncliff. A large tree fell across the cut on a bank holiday weekend. Boats soon started backing up at either side unable to pass. Very quickly, boaters arrived, with tender boats, chainsaw, ropes etc. CRT were never even called. Within an hour, it was passable for narrowboats, and in another two hours, widebeams could pass.
*The floating fayre and trade boats give something back to the canal, and to the land based communities we pass through. The recent one at Bathampton was very well received.
*We are known by the general public to be friendly and welcoming, and as such we are sort of hosts to those that visit.
I am sure there are more! But you get the general idea….”