Journal

woman wearing sunglasses on a boating holiday

What to pack for a canal boating holiday

  A narrow boating holiday doesn’t offer many shopping opportunities in our part of the world. The environment is largely rural and it isn’t easy to buy forgotten groceries. Most people arrive with several supermarket trollies’ worth of food, just to be sure. However, it’s not just about the eating/drinking experience. A narrowboat holiday means packing for all weather conditions, too. Here are a few seasonal essentials you’ll want to remember to pack: Sun cream. Read more…

By Sharon Peach, ago
Planning for Woodland Grayling

The newest Boutique Narrowboat – our plans for renovating Woodland Grayling

It’s time to start planning for the future. After many weeks of coping with the day-to-day affects of the pandemic, we knew that we needed to start looking ahead and build our little business at Union Wharf back up. Cue the Boris Bounce Back loan, and an investment in a lovely new narrowboat shell, all shiny and waiting patiently for a boutique fitout. This time round, we knew we wanted to fit out a new Read more…

By Sharon Peach, ago
Foxton Locks canal boat holidays uk narrowboat breaks

Will the Leicester lockdown affect my canal boat break?

Leicester lockdown For at least two weeks from 29th June 2020, the city of Leicester is in lockdown due to the pandemic. This means that if you have a booking with us during that period, you won’t be able to cruise northwards through Leicester city (this will only affect hires of 7 days or longer.) The rural town of Market Harborough is not within the catchment of the lock down. It is on the Northamptonshire/Leicestershire Read more…

By Sharon Peach, ago
Union Wharf reopens after Coronavirus

We’re open again for canal boat holidays – when can you get out on the water?

Open for Boutique Narrowboat holidays from Monday 6th JuLY From 4th July, provided that no more than two households stay together, people will be free to stay overnight in self-contained accommodation, including hotels and bed & breakfasts, as well as campsites. Boris Johnson, 23/06/20 So here we are, peering through the other side. After weeks of total lockdown at Union Wharf, we are now seeing signs of life. The marina itself has been a very Read more…

By Sharon Peach, ago
Boutique Narrowboat Chalkhill Blue's bedroom

How will Coronavirus affect your canal boat holiday – update

Coronavirus update –  6 June 2020 Although we don’t have any official news on when we can reopen for holidays, we are taking bookings from the 4th July onwards. But please don’t pay anything if you book a Boutique Narrowboat. If you wish to book a holiday within the next eight weeks, please reserve through the booking calendar as normal, but don’t pay at the end (the final screen.) Once we are confident that we Read more…

By Sharon Peach, ago
From the bedroom on boutique narrowboat

Our social distancing plans for reopening our narrowboat holidays

Reopening during social distancing We don’t yet have a date when we are able to reopen for business, but in the meantime we are working on a process to ensure that the boats are handed over with minimal input from the trainers. We are currently writing an online course for each boat and updating our written manuals. We appreciate that this method of training is not ideal and inexperienced boaters will still need practical support Read more…

By Sharon Peach, ago

Boutique Narrowboats are still going strong – How we’ve been coping despite the challenges

No one can pretend to be the same as they were 4 short weeks ago. Some – too many – have been touched by tragedy and will continue to be so as 2020 unfolds. Others have been thrown into financial turmoil and still can’t see a way through this. As small business owners, we have felt the responsibility of people’s futures in a big way. We have hated letting down those of you who have Read more…

By Sharon Peach, ago

How will Coronavirus affect your canal boat holiday

The marina is open for holiday boat bookings but we understand if you wish to transfer your holiday to another future date. Please understand that if you do go ahead with your booking, you may be asked to arrive at a different time so that we can stagger arrivals. We hope you also understand that our training will be modified to help protect our staff. It is more important than ever that you are fully Read more…

By Sharon Peach, ago
50th birthday weekend

Our plans for the first Boutique Narrowboats day boat – Water Vole

We are really excited that when we became the directors at Union Wharf Marina, we were also given us the opportunity to create a Boutique Day Boat. There are four day boats as part of the Market Harborough fleet, and one of these in particular seemed ripe for renovation. Although very popular last year with daytrippers, Water Vole needed a new engine among other things, and we took her out of service at the end Read more…

By Sharon Peach, ago

Why you tell us life is “better by water”

BBC Radio Leicester approached us this week, to talk about the benefits of narrowboating. The countryside around Market Harborough, they rightly say, is threaded with canals. They want to discuss whether the Leicestershire waterways really can enrich our lives. Their coverage was, of course, a response to the Canal and River Trust’s ongoing campaign to convince the wider public that “life is better by water.” Now Aaran and I didn’t set foot on a narrowboat Read more…

By Sharon Peach, ago