Page updated 26 September 2025

This section contains records of my boating exploits that fall outside the main areas of the site, Canal  Boating, the Norfolk Broads or aboard my own SeaHawk Yacht. There's material from my younger days in Surrey and Sussex and adventures on the River Great Ouse, Middle Level network of navigable drainage channels and on the Rhine and Lahn in Germany.

Go to Top 1950s

1959 Godalming 1950s - Canoeing on the River Wey

Some of my earliest boating involved family picnics taken on the River Wey in hired skiffs, punts, and even a canoe.

Go to Top 1960s

On the River Wey with friends Late 1960s - Boating with Friends on the River Wey

Having left school and started work, boating then meant trips with friends. These tended to be either my or Mike's colleagues from work.

Go to Top 1970s

Tony's wih his Sharkie 1970s - Trips aboard "Matchmaker" Tony's Sharkie

Another friend, Tony Herbert, bought a small GRP yacht called a Sharkie. He kept her at Bosham in Chichester Harbour.

Go to Top 1990s

1998 On Soham Lode 25 October 1998 - A Campaigning Cruise up Soham Lode

I learned of a campaign to open Soham Lode to navigation and join an intrepid pary of boaters and dignitaries attempting to reach Soham by boat.

I spend most of my time aboard friend, Robert Laws' boat St Kilda.

1999 Filmed Negotiating Soham Lode June 1999 - Attempt to Navigate Soham Lode

Steve King invited me to help him attempt to navigate Soham Lode as part of a campaign started the previous year by Tony Hinsley.

The attempt was filmed by Anglia TV and included in their programme on volunteering opportunities on the waterways.

Go to Top 2000s

2001 nb Fulbourne Trip 6 August 2001 - A Short Trip aboard nbFulbourne

I cadge a lift aboard nb Fulbourne, a restored 70ft working narrowboat, as she makes the transfer from the Middle Level to the Great Ouse.

Liberty Belle 18 May 2002 - Operating The Ely Trip Boat

Ely boasts a Cathedral, known as "The Ship of the Fens". It also used to have a trip boat, operated by Steve King.

I'd encountered Steve, on an Internet newsgroup in 1998 and met him in February 1999 when I went to see him fitting out the steel shell he'd bought that would become Liberty Belle, that trip boat. Here you will find a 3,800 word article that I posted on the newsgroup about the day Steve invited me to skipper her.

Liberty Belle January 2007 - All Along The Waterfront

I feel it's time to give more prominence to page that's been on the site since 2021, my article, published in January 2007, about Steve King and his trip boat Liberty Belle. It was the sixth I had submitted to be published in the magazine that had become "Anglia Afloat". This page features the main article and adds photographs submitted but not used when published. The "Biography of a Boatman" column that forms part of the published article was added to the site in 2010 when I learnt of Steve's death.

2008 River Gipping Trust Magazine Article 1 July 2008 - Fancy A Dirty Weekend?

I take a trip to the River Gipping to see a work party in action that was rebuilding a lock. The event had been organised by the Waterways Recovery Group and I was gathering material for a magazine article.

A much shortened version of my submission appeared in Anglia Afloat Issue #34.

Go to Top 2010s

Steve King 26 October 2010 - Steve King Remembered

On this day I learnt of Steve King's death earlier this year. I wrote a blog, which included a biography I had written for Anglia Afloat Magazine three years earlier. Now, some ten years later, the blog post has been moved to this site and I have taken the opportunity to add a number of related pages containing some of my memories of Steve.

Alistair and Stephen on a Pedlo 16-20 July 2011 - A Trip to Germany

Diana and I go to visit her brother in Germany. We take a ferry across the Rhine near the Lorelei and go canoeing on the Lahn at Weilburg, paddling through the only waterway tunnel in Germany. (Our hosts stick to a Pedlo!).

A Borrowed Dinghy 28 August 2013 - A New Boating Interest?

I report on our house move which took place a few months earlier. We now live in what was intended to be the manager's house of a fishing holiday complex. Otters became regular visitors before we bought the place so the fishing's not so good now, but is does mean you need a boat to keep the lake tidy.

Go to Top