At the end of each calendar year I do a round up of our cruising statistics. I thought it would be interesting to see how far we’ve travelled in the last ten years. One of the frequent questions we get asked by gongoozlers is How far have you come? Well there are several answers to that question, do they mean today, this year or since we pushed off ten years ago? I have quite often said that we usually cruise around a thousand miles a year, well pre-covid that was true, since we’ve been close, in 2022 we possibly did a record amount 1249 miles 6.5 furlongs.
So I sat down to find the blog posts that mention our end of year statistics. This should be easy I thought, using the search box, or selecting January of each year and checking through for the relevant statistics post. Our travels on Lillian was easy as I’d rounded them all up. But what had happened to our cruising in 2017 when Oleanna was new? I hunted round through our travels on the Llangollen and nowhere to be seen. I have recollections of putting into Canal Plan all our toing and froing on test runs up in Sheffield, so I must have put such things together, but it was nowhere to be seen on the blog. If anyone happens to come across it please let me know.
My only option was to sit and add up all the end of day statistics on the blog for 2017! I’m beginning to wonder if I’m somewhere on the spectrum!
Whizzing through posts did bring back some very happy memories from that year. Oleanna’s smile was young and fresh with no cratch cover for a while. Our maiden voyage from Sheffield to Crick, then onto London. Back up the country to Liverpool, then meeting with Bridget and Storm to cross the Ribble Link. Our extended stay on the Lancaster due to high levels in Savick Brook, nothing compared to those who are currently stuck there first due to the sea lock having a fault and now a breach on the canal. Then a dash down the country with the aim of reaching Derby for the Stillwater court case which was postponed. Up the Llangollen for Christmas and the New Year. It was a rather nice thing to do on a day I was feeling a touch sorry for myself with my knee.
So, due to the lack of in depth data for 2017 I have put together the totals of the main statistics for our first decade afloat, which are as follows.
Total Miles 11,119 miles 7.25 furlongs
Total Locks 7021
Total Moveable Bridges 992 not sure how many are usually left open
Total Tunnels 293
Total Major Aqueducts 56
Total Engine Hours 9593.4
Total Boxes Of Wine ?
Total Number of Sausage Rolls ?
Total Boats 2
Total Cats 2
Memories 2 many to count
So our actual average annual mileage is more like 1100. I don’t think C&RT can complain that we don’t move enough!
It’s easy for non-liveaboards to keep track as we tend to do our stats around Christmas time, and just add up the stats from each trip (as long as we remembered to do that). But I created myself a spreadsheet to calculate the totals for the year so I didn’t have to do the adding up myself, and it does narrow and broad canals and rivers separately, and the associated locks. And I just use the same layout every year with the calculations already in place. Dave does a similar thing but for engine hours and costs. We are quite nerdy and do like a spreadsheet!
Our spreadsheet for this year is fully comprehensive. Mileage from canal plan and nebo each day. So far this year we’ve travelled 8 more miles on canal plan. As well as all the usual statistics I’m also including Mrs Tilly stamps and boxes of wine amongst other things.
Congratulations!
These are most impressive statistics – not to mention the fact that you document it all in such a readable and fluent way.
Please continue.
I wish that I were able to come up with similar statistics myself. Our only meaningful stats are that we are cruising on average 6 months per year and our engine has 2250 hours on the clock, and that in seven years.
I keep track of all the costs, though… When we next cross it would be interesting to exchange views on that over a drink or a meal!
Best greetings from the Caldon Canal, on our way back south after a long trip since March, Droitwich, Llangollen, Liverpool, Manchester, Caldon…
Dimitrios & Carine
From Galene
Will our paths cross this year? Depends on which routes we both take. Would be good to meet up and have a good chin wag.
Love a stat!
Well done on those blogging miles!
For us armchair boaters it’s fab!
Curly Wurly on the BCN!?
Yep curly wurlys on the bcn.