For several years Mick and I had been wanting our own narrowboat. We started hiring boats together in the autumn of 2006 when we explored part of the Leeds and Liverpool Canal. Hiring more and more boats we bought into a share boat NB Winding Down on which we very much enjoyed our four weeks a year. The natural progression from here was to have our own narrowboat, so we planned on having one built to our own specification. Having been patient for several years we decided to look for a secondhand boat of the right layout to keep us going until we had our own bespoke boat built, a bit of a try before you build. We were very lucky in finding NB Lillyanne in March 2014, the right sort of layout, low engine hours. She needed a couple of alterations so we could have people to stay, but other than that and being 2 foot longer than we originally wanted, she fitted the bill very well.

In July 2014 we moved on board full time, renting out our home in Scarborough for a year (initially), Mick dropped out from being a telephone engineer and myself (Pip) reducing the amount of work I took on as a Theatre Designer. Sadly things with our boat build didn’t go according to plan, so in May 2015 we visited the Crick Boat Show to shortlist possible boat builders. A year afloat was good for us as we changed our minds on various things. At the beginning of August 2015 we shook hands with Jonathan Wilson, commissioning him to build NB Oleanna. Jonathan built her shell and Finesse did the fit out for us in Sheffield.

We moved on board in April 2017 with Tilly our cat and continue with our travels.

This blog is intended as a diary of our travels on NB Oleanna for us to be able to look back on in years to come. Please feel free to follow us on our journey as we meet up with old friends, make new ones and watch the seasons change around us. If you are interested in reading about our first three years on board our yellow boat, NB Lillyanne please follow this link.