It took a year, but we think we can now call ourselves completely independent. It was a lifestyle we’d got used to aboard our sailboat, Esper, where we generated our own power and produced our own water. With a massive array of solar, electricity was never going to be a problem in the summer months of the UK, but what about water? We’d installed our Offgrid Water filter system already, but now it is time to commission it proper!
While we talk about both power and water in this week’s episode, the focus is really on the stunning nature of the British canal system. Having left the small town of Thorne, we are now in the countryside, surrounded by fields and farms. They offer beautiful vistas as we make our way eastwards towards the River Trent.
I dust off an old vintage lens, the Nikkor 85mm f2, and create a little photography project for myself, which I have titled Canalside Impressions. The idea is to create an in-camera effect that produces impressionist-style images of the features of the canal.
Some of the man-made features we encounter are old, including this signalbox which, according to the signalman (pictured), dates from the 19th century and “could do with a lick of paint”!
Meanwhile, Liz gets baffled by Mauds Swing Bridge. We’d bumped into a local who said it’s always breaking down, and it seems it won’t open after Liz operates the barriers. She also does some helming, at my insistence, and reflects on how much more difficult it is to grasp than steering a sailboat.
The Stainforth and Keadby canal gets prettier the further east you go from Thorne. Surrounded by farmland and countryside, you could easily spend an entire season pootling between the locks and bridges. This episode features a taste of that natural beauty.
00:00 About our solar’s performance
02:51 Canalside Impressions – vintage camera lens experiments – Nikkor 85mm f2
03:28 Departing from Nuns Moors
04:47 Wind power – love it or hate it?
05:28 Mauds Swing Bridge
09:43 Liz takes the helm
10:45 Crook O’Moor Swing bridge at Medge Hall
11:01 Grove Farm
12:58 Making lots of water with the Offgrid Water filter system
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