- Shannon Lane, 29, paid £900 a month to share a house in Clapton, Hackney.
A woman who abandoned her London bedroom for a 30ft narrowboat has revealed the three common mistakes people make when living on a canal boat for the first time.
Shannon Lane, 29, was paying £900 a month to share a house in Clapton, but when she discovered her landlord was raising the price to £1,000, she decided she was done with renting and took out a loan to buy a narrowboat. £24,000. .
The freelance artist and video producer now spends £300 a month paying for it and surfs the London canals with her pug, Gilbert, for company.
Before taking the step, she said she “suffered from anxiety and depression,” but now she “wakes up happy every day.”
However, there are some negatives, as Ms Lane revealed, sharing the three common mistakes first-time canal boaters make when they decide to live on one.
A woman who abandoned her London bedroom for a 30ft narrowboat has revealed the three common mistakes people make when living on a canal boat for the first time.
Tying your ropes too tight
There are many things to learn as a first-time barge owner.
Shannon found out the hard way when she tied the middle rope to the towpath and other ropes too tight.
This meant that, alarmingly, she was dragged out of bed in the middle of the night.
She told MailOnline: ‘I went out and the water level had gone down (this happens because of the locks) and my boat was leaning to one side.
‘If this happens, too much water can get into places where you don’t want it and you could sink. Luckily I realized this, loosened my ropes and returned safely to bed.’
Waiting too long to empty the toilet
One unglamorous aspect of life on a narrowboat is having to deal with the bathroom.
Shannon says he has a cassette toilet on his boat and has to transport the slide cartridge to a point in Elsan, a community disposal area.
It’s not a good idea to leave it on too long, as Shannon learned from experience: “You can imagine the smell.”
leave food out
Shannon insists that it is important to properly dispose of leftover food and not leave anything outside the boat.
She says: “Food from outside attracts animals, and we have many scavengers next to our boats, such as rats, foxes and birds.”
Shannon Lane, 29, was paying £900 a month to share a house in Clapton, but when she discovered her landlord was raising the price to £1,000, she decided she was done with renting and took out a loan to buy a narrowboat. £24,000.
However, there are some negatives, as Ms Lane revealed, sharing the three common mistakes first-time canal surfers make when choosing to live on one.
