Any Questions? V.5

Here's today's question and answer. If there's anything you would like to know about our life afloat or narrowboating in general, do get in touch via twitter / facebook / email or formspring.

 

A question from Formspring: In the time that you've been a live-aboard, have you ever been bothered by drunks and opportunist thieves/vandals? Does this happen often, and what measures have you taken to guard against it?

We've actually been pretty lucky. In our three years boating we've only been let off our mooring twice, and neither time was at our home mooring. The first time was by kids in St Neots on the Great Ouse, which was scary because it is a river, but they only let one end off and we were up so were able to secure it straight away. The second time was in Wolverhampton at the top of the Wolverhampton 21 on the BCN. We were moored near several other boats but the bow of the Duck was the only rope not tied either to a ring or looped over the same bollard as another rope so it was more vulnerable. The only problem that time was that Lyra fell in! But she was OK, and we were quickly back on the bollard and chained up.

At home, we've never been bothered by any anti-social behaviour, but wherever we moor we always tie the ropes through closed loop pins and then back onto the boat so that opportunists would have to climb on to the boat itself, thus waking us/alerting us to their presence. We always chain our generator up when it is outside, as there was a local spate of unsecured generator thefts. In really dodgy areas, we would just avoid mooring up, but occasionally we've used a chain as well as ropes just in case.

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