Alice Elgie reports…
FOR English teachers Sally and Stephen Underwood and their companion, a knitted travelling frog called Mathew, holidays seem to be the catalyst for new lifestyle adventures and this is one family certainly not afraid to take that leap. In 2003 they leapt to the Canary Islands and then in 2022, back to England to continuously cruise the canals.
They explained: “We had holidayed every year, for 10 years, on Fuerteventura and in 2003 felt we needed a change in our lives. Despite having a nice house and good jobs in England we sold up, bought a villa in the resort of Caleta de Fuste, and threw ourselves into life as English teaching assistants in an island school.”
This led to almost 19 years where, despite a difficult first six months, Sally and Stephen established themselves and had a lovely time in the sunshine. However, there can be a thing of too much sun (!) and with Sally’s asthma becoming worse, and difficulty taking regular walks because of the heat, they decided to take the leap again, this time back to the UK.
Stephen, who was brought up in a village close to the River Soar, remembers spending his childhood looking at boats with his grandfather and when he was older, would hire boats for the day, weekend or week and cruise between Leicester and Loughborough. Sally also knew a thing about boats from her time living in Reading on the River Thames and so together, they brought 10 students over from Spain for narrowboat holidays in 2018 and 2019. They told me: “These holidays reintroduced us to boats, and after a couple more holidays of one month, we knew we were drawn to narrowboat life.”
In August 2022 the couple moved aboard Narrowboat Delamere, a 2013 Northwich Boat – which at 57ft was ready to go anywhere on the network – and they decided to take their young Spanish students with them, online at least! They teach one-hour classes between 3pm and 7pm from Monday to Thursday, Stephen at the dinette, and Sally at the front of the boat on a makeshift desk. The couple tell me that teaching English online requires only a small workspace for a laptop, a whiteboard and an A4 pad and they’ve had no problem with Wi-Fi despite moving around, their favourite stretch being the Stanley Lock flight into Salthouse Dock, Liverpool.
“We’ve done it three times with various members of our family and the weather has been different each time (a bad storm, sunshine and wind!).” There’s one time that sticks out particularly though, when they moored up at the same time as Eurovision. “The atmosphere at that time was wonderful as the city had totally embraced the event with pop-up events all over. All nationalities were present, many in fancy dress costume, and all the boats in Salthouse Dock put up bunting. It was a colourful sight!”
This mooring also no doubt presented a fantastic photo opportunity for knitted frog, Mathew. Stephen told me more about this unlikely companion: “Sally knitted a frog for herself (called Mathew) that could fit in her pocket. Next my son wanted one, and then his friends, and then after posting on social media, people starting asking for a frog and making knitted frogs suddenly became a thing!” To date Sally has knitted 41 frogs that have made their way out into the world across Europe and even as far as the USA, with owners taking photos to share on Instagram. “Mathew now goes with Sally wherever she goes so a photo opportunity is never missed. He was even allowed in the operating theatre when she had a cataract operation!”
Stephen and Sally have managed to perfectly merge the joy of travel, with earning an income along the way and have explored the network extensively since moving aboard. They’ve racked up many miles and many locks from Skipton to Liverpool, to the Bridgewater Canal and through Manchester, the Trent & Mersey and the Anderton Boatlift on to the River Weaver. They’ve also enjoyed autumn on the Shropshire Union, Christmas in Chester and even a summer spell in London at Little Venice and Paddington Basin, after which they headed for the Brent and the Thames and went as far as Oxford.
Currently they’re in Leicestershire and life on the water certainly seems to suit them, although perhaps there is one bugbear…“We had about 350 days of sunshine a year in the Canary Islands and we’ve had to get used to the same amount of days of rain in England!”
