In the second of my cruise vlogs for this year I move the boat from Braunston to Crick. This involves a lot of locks with which I had a lot of help, thankfully. There are also two tunnels and some lovely mooring spots. Join me!

Continuing my journey up the Trent & Mersey canal, this time I go through Stone in Stafforshire and its assorted locks before arriving at Barlaston for the night ahead of the trip through Stoke on Trent the next day.

It's the start of a new year and since there'll be nothing much to watch on telly this New Year's Day, I thought I'd throw out a few suggestions of utterly splendid YouTube channels for you to enjoy instead; these are some of the people I watch regularly and I hope you like 'em too. Happy New Year!

No, I have not sold the boat. No, I do not live in a van now. You might not believe it - but I'm going off cruising. Yes, in my own boat. Before the winter maintenance shutdown begins in November, I've got two months to chug around the canals so I've decided to head south, down the Grand Union towards London. I won't go anywhere near the centre of the City - or really much towards the outskirts - because it's so busy and just plain grotty down there. Big cities are not my thing. However, I'll head down in that general direction until the end of September and then turn around and come back up again before mooring for winter once more. This is the first of my trip vlogs.

In this video I take my narrowboat on the Grand Union canal from near Gayton Junction to Stoke Bruerne, via Blisworth - and Blisworth tunnel - all 3,075 yards of it. Weirdly, as I went through, there was a bit of an unsettling ghostly apparition...

Part of my autumn cruise south on the Grand Union canal, in this video I go from a very busy Cosgrove into Milton Keynes which I find to be very green and unlike any other built-up town or city I've been through by canal before.

In anticipation of both some friends coming to join me for an afternoon, and then some special guests from overseas coming aboard a few days later, I edged just a few miles further north on this leg of my trip up the Grand Union canal, mooring my narrowboat at a point where both sets of visitors could easily find and get to me.

It was a great pleasure in amongst my canal cruising this autumn to welcome, all the way from Canada, the RV Geeks onto my boat. Peter and John were enjoying a vacation in England, touring in a rented motorhome, and stopped off at Grove Lock Marina campsite just a couple of locks up from where I'd moored the boat the night before. They joined me for a day to experience narrowboat cruising, even taking the tiller and steering the boat as we did a circular route up into Leighton Buzzard, back south for 3/4 locks, and returning to Grove lock at the end of the day.

At the beginning of the month (December 2018) I took the train into Birmingham to visit a floating Christmas market - essentially a gathering of trading narrowboats on the canal outside the Arena. The weather was mild but dull and the streets and towpaths were almost deserted. There weren't many traders either but I had an enjoyable afternoon and this is the video of the trip.

At last! The lines have been taken up, the mooring relinquished - yes, let go entirely - and I'm off on my 2019 cruising adventures starting with a trip up the North Oxford canal to Hawkesbury Junction where it meets the Coventry canal.

After the first May Bank Holiday weekend away from the boat, I left the marina at Hinckley and continued my journey up the Ashby canal, dodging rain showers as I went, to arrive at Market Bosworth.

By mid-July it was time for the final gentle amble up the last bit of the north Coventry canal to Fradley Junction. The main thing of note was how thick the overgrowth was not only on the offside but the towpath side as well - and quite a lot of weeds growing up within the canal itself. I've been told this whole area is earmarked for a good cut back by CRT's volunteer team and you can see it really does neeed it!

In this episode, I set off from Handsacre and squeeze through the tiny narrow section just after the town where it's only just wide enough for one boat and you can't see if anyone's coming the other way... Then I went through Rugeley, which was very busy and moored near Weston, waking up to an emergency involving a sheep. Yes, really.

When I reached the town of Stone in Staffordshire, I paused to pick up a special guest - Jasmin from YouTube channel "This Narrowboat Adventure" (link below). Battling the mighty forces of wind, rain and vicious swans, we made it through the town until calling it quits for the day.

My journey up the Macclesfield canal continued, leaving a lovely mooring at the top of Bosley locks and going through two swing bridges which weren't as bad as I feared even though they are a nuisance when you're travelling solo. Through Macclesfield itself where I stopped to nip to the shops, and then Bollington before stopping just on the north of the town.

A few weeks ago, I had the great pleasure of spending a day aboard the fuel boat and butty of "Jules Fuels" on the Grand Union canal. The day started - early! - with loading of supplies and then off we went to deliver to customers south of Milton Keynes.

Filmed entirely on a DJI Osmo Action camera - which has the most amazing stabilisation - with a Rode Videomicro microphone, this is a recording of the first brief walk I took after completing 14 days of self isolation having come back from overseas. The weather was beautiful, the birds were chirping like crazy but the waters were almost totally still. Hopefully this is a nice little background video to bring a window of peace and calm into your day.

A little thing like a global pandemic and lockdown is not going to prevent further boat videos on this channel so I present the first in what may become a regular "virtual tour" series, as we meet Dimitrios and Carine Theologitis from Brussels and have a look around their amazing narrowboat Galene, which is filled with ingenious design touches.

A year after I moved aboard, I did a video (vlog 68) about what the annual costs were of life afloat. Now, after four years on board, I present an updated version of the same using averaged figures over the full four years.

On Wednesday 13th May, the lockdown restrictions on the English waterways were relaxed slightly to permit day trips (no overnight stays away from a home mooring) for leisure boaters. As I'm currently moored in a marina where I'd stopped for winter, I am following those guidelines rather than the Continuous Cruising rules. Anyway I took the opportunity to fire up the narrowboat and do a five-hour cruise down towards Fazeley Junction and back.

Over recent months I have noticed a number of unsightly rusty spots erupting on the boat's roof. Some, I assume, are from bits of grit rubbing through the paint as I've walked over it; for others I have no idea as to their origins. All needed tidying up and the rust stopped in its tracks though so in this video I show you my initial attempts, which fall short of a full repaint.

In the second of my lockdown Skype interviews with other boaters, we cross the pond to Missouri, USA for a chat with Kay Davis and Jeff Hoesel who own a 1994 Gibson Cabin Yacht and take it for trips along the mighty Mississippi River.

A "slow TV" (real-time) bow-camera recording of the trip from Kings Orchard Marina at Lichfield to Fradley Junction on June 21st 2020.

I leave Kings Orchard Marina near Lichfield and head north up the Coventry canal to Fradley Junction where it rains a lot and I moor above the locks.

After almost drowning in the sea of rain falling onto Fradley, a new menace threatened my journey as the furious weather switched tack, turning instead to attack me with blazing rays of sun at a million degrees. Parched, weak and craving to escape the furnace I hauled myself to the back of the boat and just about had enough energy to propel the boat in search of shade, even as my last drops of water were exhausted. This is that traumatic tale.

At the end of a very warm day in June, I set off from Shugborough to Great Haywood, turning there onto the Staffs & Worcester canal because from there down to Autherley is a section of canal I've never done before. I moored at Tixall Wide - beautiful - and then headed on around Stafford before being perplexed at what people have at the end of their gardens in Acton Trussell.

Picking up from the previous video, I continue down the Staffs and Worcs canal from Acton Trussell, through Penkridge and moor outside Otherton Boat Haven. En route, I demonstrate how not to open a lock gate.

An episode in which, despite wind and rain, I boated on like a trooper to get from Otherton to Autherley, including the *extremely* narrow section that's barely wide enough for one boat just before you get to Autherley.

It's not really a vlog because in this episode I'm just re-tracing my steps from the prior five cruising videos and didn't really film as usual but I compiled this selection of clips to illustrate Stuff Of Interest - mostly to do with how amazingly busy the canals got after July 4th when lockdown restrictions were eased and people could use their boats again.

A few weeks ago, I sanded down and touched up a load of rusty spots on my narrowboat's roof but I didn't then have the chance to finish the job and overcoat the whole thing in its entirety. I was also unsure what paint to use. Now, at last, I have had a few days of decent weather and got the whole thing done.

Enough people spotted and commented upon my sad-looking stove chimney in the prior (roof painting) video that I thought I had better come clean, do a confession, and explain why it's looking so dented. This is that story.

Back cruising again, quickly before a) winter and b) another lockdown. I headed back up to Fradley Junction and turn east onto the Trent & Mersey canal, going through Alrewas and onto Barton Turns marina.

In another tense, nail-biting episode, I cruise further east along the Trent & Mersey canal on my narrowboat, through Burton-on-Trent and up to Willington. This involves the lockside purchase of some carrots.