For writer Jenni Ratcliffe, water is in her blood, and her journey to finding herself living aboard Trentham, a 40ft 1975 cruiser stern narrowboat built by Stone Boat Builders, somewhat fated. Alice Elgie reports…
“GROWING up, my parents called me and my sister to dinner by ringing a large brass bell that we were told was from my granddad’s working boat on the Manchester Ship Canal. Both my dad and his dad used to work on canal dredgers, at times together, and these stories were woven into my mind every time my dad would use his old rope braiding skills to plait my unruly hair.”
Jenni has lived aboard with her partner, Callum, for six years now, after the couple decided on boat life being the best way to be settled and close to family in the UK yet still be free to explore and move: “We spent our 20s working and living in different places, from farm volunteering and hitchhiking across the west coast of North America to sheep herding via boat on the Lofoten islands,” she tells me. Their appetite for adventure is clear – and yet, when a 2018 trip to New Zealand was brought abruptly to an end following a family death in the UK, they started to explore settling in a tiny home within their own country. However, as Jenni explains, not all options were open to them: “We didn’t have driving licences, so van life wasn’t really practical, but coming from some iconic canal places – Runcorn and Stoke, and Lincoln being where we met – a narrowboat was floated as an ideal solution.” It wasn’t long before the perfect boat appeared and the couple decided to buy it the same day, after a survey, despite it being on the smaller side. “For many people, a 40ft boat would be downsizing, but as we’d spent a lot of time together using tents and a backpack as our main home, we joked that we’d upscaled!”
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It seems the water agrees with Jenni and Callum, and despite their time aboard not being without challenges, such as renovating while working and studying full-time, the couple feel it’s all been worth it, with Jenni in particular explaining how life on water is proving to be a constant source of inspiration for her writing. “I’ve found myself much more deeply connected to nature, such as with noticing birds, which I have written about for magazines. Plus, on the subject of the surprising safety of the canals at night, one of my poems was longlisted in a competition.”
Another area Jenni has found herself becoming invested in is the health of our waterways, which has led her to begin an online venture, The Water Book Club. “I have found the recent uncovering of pollution unnerving – outrageous, even – so the book club is for aquaphiles during a time of drought and doubt in nature, centred around water-inspired narratives.” Jenni is busy interviewing creatives, using water as a theme of inspiration, connection, understanding and guiding thirst of collective knowledge. In one such interview, she spoke with award-winning author Dr Amy-Jane Beer. “It was a moving session where we talked openly about the state of water pollution, but also how water is the bringer of all life, mystical and powerful,” Jenni said.
This mystical power could not be more apparent than in her beautiful observations. She relishes waking up to “the dancing display of refracted light from the water on my ceiling, slipping over the tops of my blinds” and delights in “the sounds of the canal: gentle water overspills, the slow comb-like cranking of canal locks, owls goodnight greetings, foxes ludicrously loud night-time rallies and the utterly weird sound a heron makes in flight.” Her ability to notice in great detail the nature we are exposed to on our waterways is captivating, and she hopes to inspire those moving at a faster pace to slow down and notice too. “I’m so glad I get to be on the cut and move about, exploring at a slow pace. The nature I get to see is priceless – kingfishers diving for food, a stoat among the wild garlic, and tumbling badger cubs on the offside.”
While perhaps somewhat fated, the couple’s move onto the water is one that continues to seamlessly plait itself into new memories as, just like family before her, Jenni finds herself enraptured: “I see living on my boat akin to living in the belly of a large fish; I think I might belong more to the water now than it does to me.”
Blog: www.jenratcliffe.substack.com
Instagram: @compass_keen
@messinaboat
Bluesky: Jenratcliff.bsky.social
Alice Elgie is a writer who shares words about her nature-infused lifestyle through recorded reflections and seasonal hold-in-the-hand letters: www.aliceelgie.com
