Life idly drifting along a waterway might seem idyllic, but in the grip of winter it's a whole different ball game, as boating enthusiast Robbie Cumming found out when filming BBC Four's Canal Boat Diaries. Now in its fourth series, Robbie continues his journey on his narrowboat, the Naughty Lass, all captured on mobile phones and small cameras.
His adventures start once again on Monday, May 1, with the Nottingham episode screened on Wednesday, May 3 – all filmed and captured on mobile phones and small cameras. It was last December, during icy conditions, when the 40-year-old YouTuber who has more than 40,000 subscribers, arrived in Nottinghamshire on a "tidal"' River Trent.
He said: "The river does flood a lot, the current is too much. It's the second largest river in the country in terms of the volume of water it carries so you can imagine at times you are fighting quite a current to get from Newark to Nottingham. You are pushing against the flow of water. I slowed right down till I was almost zero mph and I was thinking how am I going to get through this? But luckily I did.
"I almost ran aground as well on the way into Nottingham. The boat started to scrap along the bottom as I was getting too near to the sides and then all of a sudden the boat is going all the way around, starting to turn because it's caught on the front and the current is taking the back end out. It was a bit scary for a while."
As Robbie approached Trent Bridge he said: "You see the City Ground and the cricket stadium and really feel like you've arrived when you come in on the river to Nottingham. It's quite grand. You can moor up near the steps, I did try that but it was way too icy when I was there so I thought no I'll go straight on and try and get on the canal as soon as possible as it's a bit safer"
He passes Nottingham's canalside pubs Morton, Fellows & Clayton and the Canalhouse but just as the boat approaches the British Waterways building, disaster strikes.
"I broke down in Nottingham. The engine started to leak oil everywhere, the oil pressure gauge just popped and I lost all that pressure and oil. We filmed the dial going all over the place and I just say to the camera I didn't mean to end it here but that's what's going to happen.
"It's so real. Some documentaries are guided towards a storyline, with us we just film whatever happens, however random it is. Luckily the problem was soon fixed by a mechanic who came out the next day.
"It usually takes ages to get seen by any mechanic or boatyard, you have to book months and months ahead but in this case my producer knew someone in the area and this guy came out almost the next day so my Christmas wish got granted and he fixed it."
Although it didn't make the final cut, Robbie went on to Beeston, where he had breakfast and a chat with Tony Gayle, the owner of the Boathouse Cafe. He said: "There's something fans of the show might like. Because Canal Boat Diaries was born in the East Midlands I wanted to leave a bit of memorabilia - an unofficial DVD of the very first series that started in Shardlow. Tony is a historian himself and such as character he's got to be the custodian of this."
From Nottinghamshire, Canal Boat Diaries headed to Leicestershire. "The weather was changing so I got frozen in a few times on my way to Loughborough - I got a barge poll out and started breaking up the ice around me but the pole was pretty old so I ended up snapping it."
Robbie, who hails from Dorset, and has lived on a narrowboat for eight years, is joined on his adventure by two others. "All the bits where I'm talking to the camera are all filmed by me, loads of little shots of boats and bits of me doing various things like cooking, but I do get help. The producer has GoPro cameras he sticks on the roof and a drone pilot comes along with us. At most, it's three of us on board which makes me feel a bit better when it's on the tidal river."
The popularity of the programmes has taken him by surprise. "It feels like a built of a cult thing. People go absolutely mental for it and I don't really understand. The other day there were two couples and I could hear 'oooh look it's Naughy Lass, this is the one'. You hear everything when people are outside the boat, so I came out to say hello and the couple they were with hadn't got a clue. They were just looking at their friends like what are you doing? You're making an absolute scene 'ooh Robbie - this is brilliant'. It's wonderful."
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