Hello!

We’re Jan and Tony and in January 2021 we bought a 60ft narrowboat and made it our new home! Previously we’d hired boats for over 20 years and owned a share in one for a while which cemented our love of all things narrowboating.

We both come from the world of showbiz – Tony a musical director and Jan a singer and dancer. We’d both had successful careers in entertainment and television so perhaps it’s no surprise that we took to vlogging (the video version of blogging) although we’d been used to working behind the scenes and not usually in front of the camera.

Like most people, we’d always taken videos of our family holidays and that included our many narrowboat trips, but, our family had never seen them!

In the days during lock down, we decided to share those early videos on YouTube and before long they’d attracted a wider audience. We called our channel, MAKING NEW MEMORIES, because that’s what we were doing, every day!

When we were doing our research into buying our current boat, we went to YouTube to see if there were any helpful vlogs. It was there that we watched David Johns (Cruising The Cut) and Kevin Shelley (Countryhouse Gent) to get an idea of the lifestyle.

At that time we weren’t cruising but put down in video form our thoughts, our visits to nearby waterways and then to looking at potential boats, to eventually moving aboard. Our vlogs now feature a mix of cruising, local history and our life onboard.

So, what can you expect to see here?

Well, there’s the daily routine of how we film, what we see, exploring new waters, meeting people, the kit we use and the tech involved, some helpful tips and advice if you want to start vlogging yourself, plus the situations we find ourselves in – it’s never a dull moment, and we’ll share these with you here with a sprinkling of pictures.

We hope you enjoy reading about our adventures!