Does Anyone Commute By Boat?

[Lakesailor]

I don't mean because their work is marine based.
Does anyone use a boat to get to work instead of by road or rail just because they can? (Ferries as part of a journey are only part-commutes)?

 

[laika]

I suppose "used to" doesn't count but for a couple of years I was living conveniently near the river in London and used to take the riverbus to work in Canary Wharf. It's a fast cat. Fabulous way to get to and from work. Only downside was the cost: more than twice the tube fare at the time. I really don't know why London transport doesn't exploit the river more for passenger transport.

 

[onesea]

I have taken boat to collect my partner from her work before now... Normally involves an evening merryment in Southampton and return sail the next day...

 

[snowleopard]

Moored in Hamilton harbour Bermuda I saw quite a few commuters sailing to work. One was an older gent, smartly turned out - shirt, tie, shorts, long socks, polished shoes with a dinghy to match, beautifully varnished. I was looking forward to an immaculate display of boat handling - then he missed stays, lost control and piled into the jetty sideways.

 

[chinita]

A friend of mine used to row his g/f from Brighton Marina, around the pier heads and on to the pebble beach close to the hospital where she worked as a nurse.

One day the dinghy was overturned by a breaking wave, she was utterly drenched. She had to trudge to work and dry off her clothes - bit by bit - on the radiators.

I am choking on my coffee, even now, as I think of it.

 

[Wansworth]

I suppose "used to" doesn't count but for a couple of years I was living conveniently near the river in London and used to take the riverbus to work in Canary Wharf. It's a fast cat. Fabulous way to get to and from work. Only downside was the cost: more than twice the tube fare at the time. I really don't know why London transport doesn't exploit the river more for passenger transport.

.I..historically the river was the main thougherfare for London with countless rowing boats etc.

 

[michael_w]

I used to have a flat mate who commuted across Sydney Harbour by Laser.

 

[Sandgrounder]

Long time ago but Henry Schneider of Windermere did, if only in part: -

Henry Schneider arrived in Barrow-in-Furness in 1839 as a speculator and dealer in iron. He took over the Whiteriggs iron mine and other ore deposits. His breakthrough in Furness was the discovery of the massive Burlington iron ore mine near Askam in 1851.

He and other investors including James Ramsden founded the Furness Railway, the first section of which opened in 1846. He decided to build furnaces in the town, in partnership with John Hannay. Schneider's iron company later merged with one founded by Ramsden to form the Barrow Hematite Steel Company and the two magnates oversaw the construction in 1859 of what was then the largest Bessemer process steelworks in the world, employing more than 5,000 workers.

He was elected MP for Norwich from March 27, 1857 to July 31, 1859 and was later MP for Lancaster from February 20, 1865 to December 31, 1866, but was disqualified when it was found that he had bribed voters.

While chairman of the Barrow Steelworks he lived at Belsfield House on the shore of Windermere. Every morning he left home and travelled on his steam yacht SL Esperance, on which he had breakfast, across the lake to Lakeside. From there he would travel by train in his private carriage to his office in Barrow. The Esperance is preserved in the Windermere Steamboat Museum. It became the model for Captain Flint's houseboat in Arthur Ransome's Swallows and Amazons.

He had other homes in the area at Roa Island, next to the lifeboat station, later used as a fisheries centre and at Oak Lea, near Sowerby Woods, which burnt down in mysterious circumstances in 1913.

 

[GHA]

I suppose "used to" doesn't count but for a couple of years I was living conveniently near the river in London and used to take the riverbus to work in Canary Wharf. It's a fast cat. Fabulous way to get to and from work. Only downside was the cost: more than twice the tube fare at the time. I really don't know why London transport doesn't exploit the river more for passenger transport.

Same here. For a while living aboard in St Kats and also Southdock up to Embankment. Lovely way to travel, and have a beer and on the way home

 

[Lakesailor]

The Esperance is preserved in the Windermere Steamboat Museum. It became the model for Captain Flint's houseboat in Arthur Ransome's Swallows and Amazons.

"Preserved" is a generous term. The museum had her moored next to the wet dock alongside Raven, a gravel barge, which between them are the oldest and second oldest vessels on Lloyds Register of Yachts.
The museum closed in 2007 and Esperance was kept there until recently when she was moved to a boathouse not far from your own mooring. The temporary building housing the exhibits on the museum site has been moved (still being assembled) to the "show field" alongside the museum to make room for the redevelopment of the site, which is starting at last

When we had the B&B opposite I often would sit on Esperance when going to my tender landing in the show field.
I had to (along with Mrs Lakesailor) herd a flock of Gile's sheep from Esperance one morning when someone left the field gate open and they took a fancy to her. Sheep seem able to climb up, but are not keen on climbing down again.

 

[Sgeir]

About once a month I stay in Greenwich and commute to the City via the Thames Clipper - great service and incomparably more pleasant than the DLR in the rush hour.

 

[l'escargot]

I sometimes sail SWMBO to work in England - if I need to go over myself to do a few things. We'll stay a day or two and the come back.

 

[BobnLesley]

Never done so, but clearly people do: We were sailing up New York Harbour, between the Verrazano Bridge and the East River entrance about 3 months ago, at around 08:30 on a Thursday morning and would estimate that we were passed by upwards of fifty motor-boats of varying sizes during a half-hour period, almost all of them being helmed by people in smart/business attire; just like cars on the M25, the overwhelming majority appeared to just have a single person on board.

 

[ffiill]

Ferry from Rothesay to Weymss Bay then train to Glasgow.
For my daughter at the time back in the 1990s it was ferry then bus to James Watt College in Greenock.
Stuffed of course when you arrived back late afternoon and found ferries cancelled because of bad weather or having to bus back to Greenock to catch ferry there when Weymss Bay was untenable.
The ferry was a great entertainment and social gathering place even better in bad weather when to get into Rothesay Bay it would head down the Clyde towards Great Cumbrae whilst edging towards Bute. The captain would then judge the waves and do a quick 135 degrees turn.
If you were unused to this and were foolish enough to stay in your car on the open topped car deck at this point you were covered in green water!
The ship to be onboard was the Pioneer built as an oil rig supply boat and fitted with serious screw down watertight doors onto the car deck
I remember one year when off island and stranded sleeping aboard my boat ashore at Kip.

 

[Searush]

I regularly used to walk 3 miles to the Ferry at Seacombe, cross the Mersey & then walk to the office. I usually got the bus after the ferry on the way home as I would be knackered & hungry by then so not prepared to wait an extra 20 mins for my tea. All changed when I moved to another division in a different office.

There was a post on a FB canoeing page recently where a guy was looking for a canoe for the commute to work. It raised some comment, mostly envious.

 

[Daydream believer]

(Ferries as part of a journey are only part-commutes)?

So the Woolwich Ferry is out then??
Used by thousands over the years

According to Jerry & the Pacemakers the Mersey had one too. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=os4_U3_L5nY

 

[JumbleDuck]

I don't mean because their work is marine based.
Does anyone use a boat to get to work instead of by road or rail just because they can? (Ferries as part of a journey are only part-commutes)?

A colleague of mine who lived on the Isle of Wight but occasionally had to work in France spent years trying, unsuccessfully, to get our beloved employer to pay a mileage rate for trips across the channel. Twenty years ago I succeeded in claiming the bicycle rate for sailing from Crinan to Bowmore, though.

 

[Rowana]

Used to do it every day when I lived in Perth, Australia. 10 min walk to the ferry, cross the Swan river, then 5 min walk to the office.

 

[JumbleDuck]

About once a month I stay in Greenwich and commute to the City via the Thames Clipper - great service and incomparably more pleasant than the DLR in the rush hour.

I occasionally have some time spare in London, and always try to fill it with a trip down the river and back on the Clipper. Comfy, hot chocolate available, and a fraction of the cost of the trip boats. You get a discount if you have a day travelcard.

 

[Actionmat]

I often do the school run on a Friday(return journey only)by boat, if time allows. It would be quicker by car, but nowhere near as much fun.