Does Anyone Commute By Boat?

[Bi111ion]

Not commuting exactly, but I had a visiting professorship in Copenhagen this summer so sailed from the UK and then back at the end. It was my longest ever trip to work. The University couldn't work out a mileage rate for sailing but I did try to convince the pro-vice chancellor for sustainability that it should be encouraged.

 

[PhillM]

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.

Now there's a memory. Day trip for business to a call centre in Rothesay became an extended car journey to collintryth ? Stuck in the the pub there for 24 hours, got onto the island then stuck for 2 days. Was a February in 1995 ish I think. Couple of nice whisky tasting evenings though!

 

[JumbleDuck]

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

From the 1900s to the 1930s s there was a fad for rich American business men to commute from Long Island to New York by steam launch. They all wanted to outdo each other, so a strange type of boat evolved, with huge boilers, huge engines and absolutely minimal accommodation - typically a small but comfy cabin for four people. Early ones were the fastest reciprocating-engine steamboats ever built; later turbines came in and then internal combustion.

This is the Oheka II - 48' long and powered by three Maybach airship engines

and this is the turbine steamer Navette, built by Herreshoff for JP. Morgan. The little deckhouse forward of the funnel was the only accommodation - everything else was machinery.

 

[Sgeir]

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.

TfL Oyster card also accepted.

 

[Searush]

TfL Oyster card also accepted.

How about a Bus pass? I still haven't found any busses yet.

 

[DownWest]

While staying in Porto Raphael in Sardinia I commuted round to Palau for about 10 days in a Fletcher ski boat. There was a car, but the roads were dreadful and bandits were still operating inland. While I was there, an American tourist was shot for refusing to hand over his wallet.

 

[Wansworth]

Found Red Funnel tea and toast acceptable on the daily commute from Cowes to Seton in the late 60 s

 

[Lakesailor]

It seems to be divided into using "own boats" or "other people's boat services".
I am much more drawn to the own boat commute. It seems very luxurious.

 

[Wansworth]

It seems to be divided into using "own boats" or "other people's boat services".
I am much more drawn to the own boat commute. It seems very luxurious.

.I..this would mean more staff to worry about....

 

[Searush]

.I..this would mean more staff to worry about....

No, that's his Butler's task. Have you no experience of handling the lower orders whatsoever?

 

[Wansworth]

No, that's his Butler's task. Have you no experience of handling the lower orders whatsoever?

......I had to let them go, the crisis not only affects the poor

 

[DownWest]

Friend of this parish has an ex Naval fast planing boat to transport the captain ashore. Driver would be a stoker, as not need on the ship if officers ashore.

 

[ffiill]

Now there's a memory. Day trip for business to a call centre in Rothesay became an extended car journey to collintryth ? Stuck in the the pub there for 24 hours, got onto the island then stuck for 2 days. Was a February in 1995 ish I think. Couple of nice whisky tasting evenings though!

1996/97 I suspect you were there when a couple who used to have a little computer shop in Rothesay persuaded various organisations that a call Centre in Rothesay was a good idea.Now one of the worlds biggest call centre operators with call centres worldwide.

My daughters first job after leaving Rothesay Academey
as call centre operator then supervisor.

 

[charles_reed]

When I had my first boat, on the trots above the swing bridge opposite Sherry's Wharf, there was a large sailing barge inboard of me called either "Black Swan" or "Black Prince". The two girls living with parents on the boat, used to row ashore, in their Grammar School uniforms, every morning and back again at night.
That was 1978/80 Poole.

 

[mcframe]

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)?

Thames Clipper for me.

Coffee in the morning,
Beer in the evening,
And,
A handy display of single-line mooring (against whichever way the tide happpens to be going) several times a day.

Those, and 4G signal, mean that I've not used motorbike for ages. (Tube is too horrible to consider).

 

[FistralG]

It felt like I was travelling by boat when I drove to Exeter on the A30 at 05:30 this morning. On several occasions there was no contact between car and the road surface due to the volume of water on the road.

 

[ronsurf]

I know someone who travelled everywhere by boat after he lost his driving licence due to drink driving. Does that count?

 

[Border Terrier]

Did for a while in Bermuda. But wet and windy is the same the world over, just the temerature varies,

And it's got to be civilised than going by bike!

 

[PhillM]

1996/97 I suspect you were there when a couple who used to have a little computer shop in Rothesay persuaded various organisations that a call Centre in Rothesay was a good idea.Now one of the worlds biggest call centre operators with call centres worldwide.

My daughters first job after leaving Rothesay Academey
as call centre operator then supervisor.

Spot on. I helped build that call centre and supplied the training software. Iirc they got grants from the highlands and islands development fund to pay for it all then sold out to Scotish Power just before it went bust.