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Barge Waterdog
Humber Barge Waterdog
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WATERDOG c. 1876

89' x 15'11" (27m x 4.85m) Humber Trading Barge

The black and white photo above is from Waterdog's trading days on the Humber, Trent and Aire & Calder. She is pictured near Pollington Lock in the 1950s or 1960s.

Lorna saved Waterdog from the scrap yard in 1996 and then Lawrence joined her in 1997 and they worked together on the barge in Goole from 1997 till 2008 to make her ready for crossing the North Sea and cruising Europe. We also had full time jobs in the offshore industry which slowed our progress on Waterdog. We set sail from the Humber to Dunkerque in July 2008 to carry on the adventure in France. We cruised the waterways of Northern France and Belgium for 9 years until things became more difficult in the oil & Gas industry, this made cruising more difficult due to working trips becoming less regular and more unpredictable in length.

In September 2016 we crossed the North Sea in Waterdog for a second time from Nieuwpoort, Belgium to Woodbridge in Suffolk. We now moor bow on to the Deben river front with only a 5 minute walk to the town centre. In 2017 we voyaged along the coast to Essex for a month in dry dock and then back via Harwich.

We started really enjoying all things British. Lawrence races his Hadron H2 single handed sailing dinghy with the local sailing club and we both enjoy kayaking along stretches of our tidal river. Lawrence retired in the summer of 2019, finishing his 38 years of working at sea as a hydrographic surveyor, Lorna was in the same industry but had retired 10 years earlier. It is so fantastic to not pack a bag and leave for the airport for a month away on a ship, we really appreciate the time at home on Waterdog, we can finally work towards a finished boat (maybe).

Email Lorna or Lawrence

2020 was dominated by Covid19 so with a very dry spring we got on with chipping, wire brushing and painting the decks.

The waterside promenade in front of us was very busy with people taking their ‘allowed’ exercise.

Making the new galley mostly waited till autumn, to do in second lockdown when sailing & kayaking was tailing off.

The allotment provided fresh Tomatoes, courgettes, cucumbers, peppers and salad to us and several other boat families throughout the year.

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