Customer Reviews

The Leaky Iron Boat: Nursing an Old Barge Through Holland, Belgium and France

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Hart Massey's engaging tale of purchasing and travelling in an old barge is sure to make to yearn for the freedom of barge life. With his wife and the dog Joss he sets out to travel the canals of Holland, Belgium and France meeting adventure and misadventure along the way. I thoroughly enjoyed this book and would recommend it to anyone who loves armchair travels or has thought of buying a barge.

The leaky boat in question is a 60-year-old barge, LIONEL owned by a 60-year-old Canadian couple. The book recounts Massey's trip from Holland, Belgium and France. Told with humor and candor, it is a delightful voyage despite a less-than-perfect beginning: Lionel had sunk over the winter, and Massy retuned to leaking water pumps, pips and a hole in the hull. After eight years of cruising, the 68-year-old Masseys decide to sell LIONEL This reader shed a tear at the end of the book when their leaky iron boat chugged down the river with new owners.

Massey is an excellent and witty author and a great observer of the passing towns and countryside. The book is full of interesting historical insights, empathetic sketches of canal life, fascinating facts about food and wine and he shares lessons learned the hard way navigating an old vessel through the often shallow and sometimes confusing waterways of France, Belgium and Holland. We would love to have been his guest on some of these votages. Bravo!