Saturday, January 10, 2004
Read the whole article here (if you are in America you may not be able to access this for free).Retired couple conquer the Channel in a canal boat
When Terry and Monica Darlington retired last year, they decided on two things - they wanted to visit Paris and also to have a bit of excitement in their lives.
In the end they went for both, and plumped for risking their lives by sailing their canal boat for seven and a half hours across the English Channel to France.
Sitting just two feet off the water and with a top speed of seven miles per hour, Mr Darlington, 68, admitted that the 60ft, flat-bottomed narrow boat was hardly equipped to face the rigours of two of the busiest shipping lanes in the world.
...
The couple and their whippet, Jim, set off on their seven-month, 1,000-mile journey last April from their home in Stone, Staffs, sailing the Phyllis May down through the country's canal network to Ramsgate, Kent, from where they crossed to Calais in an "epic" journey, weaving in and out of cross-Channel ferries and other traffic.
