Narrowboat Phyllis May

Ramsgate to Calais.

Belhaven to Oriental. That 45-mile run down the ICW from the Pungo River doesn't usually invite comparisons to crossing the English Channel. Unless, like Terry and Monica Darlington you've made both passages on board a British canal boat usually found on the calm canals of Britain's Midlands and most definitely not built for the the open waters -- even on a calm day -- of either the English Channel or the Pamlico Sound. Which is why they approach both bodies of water with some trepidation. To understand how improbable their journeys have been, stand at one end of their boat, the Phyllis May, and look forward. It's long and skinny. 62 feet from end to end, one of which was jutting out far past the Darlington's slip at the Oriental Marina this week. Now take in the beam. Designed to fit the skinny locks of the British canal system, the Phyllis May is known as a narrowboat. And she is a narrow boat: 6-feet-10-inches at the widest. And because it was meant to ply the relatively easy waters of the canals, there's not much boat below the waterline. The Darlingtons arrived in Oriental Monday October 16, a tad weary from the 9 hour passage from Belhaven. Terry and Monica DarlingtonIt had been a "long hop", Terry Darlington says, something they were were not accustomed to. He says that in the past few weeks on the ICW they had done 3 "long hops"... and only six ever.Getting Here From ThereTerry and Monica live in Stone, Staffordshire in "the heart of the canal system" in England. They're retired -- Terry's 70 and Monica's 69 and they'd run an international marketing research firm, he says. They did not have much experience with boats. About five years ago they took off on their narrowboat -- with their equally narrow dog, a whippet named Jim -- and traveled the canals. Terry started writing about the trip in emails to friends. British TV became interested. The Darlington's decided to take the boat to France. That meant crossing the English Channel. "We weren't supposed to do it," Terry says. "Everyone said we'd die." Terry's understated delivery sometimes brings to mind Alfred Hitchcock. When asked what crossing the Channel was like, he offers up one word: "terrifying." Even though they'd waited for calm conditions and the Channel was "flat", he says, they still ran in to "a lot of heavy stuff" on the seven hour run to Calais. In France they made their way through the canal system there to Carcassone and wrote a book -- Narrow Dog To Carcassone about the adventures of the crew and dog on the 1600 mile trip on the narrow boat. It's been a best-seller in the UK, Terry says. The New Book It was while in France, Terry says that he got the idea of making a similar journey in the US. Terry says they'd "met some Yanks in France who said there was a water way down the side of the US."He says that he thought it was "worth a throw". And another book. This one is to be called, "Narrow Dog To Indian River" about their trip down the ICW from the Chesapeake to Florida. He estimates he's a third of the way through it. The lack of boating experience helps, Terry says, because as he puts it, "it'd be boring to read about someone who knew what they were doing."Crossing the Atlantic -- By FreighterTo state the obvious: Terry and Monica did not cross the Atlantic in the Phyllis May. The narrowboat was shipped from England to the Chesapeake this summer. And they Darlingtons are planning to motor down the ICW to Fort Myers in Florida before having her shipped back to the UK before next summer. Initially used to haul cargo -- often coal --- down the canals, the narrowboats in more recent times have been built for recreational use, as was the Phyllis May a few decades ago. Down below it's one long room. And cozy, with freestanding upholstered chairs in the salon near the wood burning stove, then a galley, followed by the head (with the brass "WC" on the door) and the bedroom. Terry says he does miss having books and the TV, but for a boat 6'10" wide, it has not felt tight. It feels, he says, like they have "more space than at home." That's because, Monica points out, "we've got lovely, big windows. We can look out either side, and see the countryside." On the canals back in the Midlands, that meant swans and other wildlife. "One of the nicest things, boating in England," she says, is that they are "in touch with nature. And the narrowboat feels like an extension of the countryside."The canals there also offered the opportunity to moor virtually anywhere along the banks. For free.Here in the States, the Darlingtons have not found the same mooring opportunities. They've stayed in marinas which charge alas, not by the square foot, but by the linear foot. Monica says that earlier in their trip they did consider tyingn up to a bank of the ICW. But when they went to the shore on a scouting mission, they were quickly introduced to one aspect of the countryside in the South. "We were," Monica says, "bitten up by chiggers." Stopping there, they decided, was 'not a particularly good idea."The boat itself may not be equipped to handle chiggers nor other flying insects. A look at the 'lovely, big windows' on the Phyllis May revealed that there were no screens. They did survive the heat of summer on the boat while in Virginia. So did Jim, the Narrow Dog. Terry says they chose him years ago for travels on the house boat because they figured that as a member of racing breed, he could cope with the occasional heat. Terry says they figured Jim would be "good at keeping cool." Terry takes Jim the "narrow dog" for a walkWhile the whippet is a fast dog, the Phyllis May's pace is not. Terry and Monica are taking their time -- 6 knots -- going down the ICW.And putting some time between those open water passages. A week after they arrived, the Phyllis May was still tied up in the slip at Oriental, attracting spectators.