Boaters take stock after Christmas canal collapse

People affected by Monday's major canal collapse have been taking stock of the events during a Boxing Day lunch together - with one view being that some boaters were "lucky to be alive".

When an embankment gave way on a stretch of the Llangollen Canal in Whitchurch, Shropshire, gallons of water escaped, a deep trench was ripped into the dry waterway, and narrowboats plunged into the cavity. Others teetered on the hole's edge, or listed as water ran away.

While there were no casualties, some of those caught up in the chaos have since said that lives were nevertheless "turned upside down", as the boats were also homes.

People were still in shock, they observed.

But it was not all bad news.

According to the pair behind the Narrowboat Life Unlocked Youtube channel which documents their life on the water, an online fundraising push they organised to benefit the worst-hit boaters had as of Saturday collected more than £65,000.

"We are really grateful to all those that have donated," the pair, known as Paul and Anthony, said.

Their own boat was left listing as water drained out of the canal, but thanks to water-pumping organised by the Canal and River Trust, they were afloat again, albeit temporarily displaced.

On Boxing Day, they joined other boaters for a Christmas lunch, including their hosts, the couple behind the Facebook account One Day More Aboard, which covers the story of Caroline and Pete who moved back to England from Texas to live on a narrowboat.

The couple, who have property in Whitchurch, were not directly caught up in the events. But they said the gathering at their home - where Anthony and Paul had been staying since Christmas Eve - brought some "much needed relief from the worry of the Whitchurch breach".

"It was a wonderful day with our boating besties," they said.

The thoughts of all of them, however, remained with the events of Monday, and the people for whom the fundraising was carried out - those living on the two narrowboats that descended into the trench, who were not aboard when the vessels dropped, and a boat that was left precariously on the hole's edge.

More details of their ordeals have since emerged in the days since Monday morning.

"We spoke to the owners of the boats yesterday and their lives have been turned upside down," according to an online post by Narrowboat Life Unlocked, who added the people living on the two that went into the trench were "lucky to be alive".

They said the owner of one boat tried to step off his vessel in the dark and fell to the ground because his stern was "already up in the air".

"He turned around to see his stern was eight to 10 feet in the air before sliding into the breach, he woke the other boaters shouting for them to get off their boats."

The post added that the family on the other boat - which on dramatic video footage was captured tipping into the hole - managed to get on to the towpath where the ground "felt like jelly".

They had been restoring their boat for the last two years, the post continued.

Another couple who were concerned that their boat may also fall into the hole walked through a muddy field in the dark for more than an hour to reach fire crews, the post said.

The boat that was left hanging over the edge has since been dragged to safety.

The Canal and River Trust previously told the BBC that repairs to the damaged canal could take months to complete, and could cost millions of pounds.

A clear timeline for recovering the other stricken boats has yet to emerge.

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