Women on Barges FB group is the best place to start.
A BRIEF (or not-so-brief) HISTORY of WOMEN ON BARGES, in case anyone wondered:
About four years ago my husband, Barrie and I were on the train back to Sandwich from Sterling, Scotland and the reenactment of that epic battle of Bannockburn (the Scots won again, for the 750th time !!!!!) and with nothing else to do for four hours decided that we women who live or holiday - or would like to - on barges needed our own network on Facebook. It took me a few minutes to decide the guidelines which have been slightly modified since but this illustrious group was up and running. I had no expectations except connecting us, and within 24 hours I had 26 women join me!!!!!!!! What a delightful shock.
A few months later I met Jackie Parry who had completed their second almost circumnavigation in their yacht and who was in the UK visiting family while looking to purchase a barge. I invited her to join me as an Administrator since I knew her connection to all things boating fitted in well. We had already sold our yacht and narrowboat and had purchased the challenge of our life, our dear ancient Tjalk and were in the middle of refitting her from a derelict hull to a comfortable live-aboard ship with the plan of eventually sailing across the Straits of Dover to Europe.
Women on Barges expanded regularly mostly by word of mouth, friends telling friends. Around this time I designed a flag, a distinctive swallow tailed item of bright pink for girls, orange for the historic Dutch barges (of which ours was one) and a purple W around the edges for WOMEN.
Colour and shape were easily identified from a distance. Shortly the waterways of Europe were coloured with these little flags, signaling "one of us" was on board! I recall one conversation where two women said they had been in the same marina for almost a year and had never met, but this little colourful flag brought them together and a lovely friendship resulted. Not long later another administrator was added, Veronica Hayes joined us too. Our Admins have come and gone on to other things but WOMEN ON BARGES continues to expand. We have a new Administrator, Charlie Stockford who is the mastermind behind some coming changes to the IT aspect of the menus and files and hopefully many more improvements to our group. Bravo, Charlie for taking up the challenge!!!
That's the rest of the story, and I am looking forward to meeting more of our WOBs on board, out for coffee or drinks or perhaps just in passing, faring on the canals and rivers of Europe and beyond. We continue to welcome you, with or with out a barge -- or a boat of any type.