and welcome to the world of adjacent smokey exhausts or noisy generators, inconsiderate cruisers that rock you to sleep, infrastructure failures that hinder your progress, little Hitler CRT wardens who hassle you if they think you are overstaying, mechanical failures that are costly and inconvenient to repair, overgrown towpaths that stop you seeing where you are treading etc, etc, etc,.
You won't leave all the annoying features of land life behind, but will face new problems. As others have said, failing health issues are likely to be one of the biggest drawbacks. Personally, I'd keep the house and buy something that will give you comfortable extended breaks that you enjoy in the better weather but still have the safe retreat.