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What is so great about living aboard?


PaddingtonBear

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I've been living aboard for nearly 10 years. I love it but realise it's not for everyone and so I don't look down my nose at those who live in land-based dwellings or arrogantly convince myself that I've got a better life than them. When people ask me what it's like living aboard I tell them the truth - that it's harder work than living in a house or flat, that I enjoy it, but that it's not for everyone.

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Pro: we came back to our least loved mooring which happens to be the one we pay for, yet rapidly hatched a plan to be back in the green tomorrow evening.

 

Appropriate tanks are full/empty.

 

You can't do that with a house! :messianic:

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To us there's an element of freedom in boating but not just boating travellers romanies etc seem to have similar opinions, I think the term getting out of the rat race is just a quick way of saying a lot more.

 

The element of freedom is the crux of it though, we're under no illusion that living on the water is going to be more labour intensive than living in bricks and mortar, but that's the point freedom to us is doing things the way you want them done and not having to rely on infrastructure that you end up being enslaved to physically and financially. Having to do things for your self to survive I believe is far more fulfilling, it might be harder work but there's something about it that makes us feel better and much happier.

 

We haven't spent more than a month at one stretch afloat but that month which included cruising was the happiest month we've ever had together in 14 years, and that was in a boat less than 50% fitted out with Celotex as cabin side finish and no cabins built. We've since been on luxury cruise holidays and they didn't compare in any way to that month.

 

There's also a sense of adventure that is severely lacking in urban life, it really is mundane and monotonous seeing the same old things day after day after day, same shops same people same job same houswe same neighbours, it's reality is that you are living the life of the brainwashed answerable to too much authority council taxes rates rents inane rules etc etc etc

 

We appreciate you can't escape it all but you can a good majority of it, and I believe that's what makes people who live on boats a lot happier with their lot.

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I'd try it tomorrow in many boats, (probably including the one I'm boating in now), if our circumstances permitted it.

 

But, (sorry Jim!), not in the one I assume we are talking about............

 

We love our other boat that is "bijou and (very!) compact" to bits, but I couldn't live on it for more than about a week, unless I really had no serious viable alternative.

 

(Well you did ask for the "no rose tinted spectacles" views on it! :blush: )

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Well, I am not leaving the rat race - I have never been in it. My original post was obviously badly phrased as all those with a glint in their eyes have posted with their usual paeons to boating, doesn't anyone just think it is ok. Life itself is just about ok why isn't boating just about ok. I can understand the eulogies if many years plans have come to fruition , as is the case with The Moomins but with most people it just seems like a good idea at the time.

 

OK then it's just about ok. We're currently moored in the middle of nowhere with a huge sky to stargaze and just the sound of the occasional passing train to break the silence. Tomorrow we will choose another remote location to be just about ok in. And the next day. The one after that we haven't planned for, we have lots of waterways to explore that I'm sure will be just about ok. In the meantime we'll be going through locks and having lots of conversations with total strangers, we may chat with a neighbour when we moor - in fact we may say more words to our mooring neighbour than we did to our house neighbour in five years! Small children will wave to us from the towpath and we'll chat to their parents. Yep it's all very vomit inducing for the cynical but we're happier now than we've ever been in our lives.

 

Sorry, but we were just about ok when we lived in our semi detached house. Now life is bloody marvellous - over two years living aboard and I wouldn't swap it for a house. If that's not the answer you're looking for I'm sorry, but it's the truth for us.

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OK then it's just about ok. We're currently moored in the middle of nowhere with a huge sky to stargaze and just the sound of the occasional passing train to break the silence. Tomorrow we will choose another remote location to be just about ok in. And the next day. The one after that we haven't planned for, we have lots of waterways to explore that I'm sure will be just about ok. In the meantime we'll be going through locks and having lots of conversations with total strangers, we may chat with a neighbour when we moor - in fact we may say more words to our mooring neighbour than we did to our house neighbour in five years! Small children will wave to us from the towpath and we'll chat to their parents. Yep it's all very vomit inducing for the cynical but we're happier now than we've ever been in our lives.

 

Sorry, but we were just about ok when we lived in our semi detached house. Now life is bloody marvellous - over two years living aboard and I wouldn't swap it for a house. If that's not the answer you're looking for I'm sorry, but it's the truth for us.

 

Well said Ange clapping.gif

 

ETA

 

 

I actually don't know what a greenie is, but people seem to get one if they say something good sensible clever etc, so if I knew what one was and possessed one I would give that greenie to you.

 

 

 

Edited by Julynian
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Well said Ange clapping.gif

 

ETA

 

 

I actually don't know what a greenie is, but people seem to get one if they say something good sensible clever etc, so if I knew what one was and possessed one I would give that greenie to you.

 

Thank you :)

 

The greenies are awarded by clicking on the white cross on the green circle background at the bottom right of the post just above the Multiquote option.

 

Not that I'm asking for a greenie - just letting you know! :D

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Thank you :)

 

The greenies are awarded by clicking on the white cross on the green circle background at the bottom right of the post just above the Multiquote option.

 

Not that I'm asking for a greenie - just letting you know! :D

 

I think you might have several laugh.gif I seem to have reached my quota laugh.gif all deserved though how ever many wink.gif

Edited by Julynian
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Forgot to say - you're only allowed two greenies per day so you have to be sparing with them!

 

I think you might have several laugh.gif I seem to have reached my quota laugh.gif all deserved though how ever many wink.gif

 

lol cross posted with you :cheers:

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To us there's an element of freedom in boating but not just boating travellers romanies etc seem to have similar opinions, I think the term getting out of the rat race is just a quick way of saying a lot more.

 

The element of freedom is the crux of it though, we're under no illusion that living on the water is going to be more labour intensive than living in bricks and mortar, but that's the point freedom to us is doing things the way you want them done and not having to rely on infrastructure that you end up being enslaved to physically and financially. Having to do things for your self to survive I believe is far more fulfilling, it might be harder work but there's something about it that makes us feel better and much happier.

 

We haven't spent more than a month at one stretch afloat but that month which included cruising was the happiest month we've ever had together in 14 years, and that was in a boat less than 50% fitted out with Celotex as cabin side finish and no cabins built. We've since been on luxury cruise holidays and they didn't compare in any way to that month.

 

There's also a sense of adventure that is severely lacking in urban life, it really is mundane and monotonous seeing the same old things day after day after day, same shops same people same job same houswe same neighbours, it's reality is that you are living the life of the brainwashed answerable to too much authority council taxes rates rents inane rules etc etc etc

 

We appreciate you can't escape it all but you can a good majority of it, and I believe that's what makes people who live on boats a lot happier with their lot.

 

I think you've summed up much of it here, I don't think it is just about living on a boat either, it's at least in part about fending for yourself, defining a life rather than following the one expected of you and not being reliant on infrastructure/ bureaucracy or just collecting physical possessions, the difference between having and being as Fromm would have said (anybody who struggles to understand why some people value freedom over possessions should read a bit of Fromm.) I've met many very happy hippies on my travels around the world. We don't currently liveaboard but do, by hook or by crook, get a fair amount of time on friends boats all year around, our plan is to live aboard full time in 2 years - we've been planning it for 5! We decided this would be the life for us some time ago after some pretty deep reflection on our otherwise very happy and fulfilled lives. Both of us have spent more than half our lives travelling the world with just a bag and our wits to support us (40 years for me as the son of a serviceman and then one myself - I've lived and moved all over the world for my entire life and our current home of 5 years is the longest I've ever spent in one place although I still travel extensively with work, 20 years for my wife who is a born and bred London girl in the RN with far more medals than I have due to her travels) , settling down in a brick prison was turning out to be tedious and very very boring! Many of our less nomadic friends have trouble understanding our issue with normality, it is what they crave - security and geographical stability, for us it just isn't enough, at least not in this form. I understand why they want what they are building for themselves, few understand why we are building our future the way we are, I find that interesting.

 

On reflection the happiest times of our lives (excluding the obvious) were when we had the least possessions and travelled extensively to some pretty dodgy places and I suspect that is true for many people, undoubtedly a set of slightly rose coloured spectacles there but still fundamentally true, it's about not knowing what the next challenge will be but knowing it's unlikely to be mundane. Living in a small comfortable space, financially independent, answerable to nobody but the law and those we love with the freedom to wake up and ask "where shall we head today" - that is the plan and we are getting there, I'm actually looking forward to the challenges and don't care too much about the downsides as they are so subjective. I've really enjoyed reading Deans travels and adventures over the last months and I think it is his and his families attitude to the challenges that sum up the lifestyle to me. I don't think there is a downside, even the 'bad' things are only bad if you consider them as such, in other ways they are an opportunity to get closer to real life.

 

I don't share PaddingtonBear's thought that life is just about ok, so boating must be just about ok. Life is great but it can always be greater.........

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I think you've summed up much of it here, I don't think it is just about living on a boat either, it's at least in part about fending for yourself, defining a life rather than following the one expected of you and not being reliant on infrastructure/ bureaucracy or just collecting physical possessions, the difference between having and being as Fromm would have said (anybody who struggles to understand why some people value freedom over possessions should read a bit of Fromm.) I've met many very happy hippies on my travels around the world. We don't currently liveaboard but do, by hook or by crook, get a fair amount of time on friends boats all year around, our plan is to live aboard full time in 2 years - we've been planning it for 5! We decided this would be the life for us some time ago after some pretty deep reflection on our otherwise very happy and fulfilled lives. Both of us have spent more than half our lives travelling the world with just a bag and our wits to support us (40 years for me as the son of a serviceman and then one myself - I've lived and moved all over the world for my entire life and our current home of 5 years is the longest I've ever spent in one place although I still travel extensively with work, 20 years for my wife who is a born and bred London girl in the RN with far more medals than I have due to her travels) , settling down in a brick prison was turning out to be tedious and very very boring! Many of our less nomadic friends have trouble understanding our issue with normality, it is what they crave - security and geographical stability, for us it just isn't enough, at least not in this form. I understand why they want what they are building for themselves, few understand why we are building our future the way we are, I find that interesting.

 

On reflection the happiest times of our lives (excluding the obvious) were when we had the least possessions and travelled extensively to some pretty dodgy places and I suspect that is true for many people, undoubtedly a set of slightly rose coloured spectacles there but still fundamentally true, it's about not knowing what the next challenge will be but knowing it's unlikely to be mundane. Living in a small comfortable space, financially independent, answerable to nobody but the law and those we love with the freedom to wake up and ask "where shall we head today" - that is the plan and we are getting there, I'm actually looking forward to the challenges and don't care too much about the downsides as they are so subjective. I've really enjoyed reading Deans travels and adventures over the last months and I think it is his and his families attitude to the challenges that sum up the lifestyle to me. I don't think there is a downside, even the 'bad' things are only bad if you consider them as such, in other ways they are an opportunity to get closer to real life.

 

I don't share PaddingtonBear's thought that life is just about ok, so boating must be just about ok. Life is great but it can always be greater.........

Have you got a family ie children?

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Have you got a family ie children?

 

And a grandson.

 

My son is happily working in his chosen profession of tree surgeon/ gardener in Angus with his partner and our grandson, my daughter is at university with plans to join the RN as a nursing officer, both fully support us, they have lived just as nomadic a life as we have so I think they just naturally get it and can't wait to track us down on the network for holidays.

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Thanks for your very considered reply, Chieftiff. I concur with most of what you say. Are you sure that the inland waterways will be exciting enough for you? ever though of lumpy water? you could get a really nice blue water boat for the price of a new,not very good narrowboat.

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Thanks for your very considered reply, Chieftiff. I concur with most of what you say. Are you sure that the inland waterways will be exciting enough for you? ever though of lumpy water? you could get a really nice blue water boat for the price of a new,not very good narrowboat.

 

Oh don't, we've been through this, even we need to be able to see the kids fairly regularly but now you've got me thinking again....................... :cheers:

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Well, I am not leaving the rat race - I have never been in it. My original post was obviously badly phrased as all those with a glint in their eyes have posted with their usual paeons to boating, doesn't anyone just think it is ok. Life itself is just about ok why isn't boating just about ok. I can understand the eulogies if many years plans have come to fruition , as is the case with The Moomins but with most people it just seems like a good idea at the time.

 

I think life is a bit better than just ok. It's pretty special just being alive and conscious on this planet if you think about it, especially as a member of the only species that comes close to being able to comprehend its own existence within the universe.

 

However, spending most of that time at work can be a bit of a drudge, but for me living aboard is one of the better bits of life.

 

Perhaps PaddingtonBear, what you are reacting to is the "work hard - play hard" ethos that says we must all live life to the MAX! What's wrong with working moderately, playing moderately and just living one's life without all that pressure? In my opinion there's far to much of this "living the dream" crap these days which probably stems from an inability to accept that our lives are relatively insignificant in the grand scheme of things.

Edited by blackrose
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Thanks for your very considered reply, Chieftiff. I concur with most of what you say. Are you sure that the inland waterways will be exciting enough for you? ever though of lumpy water? you could get a really nice blue water boat for the price of a new,not very good narrowboat.

 

I'm looking forward with interest to replies to this question, as one of my long-term aims is to have a spell of living at sea. What are the pros and cons of lumpy-water boat living? Can anyone share their experiences?

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I'm looking forward with interest to replies to this question, as one of my long-term aims is to have a spell of living at sea. What are the pros and cons of lumpy-water boat living? Can anyone share their experiences?

I've never done it myself, but a friend of mine who lived on a boat on the Med in the late 70s/early 80s told me it's uncomfortable much of the time.

 

He told me stories about anchoring off in a beautiful bay in calm seas, but as soon as the sun went down the wind changed and suddenly a wave would hit the boat, and then it went on like that all night - slap, slap, slap...

 

He said it was calm and comfortable about 10% of the time!

 

Edit: Either that or you're stuck in a marina paying big money on mooring fees.

Edited by blackrose
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Thanks for your very considered reply, Chieftiff. I concur with most of what you say. Are you sure that the inland waterways will be exciting enough for you? ever though of lumpy water? you could get a really nice blue water boat for the price of a new,not very good narrowboat.

 

If you want to make a trip at sea you have to check the weather and tides carefully. You will probably be at sea for a minimum of 4 hours with nowhere nearby to moor if you change your mind. And it is windy and lumpy and uncomfortable quite a lot of the time. (Obviously some people don't mind the lumpy stuff). And if you breakdown you can't pull over to the bank to make repairs. Been there, done all that.

 

On the canal you can be moving 10 minutes after you think you might like to, and you can usually stop and moor up within 5 or 10 minutes.

 

And the nice parts of boating - being on the water, going slowly, seeing wildlife is the same (albeit the wildlife are different species).

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here's a sniff of the Zeitgeist for you...

 

Plan A to head for the green fell through yesterday; when it kicked off round the corner from where we're moored and I started seeing concerned messages on FB and receiving worried phone calls from relatives I grabbed two bottles of Crabbies for the journey and upped sticks...

 

Now you couldn't do that in a house!

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OHHH where to start.

 

Im writing a book on this very subject. its in its final stages at the moment, but if you want a clue about the contents have a look at my old blog: http://honey-ryder.blogspot.com/

its starts in Summer 2006, but the first entries actually start in January 2007.

 

I gave a frank account of living aboard a narrowboat, constant cruising and trying to hold down a full time job.

the downsides are many... very very many for living aboard a boat, but if it is something you love, then it is all outweighed by the positives.

negatives are the harshness of the reality of living. Some people arent prepared for this at all. Emptying toilets in the winter as well as the summer, filling the watertank, schlepping water and toilets around when the water is frozen solid.

engines break down, various parts of the equipment break down and cause a chain reaction of suddenly making life either very difficult or uncomfortable.

 

the positive is, that rarely is the canal a very dangerous place to be. the community spirit lives on long after it has vanished from the regular streets.

 

I moved onto a salty water boat, its much harder to live on by contrast, but its much more my type of thing. SO if you dont like narrowboating, you might like wide boating or salty boating, stick and rag boating or weekending if living on is too hard or annoying.

 

lots of people say how much they love the life, but those who dont, mostly just vanish off with their tail tucked under, flog the boat, not wishing to talk about how they didnt like what is perceived to be an idylic life, or how they didnt fit in. Its NOT idylic on its own, its what you make of it.

 

Im in the minority of people who lived on a narrowboat and didnt particularly like it a great deal. it had its moments but Id probably not go back to it now ive moved onto the kind of water I prefer. I suppose we could argue, its the canals I dislike rather than the boats. Canals, fetid ditches full of rancid water and detrius from the society who dump it there rather than in land fill... as opposed to salty water polluted with societies effluent and chemical overfalls.

at least I see jelly fish and the odd seal on my commute to work... rather than plastic bags, dead rats, bloated dead birds, semi submerged tvs and sofas... and shopping trolleys.

But I do get rather wetter it has to be said. and its fekin cold in winter without a decent heater. get a good heater!

 

 

 

 

I may soon have to live aboard, somewhat against my better judgement. I have been a regualr on this forum for some time and have yet to see many negative comments about life aboard. Most comments are just too positive to be believed, all very starry eyed (except sueb :) nothing can be that good can it? What is a more realistic, worts and all appraisal? and no I am not a troll, whatever that is.

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Thank god there is someone who doesn't like being on a sewer tube and has the confidence to say so. There is nothing wrong with not liking or perhaps liking canals only a little bit. The way most people go on you would think that I was advocating eating their grandmothers. Life is not very good and being afloat on the inland waterways is not very good either.

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Thanks for your very considered reply, Chieftiff. I concur with most of what you say. Are you sure that the inland waterways will be exciting enough for you? ever though of lumpy water? you could get a really nice blue water boat for the price of a new,not very good narrowboat.

Is there an underlying message in there?. We are off to look at an ex Royal Naval Pinnace tomorrow as my boat building has come to a halt and we need to get afloat desparately.

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