Life Onboard
LIFESTYLE
What I didn’t realise about boat life when I first took on the challenge of restoring a canal boat, was the lifestyle.
In my whimsical mind, upon completion of the perfect narrowboat, the interior designed beautifully and specifically to my requirements, I would sail off into the sunset to poignant and rousing music, meeting exotic men to play with along the way.
It didn’t quite work out that way. The men have been more erm, rustic than exotic. The music has been considerably questionable, the user error high and the swear words inventive.
However, so far it has been without question exhilarating, hilarious, challenging and beguiling. I didn’t know there were so many swear words or indeed metaphors in my life until now.
I’ve found you can chose the life you want on the cut, much more so than land living.
Choose where to moor your home, city or rural. Choose your neighbours, or lack of them. I’m about to embark on my 4th year of canal life. I have met some wonderful people. Sometimes we choose to travel together, in a flotilla. Sharing food, stories and cider whilst sitting around a fire pit.
Last year I chose to move from one canal side music festival to another, meeting like minded people from all walks of life along the way.
For the past 2 years I have been writing about my new canal life. It has been an exploration into my whole life if I’m honest.
That’s what life on the cut has given me. The luxury of time to allow my mind to meander through life. Remind myself of how to live at a slower pace, rather than racing around living as if on a fast paced mini break.
I also love how the whole of canal life makes others feel.
Where else can you go where people are waving from the towpath, shouting hellos out? I love watching families walking, spending time together, pushing prams. Dads teaching their kids to fish or ride bikes. It’s such a positive, healthy outdoorsy thing to do. Simply by walking down the towpath. Now imagine living next to it. Your only aim is to find the perfect sunset mooring to spend the night.
I might even live longer because of this lifestyle. Enjoy more cider. That would be nice.
COSTS
Apart from purchasing a narrowboat, the living costs can be as much or as little as you wish, within reason. You could moor from pub to pub quite easily. There are the usual supermarkets you can lug food and booze from. I love stopping in the little towns and villages, searching out delicatessens, bakeries and butchers. Taking these foodie delights back to the boat for al fresco dining.
There are usual costs, of course there are. Boat licence is rather like car tax. Except boat licences are paid per linear foot, rather than engine size and age. I think my 30’ boat with her 10% historical discount is about £900 a year, to give you some perspective.
There is little or no duty on the diesel for running engines or heating. However many boats are being built as hybrids or full electric now. Personally, I’m not convinced winters can ever give enough solar for full electric living, but I could be wrong.
There are always maintenance costs no matter where you live. I’m not the best person to ask about this as my crash mooring skills account for quite some costs, depending on how often I rip the water tank over flow off, or pull the cooker knobs off. How does that even happen in my boat life? No one else seems to complain about their knobs being pulled off. Ahem.
Mooring fees and electricity hook ups costs are another mystery to me as I’m classed as a continuous cruiser, therefore I have no mooring fees and electric hook up costs. Continuous cruisers have to move at least 20 miles in one direction per year, moving within mooring time frames which can be between 1 and 14 days. However, most CCer’s can’t count so they struggle to comply – joke.
Yet how do I manage to spend 4 times the amount of a reasonable boater’s budget in a 12 month period?
Hungarian goose down duvets…good Bordeaux reds…dammit.
WHY DID I CHOOSE NARROWBOAT LIVING?
There’s something far more beguiling about boats than there is about camper vans and the like, for me.
It’s the pace of life. The soporific lull of the boat moored on water. It’s about the journey and not the destination for me, as I love moving the boat.
I live onboard as much as possible as it becomes an immersive experience. Nature and wildlife are right at your fingertips, with every day holding something different or unexpected.
It’s a charming way to slowly live your life.
WHAT ITS LIKE LIVING ON A BOAT – THE CONS
You have to be organised to live on a boat. It stands to reason as no matter what length of boat, there is always limited space.
Your wardrobe becomes capsule, your sling backs get swopped for crocs and your shorts but also your raincoat are always at hand.
You become extremely mindful of all your expendable resources. Water, gas for cooking, coal for heating, waste disposal, toilet cassettes. All these resources have to physically find a way on and off the boat
That’s one of boaters’ primary topics. The toilet. Living on a boat makes a boater delighted to use a land based toilet, where they can pull off metres of toilet paper and leave the hot taps running for ages.
WHAT ITS LIKE LIVING ON A BOAT – THE PROS
Where do I begin with pros of living on a narrowboat?
It’s primarily outside living. Eating and drinking al fresco. Barbecues and fire pits, watching sunsets.
The feeling of freedom, off grid living and spontaneity.
I get so excited with the thrill of where the day and the boat will take me, every morning when I start the engine.
It’s also the physicality of moving the boat. Pulling her in, opening and closing locks and swingbridges. It’s a great work out and a healthy lifestyle.
That and the fact you can moor outside a pub for the night and not have to worry about drink driving, ticks all the boxes for me.
NEIGHBOURS AND THE PEOPLE I MEET
I love how the whole of canal life makes others feel.
Where else can you go where people are waving from the towpath, shouting hellos out?
I love watching families walking, spending time together, pushing prams. Dads teaching their kids to fish or ride bikes.
It’s such a positive, healthy outdoorsy thing to do. Simply by walking down the towpath.
Now imagine living next to it.
Living and travelling on a narrowboat, you can meet the whole gamut of people within a one mile stretch.
Compared to living in a cul de sac where you’re surrounded by like minded people, driving similar cars and meeting similar people very day.
People seem to have the time to chat on the towpath. It’s the relaxed pace of life. Towpath chats with strangers open up how diverse life is. I’ve met some incredibly interesting characters just from fortuitously mooring next to their boat.
Your boat neighbours are much more inclined to help you if you need it.
We pool food for communal dinners, while away the hours around the fire pit, exchange stories, laugh.
LICENSE TYPE AND HOW IT SUITS ME
I’m classed as a continuous cruiser. That means I have to move between moorings at least every 14 days (depending on the mooring as some can be as little as a 24hr mooring) and move in the same direction at least 20 miles annually.
That’s actually no trouble to me as I’m constantly on the move anyway.
Boat licences are costed out per linear foot and up to now all narrowboats pay the same per foot, whether in a marina or not. It has been suggested by Canal and River Trust however, that the continuous cruiser’s licence increases considerably. The argument they have made for this is that us CC’ers use more facilities than the boats moored in marinas.
There’s a huge kick off about this. The argument against an increase is that boats moored in marinas still use the waterways and services to cruise, so it is discriminatory to the continuous cruiser.
Personally, I can see both sides of the argument.
MOORING LOCATION
Another reason I love boat life is for the choice of moorings.
It depends what I’m looking for on that particular day. I often moor to catch a beautiful sunset, or on a wide expanse of water such as Tixall Wide on the Shropshire Union to watch the water birds alight for the night, it’s spectacular.
Sometimes I’ll come across a boater friend moored up and will pitch next to them for a fire pit chin wag.
Mooring in city centres is just superb. Mooring in a prime location for little or no mooring fee and enjoying all the benefits of city living without the commute.
Another absolute favourite of mine is mooring at canalside music festivals. I had such fun with that last season, moving from one festival to another. Mooring alongside friends new and old for days of socialising, music and bad dancing.