Exploring Life Afloat: Boat vs House Part 2
Continuing on from my last post, I share the ups and downs to living on a boat. Will I go back to life on terra firma or is boat life here to stay?
When I first started this boat life adventure, I had the luxury of being able to work from the boat. This made the transition to living afloat a more simple one. I could do my boat jobs at a leisurely pace throughout the day when it suited me. I could fill up my water tank between classes and empty my loo when it was convenient for me. I could spend more time keeping it tidy, organised and cosy.
Boat Life Realities
But once I started working at the farm shop, my boat life experience started to change. It was dark when I went to work and dark when I came back. In true British fashion, it was usually cold and raining. Factor in the tiredness of being on my feet all day and the jobs that had seemed novel and fun before soon became a chore.
What’s more, my book collection was beginning to be a problem. They spilled over into my bedroom and living areas like an overflowing paper monster eating up all my space. My winter coats bulged from their hangers and blocked the stairs leading to the back door like a gang of high school bullies. The big, unflattering black coat and jumper that I had to wear for work didn’t fit in my wardrobe and hung around the place like unwanted guests.
There were also problems with the engine. Whilst it was being repaired, the engine bay inside of the boat had to remain open, gobbling up another three feet of space in the meantime.
Adding to this stress was my porta potty. Being out all day and coming back in the cold, rain and dark meant that it wasn’t getting emptied as often as it should. As I wrote in the last post, once or twice I had to get someone to carry it up to the sluice (the place where you empty its contents) because it got too heavy for me to carry. Boat cred: ZERO.
On top of all of this, was the difficulty of keeping a small space tidy. Living on a 40ft boat means that even a few things out of place can soon turn into a real mess.
In this way, living on a boat is similar to being in a house but worse. Of course, a house requires maintenance but living on a boat is another level of maintenance all together.
In short, working 9 hours a day and living in such a small space was beginning to lose its charm.
Spring
Not that it was all bad. A lovely feature of Gralyn is that it has a big cruiser stern at the back, meaning I could sit out there when the weather permitted and write or meditate. It has a big well deck at the front where I bought some plants and made a little garden. It was like my little floating terrace overlooking the water. You wouldn’t get that living in a house!
Come Spring I had a little herb garden with thyme, rosemary and parsley growing out the front too. I even got some tomatoes and salad growing on the roof. I also managed to salvage some roses that were going to be thrown away from the Farm Shop and included them in my rooftop garden too. My boat soon had the biggest and best on-board garden on the whole marina, even if I do say so myself.
As we moved into the summer months, my little boat really started to come into its own. I sat out the back on my little ‘terrace’ and watched the ducks, swans, and moorhens bob around at leisurely speed. Herons came and visited me, as did the baby ducklings when they hatched. I could see schools of little fish swimming just below the surface. Other bigger fish poked their head out to catch insects. Sometimes I was even lucky enough to spot the resident kingfisher.
The marina was like a sun trap and I felt like I was on holiday. The sun glistened off the water and the light summer breeze rustled the trees. In those moment’s it didn’t matter about all the inconveniences of boat life; it just felt like the most magical way to live and I loved it. Why would you want to live in a house when you can live on a boat?!
That’s when I got some news out of the blue that changed my boating life experience completely.
Change Ahead
My dad rang one day. He was excited to tell me that he and my step mum had just bought a lodge up in the The Lake District, not too far from where I moor in Garstang.
“That’s great!”, I said. “It’s so beautiful up there! And you will be nearer to me!”
“Yes darling, I know, It’s exciting! To fund it though we are going to need to sell some of our other assets”
I hesitated, unsure of what was going to come next. They were the owners of this boat after all, even though it had been bought to get me out of a tight spot. Do they need to sell up to get the cash? My body tensed as I anticipated what was to come next.
“We are going to need to sell our boat”.
My dad and my step mum also had another boat on the marina that they used in their spare time. I had been looking forward to spending time up here together, each of us sailing our own boats.
“Oh right, that’s a shame”. I felt relieved and disappointed at the same time.
“Yeh, but Jean’s had an idea. I know you have got quite fond of Gralyn but I also know you have been struggling for space”.
“Yes”, I said, concern again gripping my insides. Where was this conversation going?
“If you want to, you can move on to our boat, Flo Ella, and we will sell Gralyn”.
“What?”, I said, shocked. “Are you serious, dad?”.
“Yes, darling, you can move on to Flo Ella if you like”.
I couldn’t believe my ears. Flo Ella was a much better boat. Not only is it eight feet longer, but it also has a better bathroom with a proper shower, a real compost toilet, a dinet living area which turns into another bed, a bigger kitchen, and a separate bedroom area. It was a much better boat for living on and offered a lot more comfort.
“Are you sure dad?”.
“Yes sweetheart, we both agree. You don’t have to but the option is there for you if you want”.
It felt like The Universe was smiling on me yet again.
Of course I said yes.
New Boat
For the past six months I have been living on Flo Ella. She is named after my grandma Florence and Jean’s mum Ella; heritage and femininity all in one.
The boat came with a new mooring at the other end of the marina, closer to the mouth of the canal. I feel even closer to nature than I did before. It is next to a big open field with a line of mature birch and oak trees which I can see from my window. I watch rabbits run about early morning and squirrels play in the trees from the window. I wake up to the sound of bird song. It has pretty views from the front and a resident kingfisher of its own. There is a nice community of people who live nearby too.
Living on this boat is so much more comfortable. On Flo Ella, I feel like I have a proper living space. The boat is very well proportioned, with each area – living area, kitchen, bedroom, bathroom- all offering just the right amount of room. There is less outdoor space than Gralyn but that means I have more space on the inside.
She also has the traditional cratch on the front, where I love to sit and read a book overlooking the water. It feels just as dreamy as on Gralyn and the cratch cover means I can sit there rain or shine.
She also has central heating, so I don’t have to be as reliant on my log burner. This boat feels a lot more like a home, more manageable and more comfortable. I have room for my books and a better wardrobe space for my clothes.
Does this mean that I have lost the essence of boat life, having more space, more comfort and more mod cons, like central heating? Not at all! It just means that when I come in from work and my fire hasn’t been on all day, I can just switch the heating on for an hour whilst I get the fire going.
In the first cold snap of 2025, I still kept my log burner going all day and all night, just like I did on Gralyn. It’s just nice knowing that the comfort of central heating is there when I need a quick bit of warmth without the commitment of getting the fire going.
It still has a lovely warm wooden interior and the vintage charm of a little cottage. The top half of the walls have been painted white though so it is a little lighter and more airey than Gralyn. There is more possibility of decorating it and making it my own.
The ol’ toilet situation is also much better. The compost toilet (a separator toilet whereby number 1’s go onto a big bottle and number 2’s into a bucket with compost in it, with a fan to dry it out and a mixer to stir it up, the equivalent of flushing) only needs emptying once every two weeks.
It’s funny that in the end another dream has come true. I wrote on my on my blog many moons ago about ‘dreaming about compost toilets’. I imagined more of a rustic wooden shack in a field, not a modern one on a narrowboat. But that’s what makes life interesting isn’t it? Dreams can come true in the most unexpected ways.
Life in 2025
So now you are up to date with how my life looks in 2025. It is far different from what it looked like when I started this blog in 2020. Sometimes I have to pinch myself. It feels exciting, disorienting, bewildering, and astonishing all at the same time. But I am getting more and more used to it and I am excited to see where this new chapter will lead.
I am enormously grateful to my family for their support and for helping me continue on this journey. If it hadn’t been for them I could have had to spend another year renting a room in some distant neighbourhood of Madrid whilst I saved up enough money to come back to the UK. And as my brother recently pointed out, if I had done that, I may never have got on the boat. Luckily, my family had the means to help me out when I was in a tough spot and I consider myself very fortunate.
Who knows for how long I will continue to live aboard and how life might change in the future. But for now I am extremely happy and content to be living on the boat, right in the heart of the Lancashire countryside.
Let’s see how the next chapter unfolds!
Here’s to a happy and healthy 2025!
Sign up for my newsletter to get my next update delivered straight to your inbox. You can also find me at @shared_earthliving. Feel free to say hi!
