Post by Roy on Aug 12, 2011 5:32:30 GMT
Adopting the boaters' lifestyle - and why some fail.
By Peter Underwood.
I came across this article and thought it may be of interest, and a different view point.
This is just one mans view (from a canal environment)
and not necessarily the views of the "Live-Aboard-Forum"
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It will be necessary to make certain adjustments to your lifestyle and expectations if you choose to become a boat dweller as opposed to living in a house. Sometimes the realities of living on a boat mean that people end up feeling disillusioned - perhaps I can offer some common reasons why people fail to adapt to this kind of life.
We want to be together:
Do you really? Do both of you feel like that? And can you manage 24 hours a day seven days a week in a box just 60ft long and 6ft wide without tearing each other's throats out?
One of the commonest reasons for people moving back to the land is that one partner has been considerably more enthusiastic than the other and the less committed one has gone along for the ride.
Although living on a boat can be relaxed and peaceful it can also be a life without some amenities and some people can't live too far from the conveniences of a modern world.
First thing on the agenda, if you are a family, is to make sure that you all really want to spend the next few years on a boat. If you plan to cruise a lot you also need to know that you and your family can live without constantly seeing other members of the family and old friends -although both have a talent for tracking you down.
What about children?
If you are taking children afloat then you will need a residential mooring for them to attend school and college, although we do know those who self-tutor their youngsters aboard.
My only observation is that self-tutoring, especially on a cruising boat, can only offer an education almost devoid of social interaction and the usual rounding off of rough corners that kids get when they are with others of their age.
There are children on boats and they seem to be very happy and polite youngsters. Most of them are also under five, as parents, even the trendiest; find it best to give their offspring a fixed base and regular peer contact once they start school properly.
If you do decide to float the family, it's important to gauge the opinions of any older children and take on board the risks and benefits to them as well as yourself.
If you don't the odds are that the experiment will fail and some or all will be swiftly back in a house.
And the pets?
There is no shortage of dogs, cats - and stranger - pets on the canals and walking a pet along the towpath is one of the best ways of meeting fellow boaters.
Every other boater will be watching to see whether you pick up your dog poo, but if you are among the clean and sanitary you will make many friends.
Living with any animal - and we have seen snakes, ferrets and chickens on travelling boats - has its drawbacks.
It is a small space, pets often have their own distinctive smell and is rarely improved by a dip in canal water.
Keeping clean is that little bit more difficult if you have animal hairs to cope with.
The canal is also a dangerous place for pets. Some fall in and it is difficult to travel some canals without seeing notices pleading for news of missing animals. A fair proportion turn up drowned because they couldn't climb steep canal walls.
If you can accept the drawbacks they are wonderful companions, particularly for the solo boater, and force you to get out in the air on a regular basis.
I wouldn't say that the drawbacks either put people off living afloat or force them ashore once they have begun to do so - but they can be a key factor in making those decisions.
Going back to basics
Unless you have a fortune to spend and you either decide on a marina lifestyle or are willing to tolerate a generator humming most of the time, living on a boat is going to be that little bit more primitive than on land.
Water only comes out of the taps if you fill the tank and whether you are pump-out or cassette toilet people it has to be disposed of in a way that brings you in closer contact with your waste products than most people expect these days.
Of course you can have satellite television and flat screen HD TVs but
you have to produce every watt of power they use, unless you are hooked in to a mains supply.
Can you live with less telly, avoid using high-powered devices like irons and hair straighteners and develop a taste for a simpler life?
Actually it is quite refreshing. We rarely choose to watch TV these days, although we are very much a minority among liveaboards. We read much more, use the internet and above all talk to other boaters.
We cook more for ourselves, older, more complex dishes from scratch and we grow our own salads on the boat.
For us it is a bit back to basics, but even for the all-singing and dancing widebeam with full generator etc, the owners still have to fill with water and dispose of rubbish, even if they never leave the marina and it is little more than a floating apartment.
The odds are that the person who sees a boat as a cheap apartment is likely to abandon it just as quickly. They are not the people who will still be living afloat 10 years down the line.
Boaters who travel and see more of the waterways and their inhabitants are likely to stick with the floating lifestyle.
Survivors
The survivors, the ones who will be happily boating all over the system in 15 or 20 years' time are those who adapt best to a low impact lifestyle demanded by boat life.
In my opinion it is the boaters who travel and see more of the waterways and their inhabitants who are likely to stick with the floating lifestyle.
They are the ones who have made the compromises and decided to enjoy what they have. Those who refuse to compromise or try to buy the lifestyle they had before but on the water don't last very long.
Some of the happiest liveaboards I ever met had been on the water 25 years and travelled all over the system. Their boat had been built from basic materials and improved by them as the money came along. They walked their dogs, gathered wood for their fire and chatted with their many friends across the system. The couple, who were both over 70, ate simply and frugally, became interested in the communities through which the canal passed and left their boat less than a year ago when illness intervened.
The lesson I took from them was to enjoy what you have, turn away from an acquisitive society and sit as lightly on the planet as a boat does on the water.
If you don't do that you won't be one of the survivors - and perhaps you are best staying on land.
By Peter Underwood.
