‘Three weeks on our boat and we’re still bobbing along’
Well, everything is now aboard and has just about found a place to call home. One thing that you find out quite quickly with Boat life is that everything you take for granted when living in a house like endless hot water, lots of storage space, unlimited gas and electric take on a different meaning when afloat. Our water tank needs topping up every 2-3 days which means that washing clothes needs to be done on a top up day to conserve the supply, showers only take 2-3 minutes with the water being turned off when soaping up, our gas comes in 13kg bottles which last approx 3 months and our entire supply of groceries, pots, pans and crockery has had to fit in to two cupboards and a couple of drawers. Also our toilet needs to be emptied every 3-4 days (not the most pleasant task I can think of but a necessity.)
There is another thing that comes up with living on a boat. All of your ‘grey’ (that is washing, bathing and washing up) water drains out to the canal so what you put in it needs to be carefully considered to avoid harming the wildlife. We have been using Ecover products for domestic use and Wild and Faith in Nature products for personal grooming as they contain more biodegradable ingredients that are less harmful to the environment.
We have had comments saying that it must be great not having to pay Council Tax but we sort of have to in the form of our Canal and River Trust licence which currently runs at about £1700 per year and allows us to use the canals and facilities as we travel. The upside to all of this is that the scenery and community on the ‘cut’, a colloquialism for the canal network as the canals were cut out of the countryside, is absolutely fantastic and the slower pace of life is good for both the mind and soul.
Should you want a faster pace of life, you can moor in the various villages and towns that the canals pass through but these moorings are often time limited to 24 or 48 hours although, on occasion, they can be up to 7 days whereas we prefer the more rural moorings of up to 2 weeks where you ‘wild moor’ out in the countryside. This also has the benefit of fantastic dog walks as well which the fur babies love.
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Martin and Nina
