I have two solar panels. Our water is in a thousand-litre stainless steel water tank that we fill up from water points. The best bit is the freedom and the idea that you can just move wherever you want — a nomad lifestyle. The worst bit is changing the toilet, and the darkness in winter is really hard too.
Every morning he speaks to the swans and he knows the names of all the wildlife. What do our wardrobes consist of? About 10 pairs of dungarees. Matt wears a waistcoat with a tiny vest underneath in the summer. Usually Matt only wears his very short shorts that he likes to call his ballsy shorts.
Ballsy shorts suffice all year round. After I split up with my wife, I went on eBay and bought a boat, just like that. It was a wreck but I did something with it, sold it and bought another one. The community here is very tight-knit and I seem to be the centre of it.
I often dress as a pirate — not every day, but if I go to a gig or a festival. When I first saw this boat it was a right mess and I always said it would look good as a pirate boat. How it looks today is how I always knew it could look. Living on a boat is hard work but a lot of fun.
It also has a really strong community, especially of women, which is something that is really appealing. What about your tool filled garage complete with a couple of motorbikes? Where will that lot go?
You have to learn to live with less than you did in your spacious house. Much less. Hanging space is at a premium. And, ladies, your extensive shoe collection will have to go. You need to be much more robust to live afloat than you do in a house.
The simplest of tasks take more effort, more time and require more strength than many people are either used to or enjoy. I offer a Discovery Day service for aspiring narrowboat owners. Most want to live afloat. The day is structured to give as much of an insight into liveaboard life as possible. Their day begins in a small car park at Napton reservoir, following a grassy footpath around the western edge of the twenty-acre lake.
They walk along a canalside path to Calcutt Top lock and cross the upstream gate. This ten minute start to a boating day has caused a few problems. One generously proportioned lady suggested that the distance she had to walk was unreasonable, all five hundred and fifty metres of it.
If you think that a quarter of a mile walk on a level path is too taxing, living afloat is not for you. The next challenge for many is using a narrowboat walkway topping an oak gate to cross a lock.
The crossing is a little disconcerting for anyone who fears heights. The final pre-cruise challenge is getting onto my boat.
Like many narrowboats, especially liveaboard boats, I have a canvas cover, a cratch cover, over my front deck. It provides me with some useful additional storage space and a wet-weather changing area which prevents too much cabin heat escaping on a windy day. This arrangement requires a degree of flexibility when getting on and off the boat. I have to simultaneously duck under the cratch cover roof and step two feet over the hull side.
More than a few of my guests have struggled to negotiate this initial hurdle. Some have needed to use their hands to lift reluctant legs over the hull. My front deck is the least difficult of my two cabin entry points. The back cabin access requires eel-like flexibility. Getting in from the rear is further complicated by old fashioned controls. My speed wheel throttle control and gear selector handle are fixed to the cabin roof in the hatch space.
Many of my guests grunt, groan and curse as they tackle this manoeuvre. The good news is that constant repetition increases flexibility.
Everything about liveaboard life requires more effort. Even the simplest of tasks like walking the length of your floating home requires flexibility, especially on a boat like Orient. Kath and Anna-Marie write an informative post about their first experiences of using a composting toilet in Check out how it functions here.
This is approximately 80 uses. Full-time use, 60 uses or two people for 1 month. The liquid tank will hold approximately four days use per person if used exclusively. Thankfully Canal and River Trust have recently been on the case about this, and published the following statement:. Pump out and elsan facilities are available across our network that boats with tanks or cassette toilets can use instead. Bagged solid waste disposed of in bins can also lead to cross contamination of other content, which otherwise is sorted and mostly recycled, and can require that the whole content of the bin needing to be disposed of in landfill.
Sending waste to landfill adds costs as landfill taxes are charged. We appreciate that you might not be able to do this straight away, and in the interim small quantities of securely bagged waste can be disposed of in Trust bins if there is no alternative. We respectfully ask that you only do this as a last resort.
We will continue to work with boaters and others to identify a sustainable solution for the disposal of this waste. Thank goodness for that we say. Our diesel costs have remained pretty stable. The difference in battery life was noticeable, and we decided to take the plunge and buy another. Our fridge on board was a volts one, which was draining power each day. Knowing volt fridges were expensive, we hesitated but decided to shell out and buy one.
Not cheap. We no longer needed to run the engine each day though we still have to for cooking in the electric oven, or using the washing machine. The batteries are all kept charged using solar panels. Even if we leave the boat for a few days. Most liveaboards have a solid fuel fire somewhere on their boat. We had one fitted during the autumn of We have radiators in every room, run by an Eberspacher Diesel Central Heating unit — which obviously uses diesel! That made it work for a short while, but only if the engine was running.
It now functions fantastically, even without the engine running; and is reliable. Thank goodness! Barry does all our engine maintenance which saves money. He changes the oil about every hours, as well as the oil and fuel filters. About every hours, the gearbox oil also need changing. These costs have remained stable since The general recommendation is narrowboats come out of the water every two years, to have their underneath parts power-washed, scraped and given a couple of coats of a bitumen-type black paint.
Many narrowboaters do this themselves, hiring a dry-dock for a week. I was unexpectedly and horribly indisposed hospitalised after a trip to Africa. This entailed seven days of hard graft, in addition to the monetary costs. In we blacked the hull ourselves, this time at Stafford Boat Club. Though I did have an account to build for my Ad-Extra job, which entailed working inside while Barry did more than his fair share outside. At this stage, in March , we have no idea when we will be back in the UK.
This is a type of narrowboat MOT. To comply with regulations you need to have a current BSS, and renew it every four years — and most importantly to be as safe as possible! A considerable increase! We also have a bill for a number of items that were required to be done before the certificate could be issued.
Ah well. To check the current requirements go to this page. Since 1st April , all narrowboats are required to have a Carbon Dioxide alarm fitted. We had a tester sent to us to trial in , which worked brilliantly. During a very windy night that year, our alarm went off. How grateful were we to have been woken up in time to do something about the potential build-up of the gas on the boat?! This is one of the categories in our accounts spreadsheet so is worth mentioning, though without a breakdown of specifics.
We have to shop as and when we find a nearby store — then carry it back to the boat! Or occasionally we shop online and get it delivered — you can even put in a bridge number for this. Sue from NB No Problem, has a very useful page on her informative blog site clearly explaining how you can do this with Tesco online — click here to read all about it. I shall avoid that company if at all possible.
It was a UK American express credit card, which the woman on the phone admitted they should have taken. I have had absolutely no apology from them since despite attempting to get to the bottom of the shocking service. We can forage for a few things — like dandelions for honey , fresh nettles for soup, blackberries for pies, elderberries for wine and elderflowers for cordial, and sloes for gin if we find them at the right time!
It meant we were close to my eldest daughter and grandsons. In November and December , we accepted the offer of a trading mooring at Mercia Marina. Last winter we pottered around Chester — moving from Tattenhall to Chester and back frequently. It meant we could see more of my eldest daughter and her family. She was taken out of the water in November and is now on hardstanding. As opposed to 78p per foot per week when she was in the water.
Marina fees understandably differ considerably depending on location and services available. Prices will also depend on the length of your boat. I have an iPhone 8, on contract with Three. It rarely lasted a month which was frustrating. It made a dramatic difference. Some liveaboard boaters choose to. That ended in February when we decided to give the car away to my sister.
We mostly rely on public transport. Splitting tickets work well, which they have included in the App now. Obviously, this has changed significantly since the coronavirus outbreak! I used to travel around quite a lot. Initially to spend time with mum and before that mum and dad.
Consequently, our public transport costs are generally fairly high but still less than owning and running a car.
Other times we hire a car — as it gets too complex and costly on public transport. We use Enterprise for hiring and have built up sufficient points to be Gold Tier members. Occasionally we have enough points to pay for a day or two hires. One of the challenges of hiring a car is that you need to have a Credit Card and a physical address. Then return to you after your hire. The other important note here is NOT to be fooled into paying extra to reduce the excess on the hire car insurance. October update — it seems that there is little chance anymore of hiring a car from Enterprise.
However, many, if not most liveaboards, seem to have one judging by our experiences and the number of ariels on roofs! Boaters only require a TV Licence if their boat is their permanent address or if they watch live TV, or watch or download BBC programmes on iPlayer on board, and are not already covered by a home licence.
There are many ways to spread the cost, including weekly, fortnightly or monthly cash payment plans and direct debit options, which can be set up quickly. You do not need a fixed address to receive your TV Licence, as a licence can be arranged for your boat and sent to you by email.
Canal boat owners should visit tvlicensing. You never know what you may have to find some money for from one day to the next — though maintaining the boat obviously keeps costs down.
But things, like people, wear out with constant use and need replacing. Or are you looking for more quality, exercise, fresh air and variety? Please feel welcome and encouraged to comment below and tell us what your costs are in comparison to ours — we may be missing bargains ….
We receive many emails from readers investigating their options for living on a narrowboat. Very well written, but your comments on TV licensing are woefully inaccurate blatantly untrue and misleading. It really ruins the content of your writing I have to say.
0コメント