The Good & The Bad

As Spring finally rolls in and treats us to some glorious weather, it feels like Winter was all worth it. Boat owners sit smugly on the bow deck drinking in the sun and smiling at passers by - our time has finally come; but next time you walk past a boat and find you are filled with envy, remember that it's not always so perfect - even in the summer - So here my top Pros and Cons of living on a boat on the canal.

The Bad
1.)
Temperature. Obviously, Winter is hard. Our boat has an excellent diesel stove, so we were absolutely fine-  but I have heard stories of  people going to sleep with ice forming on the ceiling and having to sleep in several layers! (See my tips on how to cope with winter on a boat here.) If you have a multifuel stove you can add coal and wood to your costs and the general to do list.


Conversely the summer months get too hot - a bit like sitting in a car in the sunshine. The steal can heat up to 35c if you're out at work and the boat can take a very long time to cool down because a fan is out of the question due to power draw so you must open every window and then you have a boat full of mosquitoes!


2.)  Leccie.  Having to think very carefully about your use of power is arguably NOT a bad thing! I've really enjoyed thinking more about how much electricity we use but here are some times when it frustrates me
-When you find a recipe you want to try that requires a food processor
-You want to do something with your hair
-You want to iron something
-The battery on your laptop runs out half way through a film and it's too late at night to turn the generator on
- Someone tells you how great their new plug in scent diffuser is
- hand grinding coffee beans and pining for a coffee machine - AND a juicer
- Not being able to use a fridge with such wanton abandon as you would on land
- No freezer - no Ice cream - no batch cooking meal prep.

3.) Water. Having to think very carefully about your use of water. Again - NOT  a bad thing - shouldn't we all be doing this? But you must be comfortable with carefully conserving leftover water from boiling an egg to feed the plants, recycling hot water bottle water, turning off the shower between 'suds' etc. On the topic of showers - you can kiss goodbye to that daily hot morning shower.

4.) Waste. Sometimes you are a long way from any waste disposal, and you get to the stage where the recycling and rubbish is piling up and you have to chuck it all in the back of the car and drive to the nearest dump - which sometimes demand you can prove you are a resident or won't even take your rubbish. You can't leave a rubbish bag on deck without inviting rodents on board so you must return home with a stinking bag of rubbish - or take it to a friends house!
You can be far away from an Elsan point too - we have 2 cassettes which we keep in circulation to combat this. Obviously, emptying your poo is also another Con - it's just an unpleasant job but you do get used to it.

5.) Laundry - very few boats have a washing machine on board, due to lack of space and points 2 & 3 - so you must allow a large pile of laundry to pile up and your weekends are taken up with a trip to the launderette - and usually dealing with point 4. The world and it's wife does laundry on the weekend - you often have to wait for a machine - it costs money and the quality of the laundry isn't good - sometimes you just have 2 white shirts and you can't wash them for AGES  because your waiting for more whites to add to make it worth it.

6.) Space. Well. I really like the amount of space we have on the boat. Living in a 45 ft long corridor makes you really question the validity of the shit that you buy. It has to be beautiful & functional or there isn't any space for it. I am astonished by the amount of STUFF land livers have. That being said, going through pregnancy has had a few challenging moments - how I would love one of those large pregnancy balls and sharing a 4ft bed with my other half when I am the size of a small whale is a challenge! Narrowboat beds are traditionally only a little bit larger than a single bed. We countered this by making sure it was the most luxuriously dressed bed with the best quality mattress and pillows possible but sometimes I just want to stretch out - and when we go away & stay in a normal double bed I can't believe how huge it seems! It is an actual fact that it is impossible to make a bed well on a narrowboat - try it and see.

7.) Spiders/vermin - some people say they get a lot of spiders on their boats. I think this is made worse if you store logs on the roof as we have relatively few and the few we do have are smaller than most of the house spiders I used to find when I lived on land. The less stuff you can store on your roof the less spiders you will have. Cruising around London I have seen my fair share of rats - and sometimes they sit on the bow of the boat and rummage through my recycling - but I am careful to rinse tins and pots so as not to attract them and they soon scamper away again - admittedly they are not very pleasant to look at - and if they get inside you're boat you really have a problem!

8.) Postal address. You no longer fit into the binary rule playing masses and not having an address will throw up blank faces and unhelpful refusals at many hurdles. Getting a doctor, registering for a service, buying car insurance, is all difficult - and mostly done with the aid of a friends address. It can be difficult to receive physical post (though we find we don't need it). It makes life admin a little more of an arduous task.

The Good!
1.) Money. It's so much cheaper than buying a house. Our costs have gone right down, and we've lived in many beautiful places that we would never have been able to afford in 'real world'!

2.) Community. Boaters Unite! Through Facebook and generally gassing on the towpath you can discover a helpful community among boaters.

3.) Aesthetics. 90% of the time it's stunning. You are so much closer to nature on the water - and nothing beats waking up in the morning to watch the ducklings speed past your bedroom window and the swans coming to visit for breakfast. Life seems more simple and more wholesome. There is no space for the unnecessary.

4.) Travel. Discovering new places - the need to move every 2 weeks might fall under the 'cons' list for some - but for me & Chris we absolutely love it, the boat is a joy to drive and there's nothing I enjoy more than discovering a new town; mooring up and going for an explore.  It's great to see a little snapshot of a town and then move on to the next place - travelling doesn't have to be in the tropics!

5.) Liberty. In my cons list I highlight the lack of post - but with a lack of post comes a lack of Utility Bills. It gives me so much liberty that British Gas don't fuck me for money - I pay a guy £30 to give me a gas canister - he takes away the old one and it lasts me for half a year!

My Garden is bigger than yours

6.) If like us you can't decide where you want to live you don't have to decide - it's a great way to see little pockets of your country without having to commit to a life time of living there.

I hope this has been some help to you as a balanced review if you are considering Cc'ing (constant cruising). My advice is absolutely do it - it's been the best year of our lives even the cold bits. We have loved it very much!