Ever wonder what it would be like living aboard a sailboat and traveling? You can travel as far as you want (or as far as your skill level will take you) while taking your entire home with you. That’s the blessing of living on a boat. However, it’s a whole different world than living in a house or apartment. You have less space for storage and your world floats. If you live at a dock, you have power, water and local conveniences handy. If you live at anchor, life changes considerably. Here are a few things you have to adapt to:
The floor is always moving
You really do get used to the rocking motion of the boat. Living aboard at a marina can help get you accustomed to the motion, which they say helps prevent sea sickness when you go out to sea. Nick used to get quite ill when we first started sailing, but after living aboard for 2 years he rarely gets ill now. If we know we are going to sea and anticipating a rocky passage, he will take Gravol (the Canadian brand of Dramamine, which seems to work much better) before we leave.
The most severe rocking we get is from the wakes of large motorboats going by, usually when we are at anchor. That means everything needs to stay stowed in cabinets. Anything sitting on the countertop or table can (and probably will) get thrown on the floor.
Try having a shower when the floor is moving!
Consider this: You are in the shower, your eyes are closed as you rinse the soap out of your hair, and suddenly the boat starts rocking. Without your eyes to guide you, it is very easy to lose your balance! The blessing is that the shower stall is tiny. I can easily prop myself against a wall to keep from falling. The shower door (and every doorway in the boat for that matter) is so narrow Nick has to walk through sideways because his shoulders are too broad to fit straight on.
We also have to conserve water. Showers use a LOT of water. The shower head has a switch to shut the water off while you lather up without changing the temperature of the water. We do have the ability to make hot water when we run the generator, which will last us almost all day.
Keeping it clean…
Laundry on a sailboat means we either wash clothes in the sink or go to the laundromat. So far, we haven’t needed too many clothes while sailing and it is easy enough to wash out shorts, bathing suits and T-shirts in the sink. If we encounter colder weather up north and need jeans and sweaters, that will be another matter. We do take all the towels and bedding to the laundromat because they are too big and heavy to manage washing on the boat. My galley sink is too small to wash anything large or heavy. Dishes are washed by hand in the sink too…no dishwasher aboard here. I also can’t use a vacuum cleaner unless the generator is running, so floors get cleaned with a broom or scrubbed with a bucket and rag.
Shopping time!
If we need to stock up groceries or do other shopping, we have two choices. We take the dingy to shore then either catch an Uber or ride our bicycles. Our choice usually depends on the distance to the store, the weather, and how much we need to bring back with us. Our baskets on the bikes will hold one large, reusable shopping bag and the racks on the back will hold two as long as they don’t contain anything that will get squished.
Changing habits
We have to change other habits when we leave the dock too. At dusk, we need to turn on our anchor light…and it has taken us two weeks to consistently remember it. The first two nights we were out it was well after dark before we remembered! Now the habit is back to flip it on as the sun sets.
We are also very careful limiting the amount of garbage we accumulate. Our garbage only goes out when we go to shore, so we often carry the same bag for a week at a time. We have one trash container on the boat that takes a tall kitchen garbage bag. So, we conserve what we put inside it. When shopping, we try to get rid of as much packaging as possible. Food scraps are a big no-no in the trash, as rotting vegetables, bones and meat scraps smell BAD after a few days in the heat! We don’t throw tins, glass or any other containers overboard but all our food scraps feed the manatees.
Overall, living aboard on a sailboat is definitely more work managing the day to day tasks than living on land. Add to all this the boat work required to keep us afloat and keep all our systems in good working order. It keeps us busy on the days we can’t travel due to weather and work obligations. But we are still sailing and still looking forward to our next destination!
