What's It Like Living On A Small Boat?

A tiny space you can't escape. Your partner becomes the monster you feared they might be. You sleep with one eye open in case your anchor drags, or your neighbors does. Its constant fear coupled with constant pain from having nowhere comfortable to be. You are a slave to the weather, and the mechanical systems. Leaks, poor cooking facilities, water conservation, and violent rocking from passing boats or passing cold fronts. Toilet smells, and showering in the cold, will drive you into a straight jacket before your time. Sounds heavenly, doesn't it.

Just kidding; mostly. This is a question that one of our readers asked recently, and although I am not sure that I will be able to paint the picture for everyone, I'll give it a go.

The best land based parallel I can give for living in a small boat, is like living in a small motorized RV. Cruising really is a lot like camping, although few of us would have any idea what camping for a year would be like. Even I can only imagine. We lived for 5 months in an 8 x 12 shed while we started building our house, and that came close, but we still had a car, and a way to escape if we needed to. There is little escape on a boat, and more so on a small boat. You learn to be more tolerant, more selfless, and willing to give up any idea of personal privacy, or you go home. Both Serena and I found that we rewrote our idea of privacy to include the two of us, instead of each of us. Of course that meant that there are some things that we never would have shared on land, that becomes part of "us", on the boat. That can be hard for some people. Now if you choose to romanticize it by saying that we have grown closer together, then that is true, but there are somethings about each other that may be better suited to the privacy of a land based bathroom, smells aside. That does not mean that there is no escape. Cruising is one of the most social activities that we have ever been involved in, and there is always someone around to offer an impartial shoulder, or just for a change of conversation. But overall, you will become much more intimate with your partner, and I don't think that is a bad thing.

We live on a 29' Bayfield, but it is as well equipped as most 35' cruising boats. So, although it is a small boat, its not as small as it may seem. We do lack any reasonable place to entertain. We chose not to have a shower, which we intended to install originally, but decided we didn't need. We lack a dinning room table, and room to have a dance. But; we have a great galley, a comfortable bed, a comfortable couch, incredible storage, a stove with oven, a good fridge and freezer, TV, a good quality toilet, bullet proof ground tackle, and an overall package that is easy for the two of us to handle.

But what is it really like. Well, that is complicated, because life on a small boat is pretty simple, its just about living. Performing the little things that need to be done on a daily basis, just to sustain life. Where it gets difficult is that no task is simple to perform, and the crew is always trying to find ways to make each little task simpler, or better suited to the environment. Figuring out where and how to store everything is a chore in itself that never seems to get a break. You have to take into consideration what you need, how often, how important is access, is the item safe in that location, and on and on. Then after you have tried it for a few weeks, you solidify the choice, or move things around. When you travel somewhere new, you go through it all again, because the meals you eat, the pastimes that you partake in, change your whole schedule and needs. Daily living is constantly changing and evolving in order the fit the surroundings in which you find yourself. And to be honest, the only difference on a bigger boat is that there is usually more room to store more stuff. Plus, if you are really lucky, you have more room to deal with the stuff. But this goes for everything. How do you handle water storage, treatment, usage. How to generate power, or conserve it. Balancing wants with needs, and becoming comfortable with the choices. A small boat is not an easy place to live, and that is probably the point. It is always challenging, on a most basic level, Its like playing house all the time, but the stakes are a little higher than getting in trouble for not putting away your toys. Its like being a pioneer in a 29' world.

But with all that work, and the constantly evolving environment comes the successes, and sense of accomplishment for a job well done. Finally figuring out the best way to make bread, because there isn't any within a few days sail. Learning how to prepare and cook some new food that until recently was completely foreign to you, but now is to become a new staple. All the little problems that you create solutions to, provide the energy needed to move on to the next issue, and conquer that. And for the cruising small boater, the knowledge gained from each new experience, brings its own conundrum in that it forces you to go further abroad to find the next challenge. When the overnight sail in the ocean has been done a couple of times, then you need that in rougher weather, or a longer range, just to push yourself to the next level. But, the counter point to that is that you no longer fear the overnight sail, its just a normal part of cruising. It is sad to say, but when we left our yacht club last Aug, we had very little experience. We had anchored overnight one time, on a smaller boat. We had traveled under sail or power for perhaps 400 kms total. We knew only what we had read. We were scared of everything. I hardly even slept the first few months when we are at anchor, bringing myself at times to wish that the boat would drag and be wrecked so that I could escape the responsibility of having to worry about the boat dragging. (And lets not try to analyze that). Now, after anchoring out countless numbers of days, in all kinds of conditions, heavy winds and heavy currents, I sleep great at night. I give the whole process of anchoring the respect it deserves, but I no longer fear it. In many ways living on a small sailboat is like relearning how to live. At least from my perspective in that it is only our first year. We have friends who have been our cruising for longer periods of time, some so long that living in a house is completely foreign to them, and I'll bet their view is a lot different than my own.

And that is really the problem with this question. The answer is different for everyone. I wrote a lot of words over the last couple of weeks for this post, and I ended up deleting all of them except the ones above. During the process I figured out that even Serena and I differ in our opinions of "what its like to living on a small boat". The only way to really answer the question is to give it a try. The only real advise I can offer is to go into it like a child with a new discovery; all smiles and giddy with excitement. Because living on a small boat is a hard life, but it is so rewarding that it is worth it.