Writing & Lifestyle
Living and Writing on a Boat
Here’s what it’s like for me
People ask me what it’s like living and writing on a boat?
Well today is typical in many ways, except for that picture — the first mate has decided to sort out her fishing gear, beyond which you can just see my laptop.
And the can of flyspray. Yes, I wrote about that:
Fortunately her gear doesn’t smell of fish and it’s a quiet morning on the fly front.
The different modes of living aboard
At the moment we’re in ‘harbour mode’ and that’s what I’ll write about now, not full seagoing mode when we might be out on the ocean for 20 days. We’ve done a few of those coming across the Atlantic and then the Pacific Oceans (my longest was 39 days at sea, Brazil to the Azores).
Harbour mode means that we are located in a country, living on the boat, usually for as long as our visas permit. Now we’re in the Antipodes (NZ) and we’re waiting until the end of hurricane season before going into ‘seagoing mode’ and moving on. Fiji, New Caledonia, Australia, Indonesia, who knows? So much depends on borders opening up after Covid.
Harbour mode
We still go to sea occasionally, but it’s mostly local short coastal passages. Today we’re in a fairly secluded group of bays, north of the Bay of Islands area. Strong-ish winds are forecast for the next few days so we’ll be staying here at anchor until that weather has blown through.
Mornings
In harbour mode my day starts sometime after 6 am when I wake and lie in our bunk planning what I’m going to write during the morning. Then I make tea and a hot lemon drink for the first mate.
Today it’s a summer morning, overcast but comfortable with little breeze as I review the weather forecast online, then check the anchor and the few boats around us. The wind forecast is for 25 knots gusting 35 knots later today so I’ll need to tidy up on deck.
Then I scan the news online: local (wherever we are), BBC/UK, Al Jazeera, South China Morning Post, CNN and Politico. This gives me a broadly balanced view of what’s going on but has been a very depressing exercise recently. And no, I don’t read Pravda. I check a couple of tech news sites. These usually give me ideas for a couple of stories every day.
On then to email and social media, 1/2 hr max. I need to arrange a haul-out for anti-fouling the bottom and other maintenance before we go back into sea-going mode, by the end of June. So, that email inquiry has gone off to a boatyard.
On a Friday morning I receive an email digest from The Institute of Physics. I’m interested in cosmology, fusion research and new materials in particular from that source. That may trigger a story.
Then it’s breakfast, some crossword to get the brain going and family news from the first mate and WhatsApp (the Covid situation has caused some family stresses, as for so many others with geographically distant children).
OK. Writing. I’m about 12k words into a new thriller (technology-themed of course) but at the moment it’s been put to one side — I really need solitary time to write at that. We’ll factor that into our plan when we have a better idea border-wise.
So it’s stories for Medium today, writing my way through the morning. Elevenses now and back to the writing.
I’m wondering where to send this story for publication. Maybe I’ll try a new one for me, one that deals with oddballs like me.
Afternoons
After lunch and a siesta, I spend a few hours on boat project projects and maintenance.
Dealing with waste (and I don’t mean garbage, although that has its own challenges) on a boat is problematical. We have a ‘holding tank’ which has to be emptied at sea or pumped out at a dock. But sometimes things go wrong:
This afternoon I’ll be continuing an ongoing project to build a new deck hatch. The weather has to be right for using epoxy, but maybe there will be too much wind.
Meanwhile the first mate has said that she will be going off in the dinghy to catch some large snapper in amongst the rocks. There are plenty about but they are undersized (they have to be 30 cm long here to be legally caught). Here’s a legal one the first mate caught down at Great Barrier Island:
As we’ve been here some time, I took up golf — something I said I’d never ever do but most of the clubs here are friendly and inexpensive — quite different from the ‘country club’ scene in many other countries, which are not my thing.
I bought some old clubs in the charity shop and joined the club as a 9 hole novice (thank the first mate for the birthday present membership) and learned my strokes on YouTube. Golf gives me exercise a couple of times a week, but I have to deal with being a novice playing against the First Mate whose handicap is 25. Can I improve by 50%? I doubt it.
In ‘seagoing mode’ there is plenty of boat movement and we are constantly working our core body muscles. In that scenario I don’t gain weight.
We also have bikes but the terrain round here is not really on for cycling. Hence the need for golf in our ‘harbour mode’. Golf helps me tolerate walking, which I cannot abide (too long a story here).
Evening
I’ll check the weather, anchor and lights, then do some work on my website/blog and on a non-fiction book I’m putting together. With a sun-downer, of course.
It’s my turn to cook tonight, so I’ll have to rummage in the freezer and come up with a culinary masterpiece — unless we get some fresh snapper, or maybe John Dory, kahawai or gurnard which are around here!
Then maybe a film on Netflix after supper.
Tomorrow
I know it never comes but the range of a sailing vessel is governed by the amount of fresh water it carries. We don’t have a water-maker — there’s a limit to the amount of complex gear I’m prepared to maintain— so we fill up every couple of weeks or so (550 litres/110 galls).
There’s no golf hereabouts so the First Mate will be chafing to get ashore and walk. To enable that we’ll move up to another bay where there is access to a trail.
And then there’s the holding tank to deal with! It doesn’t hold much.
Fancy it?
It’s certainly not everyone’s idea of an ideal lifestyle, but it is mine and I love it. And you’d be surprised — there are quite a few of us about.
Just yesterday a well-known lady solo-sailor came to visit us for coffee. She has several published books to her name and has just built herself another boat. Yes, she built it herself.
With all the recent difficulties in the world many more people are re-thinking their lives. Nothing is guaranteed anymore, and it never was — except, of course, death and taxes. Used boats are in demand.
And, with proper planning it’s possible to make a living while you do it.
About me: I write on a variety of topics including humor, tech and travel, together with daily news events and the minutiae of daily life on a boat. I also write techno-thrillers…and about…
…living and writing on a boat
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You can follow me on Facebook Twitter @jamesmarinero . On Pinterest you will find many of my research photos from around the world. Check out my website where I occasionally have a free book on offer.
