Boat Life

Some of the surprising parts

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I have lived on a sailing catamaran since November of 2022. I’m in New York right now but I am heading back down to the Bahamas very soon! Today I am writing about some of the most unexpected, difficult, and exciting parts of boat life. I am incredibly fortunate to be in a position to live on a boat at this time in my life. I needed to try something new, exciting and adventurous. I also needed to grow up and take more responsibility for myself and the boat has forced me to do that. Below are some of the parts of boat life that are especially fun, challenging, or surprising.

Me with a piglet on a big beach near Spanish Wells

Everything is a process

One of the most difficult things about New York is that every thing requires extra effort (unless you are paying people to do everything for you). If you go to the grocery store, you can only bring home what you can carry or you need to load everything into a taxi. Walking is the norm, you are exposed to the elements. Boating has all of these challenges plus the additional need to preplan; when you’re sailing there are often long stretches without access to grocery stores. Whenever the boat is parked for a few days, you need to deep clean the in and outside of the boat. Laundry is a process, cooking is a process, going to shore for dinner is a process.

This isn't entirely unpleasant, it gives structure to an unstructured life and has pushed me to be more creative with my cooking and bartending.

Community and camaraderie

If a boat puts out an SOS call, everyone within radio distance is immediately required to change course and go help the sailers who are in danger. This “we’re all on the ocean together” attitude extends beyond emergencies. Cruisers are quick with friendly invitations to come by for drinks, dinner, or on an excursion. They’re also very quick to help. A few weeks ago, our dinghy (the small boat that goes to shore while the big boat is anchored in deeper water) was lost and sailors were very quick to come together and help us find and recover it undamaged.

Limited food and drinks

I know I have already touched on this but it is shocking how little food there is on a boat. Meat is immediately frozen, fresh veggies can be hard to come by, and shelf stable goods become a diet staple. Fresh fish is delicious but often difficult to catch. This combined with the laborious nature of cooking in a teeny tiny kitchen with limited gadgets means that meals on the boat tend to be small and a twice- rather than three times- daily occurrence.

One of the only ways to explore without tons of other people around

There are so many islands that are only (or only easily) accessible by boat. This means that there are small communities, natural wonders, and empty beaches that are largely only accessed by cruisers. It is not uncommon to be the only boat at an anchorage or to have an entire (small) island to yourself to explore and set up a bonfire picnic.

It can be very physical but you have to be intentional, it’s very easy to sit inside

Boating can be a lot of physical work, cleaning a boat is physical, pulling up buoys and tying heavy ropes is physical, swimming, paddle boarding, and diving are physical. It is very easy to get a good work out just living on a boat but it is also extremely easy to take for granted all of the activities and to ignore chores in favor of watching television. Much more than I expected, taking full advantage of boating requires intention.

Creativity and friendliness are needed to solve problems

When we lost our dinghy, we turned to Facebook groups and friendly cruisers and locals to help us find it. After assuming it was stolen, we learned through a Facebook group that it had washed up on the shore of a private island owned by a major cruise line. Because there were no businesses or locals on the island, we needed to rely on word of mouth and the kindness of strangers to get in touch with people working on the cay. We called local businesses on the next island over (on the assumption that many employees of the cruise line lived “next door”) and spoke to people working on docks who had friends working on other docks who were friends with people working on the cruise line’s dock in order to recover our boat. (We did with minimal hassle and a ton of help from kind strangers.)

Boat people are very cool, very strange or both

Most people who are living (even temporarily) on boats are retirees in their 50s-70s. They are generally very warm, very cool, and ready to enjoy retirement. There are many Jimmy Buffet types. While everyone is friendly, they're also living a relatively isolated and esoteric life which means that there are some very eccentric people. I have heard conspiracy theories that would make reddit blush. “Characters” as everyone’s grandpa would say.

Love you so much I mean it!

xx

Hannah

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