Living on a Boat - First Mate's Perspective.

When people learn we live on a boat usually the first two questions we get are:  How big is your boat? and, then, How do you manage living together in such close quarters?

Gran Vida is a 1979 34' Mainship Trawler.  The folks we bought it from were the second owners and they had it for thirty years.  They loved that boat and had taken really good care of it.  Here's the basic layout:



As well, there is a large flying bridge, accessed by a ladder in the cockpit.  That's where we drive from -- rain or shine (the downstairs driving station has been disconnected).  The flybridge always provides a nice view and a pleasant breeze and it's the best place to sit while at anchor to watch the sunset. As I've heard other boaters say: Our boat sleeps two, four can dine, drinks for six.  Although, we've had overnight guests, dinner parties and we've entertained up to eight adults and one toddler up on the flying bridge.  The boat is plenty big enough for two and in reality we probably have about the same amount of living space that we actually used in the big house.  We just don't have all that extra room around us to wander about in (and clean).

Here's Granvida docked in Honeymoon Bay,
Beausoleil Island, Georgian Bay Island National Park.

It has a single diesel Perkins engine which runs on love (and a little bit of diesel too) and a bow thruster makes docking low stress. It putts along at a whopping 7 or 8 miles per hour.  Now, that sounds REALLY slow.  And you're right.  It is.  REALLY slow.  We certainly have plenty of time to take in the scenery.  Fast boats use much more fuel and are exorbitantly expensive to run.  We're happy in the slow lane.  Being an older boat we did a few upgrades such as removing the old carpet and putting down new wood flooring, laminating the counters, etc.  She's not the most stylish boat out there but she is very economical to run, safe, comfy and suits us just fine.

The boat came with a built in generator but it was overkill for our needs.  We removed that and have a little portable one we use to run our small electric appliances or charge the batteries while at anchor. We also have solar panels which help with that too.  We took our energy hungry electric stove out and put in a little two burner Origo non-pressurized alcohol stove which runs on camp fuel (Methyl Hydrate, which we buy in the painting department rather than the camping department -- much cheaper that way). Our little fridge is AC/DC so it runs on batteries when the boat is away from dock and not plugged in.  It is our biggest energy user. The freezer is about fourteen by six inches.  By taking meat out of its packaging and storing it in little freezer bags in portion sizes, I can fit enough for about five to seven days worth of meals before I have to find a store again.  Sometimes longer.

We have a little tv and a HD antenna so we can get local channels through the air (if there are any) and we download movies onto our laptop or borrow DVDs when we can.  I purchased a SIM card from a Canadian company called ROAM which allows me free calling/texting anywhere in the U.S. or Canada and unlimited 3G internet (my old iPhone doesn't use 4G) which we can use as a hotspot. Like our boat, it's slow but meets our needs.  And, of course, we are always on the lookout for free wifi to supplement that. Jeff keeps his Bell Canada plan and upgrades to allow American usage.

We have most of the modern conveniences one would find in a house. There is a shower stall on board with a handheld shower head.  The engine heats the water in our tanks up really well as we drive so we have short but blissfully hot showers.  The head (toilet) empties into a holding tank which we get pumped out regularly (yes, ick, but we put blue stuff in the tank to control the odor).

There are, of course, adjustments to be made when living on a boat.  I scaled down my wardrobe considerably.  Then realized that even my scaled down wardrobe wouldn't fit in my little closet and scaled down even more.  For the most part, shorts, t-shirts and flip-flops work just fine but I do keep a few nice things available for our city visits.   I have my curling iron and a flat iron on board and indulge, first thing, when I'm at dock but otherwise keep my hair long enough to tie up or just live with the, ahem, "beachy" look.  Easy that way.  (By the way, the flat iron works well to iron Jeff's one pair of good trousers the odd time they are required)

We like to anchor out so we splurged on a really good dinghy with a strong motor.  That's our "go fast" boat. We can (and have) anchored out for months at a time, doing shopping and laundry by dinghy or from the occasional dock pit stop to fill our water tanks and empty our holding tanks. We're pretty good at scouting out free docks that work for those purposes.

When we decide on a marina break we usually buy a month-long stay.  It is much more economical that way and we get to settle in and explore a new town by land too.  We have a few favourite stops such as Fort Myers, Vero Beach, Dunedin, Islamorada in the Keys.

We store Gran Vida in the South for the summers while we head home to Canada for our work and family fix.  We drive back and forth and usually have no problem finding a place to store our car while we're cruising (back lots at marinas, friends').  We often coordinate with our cruising buddies to shuttle our vehicles around when needed.

It's a nice life.  I love the simplicity, the gentle motion of the waves as I'm falling asleep and the constant change of scenery.

Now, as to the second question:  How do we manage living together in such close quarters?  It really hasn't been a problem.  Like all couples, of course, we have our moments but for the most part it's been fun, fun, fun!  We're lucky that we both like the same things.