Update, 1 year later:
We sold the boat. While the experience was amazing in a lot of ways, I also found it difficult to live on a small boat. I would try the experiment again in a few years, but I will try and buy a bigger boat. A catamaran would be the best :)
“I’m gonna live on a boat!”
Even saying the words out loud is weird. But yes, for at least a few months, we’re gonna live on a boat. Our boat, to be more precise. A home away from home.
The boat is a sailing yacht from 2010, a Bavaria 32 Cruiser. Her name is Lavender. The size is 32 feet. That’s a little bit less than 10m. For all accounts and purposes, in the world of cruising sailing vessels, our boat is quite small. When I told Ovidiu, the guy that owns the biggest sailing school in Romania, the same one I attended, that I wanted to buy one, he said: “Oh, a MI-NI-MUM of 40 feet!”. Well…
To give you an idea, the living space is smaller than a studio. I touch the ceiling with the top of my head when I’m standing. I’m 1.84m (6 feet) tall. I’m also touching both ends of our bed when I lie in it. Head and toes.
Did I tell you the space is small?
I don’t think I’ve ever lived in a space this small, even when I was a student. And it’s two of us now. And a really, really active dog. Cute, but waaaay too active most of the time.
So, why, then?
Well, I’ve discovered sailing in 2015, when I decided I needed to have a hobby that takes me away from the computer screen. Then, over the years, I went sailing with friends, a week at a time. And I always asked myself: is it possible to do this for longer? And slower, not in a race to go to as many places as possible in a week, the rental period?
As you can see on YouTube when you search “sailing”, yes, it’s possible. People live long term on their sailing boats. They sell everything they own and they move on their boats and sail around the world.
And it sounds amazing. But truth is, I love my PS5. I love my car and the road trips. I love my home, I love living in a city with a multiplex cinema and I greatly enjoy a fast internet connection for work and play. I’m writing this on a really, really, bad connection in Greece and trust me, we don’t realize how good we have it with a fast and stable internet.
But I really, really want to see how it is to live on a boat. I want to wake up in cute marinas and harbors, in small bays, next to small beaches and greek tavernas and enjoying the sunrise on the water. I want for time to stand still when it takes you 6 hours to sail 30-40kms.
So, yeah. For 3-4-5 months a year, we’re gonna live on a boat. We start in Greece, which we love, and visit all the islands around here until we get bored. In a year or 2, or in 10. And then move to Italy, maybe. Or Croatia. Or Spain.
Or, you know. We could hate it. And that’s when we sell the boat and go back to living all the time in the house we love, with a really good and stable internet connection.
Until then, though, we’re really excited to see what’s next. We still need to put the boat back on the water, since it’s been “on hard”, as they, since 2020. So we need to sand it, repaint it and add what is called as “antifouling”. And we need to clean it thoroughly before moving in. And then sail away to the closest island.
If you are interested in what we’re gonna do, stay connected. I’m gonna write about this, we’re gonna make videos about this.
Oh, and do you remember the cute, active dog I was telling you about? He actually has an Instagram account where we post more things in real time. You should follow it. More than 94,000 people already do :)
