Our widebeam adventure
My name’s Claire. By day I’m a freelance PR consultant, but we tired of the humdrum lives we were leading and embarked on a new adventure, selling our house and buying back our souls by leaving our modern box home – in which our children had grown, so it wasn’t all bad – and buying a broad beam canal boat – now called Eva Luna – to live on.
Initially we thought this would be cheaper – we were wrong, but once we’d investigated, we fell in love with romance and lifestyle that living aboard brings. And with the idea of going greener.
This blog is our journey – join us for the ride!
Please note that Eva Luna is now for sale: Apollo Duck, widebeam
Watching that video now makes me laugh – it was hard when we moved on because it was the middle of the winter and we’d moved onto a boat that hadn’t been lived on in anger, so of course all of her systems were sluggish. These days Owen has her licked – knows exactly what goes where, when, and, of course, she’s lived on so she’s in full working order. I guess it’s the same as moving into a house that hadn’t been used for a while, where pipes burst and boilers break. On reflection, we had it relatively easy. My first new house wan’t properly plumbed and the first time I had a bath the ceiling came in downstairs when the water came out! So sad to be moving on.
Hi. I really admire your bravery I’n taking a step away from normality. What you have done is what my husband and i are seriously considering doing I’n a few years. We own a house and our daughter is 14. Roughly how much money would you say the cost of living is? Thanks Dionne x
I blogged your question – let’s see if others can give you some ideas too.
This is brilliant… we’re enjoying your blog here in Canada!
-Kate C.
Thanks Kate. We’ve a long way to go to really get into our stride, but glad you’re enjoying. WE’re learning SO much from this adventure, although right now we’re going nowhere fast!
I have some word parsing for ya Capt Mike is right by dueaflt. De fault of de idiots who are careless boaters, or who just don’t know they are making a mistake until it’s too late. I owed a marine towing company in San Francisco Bay while my wife and daughter were stationed in the Coast Guard there. ( I was in the Nav) Many times I had to go tow some guy who ran into the shallows because he couldn’t or just didn’t read a chart, misunderstood his GPS, or wasn’t paying attention. I have seen them hit unlit buoys at night, and seen them turn across the path of fast moving ferries doing 40 kts and swamp out in the trough that followed IF they were lucky enough not to capsize. Teenagers zipping around on pwc’s, hitting something and getting hurt. Mostly, it’s just a question of, they didn’t realise that it was a mistake. Now, it’s kinda hard to get someone to take a course unless you make it a rule, a law, or a requirement, so, they did just that. After the teens 17 and under were required to take a pwc safety class, we saw a 95% drop in teen-related pwc accidents. 95% is pretty good out here in the Delta. (as per Rio Vista Coast Guard SAR statistics) With 1500 miles of waterways to cover, these guys had their hands full all summer. The fact is, safety classes save lives. I feel safer knowing that the other guy has had the class, and isn’t going to run over my family with his ski boat because he doesn’t know which way to give way. besides, the class is fun, and my kids loved it. My youngest daughter scored one point better than me, and hasn’t let me forget it lol. I have been on the water for years, been to many marine related classes from navigation, environmental emergency management, and disabled vessel recovery to survival at sea, even how to ditch a disabled aircraft in water, and I still learned new things that are helpful. You are never to old to learn. You might be too stubborn .They should have a class for that.Wade
We all got trained. It was fun!
[...] Today has put the recording we made of us on the boat up onto YouTube. I’ve put it onto our about us page today- mostly to remind me to lose some weight and to ditch those heavy glasses! From BBC [...]
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