Ten things you might miss if you’re living afloat

Donna, Mark and Inky moved on to their boat a year ago, they’ve loved their first year afloat as you can see from their blog posts. But what were the things they really missed most in their new liveaboard life?

1. Friends. Friends in the area who you might not see but know you can see if you want. Friends who you may not be able to see as much as you would like as both side’s commitments get in the way. Friends who are both human and canine.

2. Biking. Biking everywhere because we came to have no car. Biking to work, to the shops and to fun things. Biking keeps you fit, keeps your carbon footprint down, makes you more observant of your surroundings, always gets you a close-up parking spot, is cost effective and energising.

3. Allotment. Growing your own grub. Wholesome outdoors activity with added bonus that you can eat your own work. Meeting other sorts of people and being muddy. Making fruit pies and crumbles and jams from fruits that grow with your minimal help and giving them to your friends. Swapping vegetables. Trying out permaculture and Vegan Organic gardening. Being outdoors making a difference.

4. The Library. Being a member of the biggest free book borrowing places in your county. Being able to reserve the new book you fancy and get a call when it’s in. Borrowing DVDs for a modest fee.

5. Buying food wholesale with friends and neighbours from Suma Worker’s Co-Operative. Having a huge delivery truck bring the bulk of our food to our door every three months and bypassing the supermarkets as much as possible. Cutting down on food miles and packaging and your own pedal work in going to the shops.

6. Veg Box Delivery. Having Martin from Culberry deliver our veg box every Thursday evening from his Community Supported Agriculture nursery in Angmering and stopping for a glass of the locally produced apple juice he brought along.

7. Recycling. Home recycling by the council. A huge wheely bin for plastic and glass and metal and maybe a potato-style sack for your grass cuttings too. The feeling of compartmentalising your rubbish in the hope it may live again in the form of something else. Canalside recycling is very limited at present.

8. The Sea. Five minutes walk and you’re there. Blustery and salty air in winter, sticky and sandy in summer. Lots of sand for your greyhound to run round in circles on. walking by the water’s edge or cycling along the prom. Eating the hottest chips out of the paper in the cutting cold by the crashing winter waves.

9. Brighton. Getting the train in to town in half an hour and mooching around The Lanes. Lunch at Waikikamoocow. Afternoon cake at Infinity. Music at Komedia in the evening. New boots from The Vegetarian Shoe Shop on Gardner Street.

10. Reliable Internet Access. Not having to think about browsing the web and consuming all your data allowance in one go. Being able to Skype effectively without technical corruptions stuttering your image causing you to repeatedly make the same movement over and over. Being able to watch streaming video and episodes of The Simpsons and the whole film Nuts in May.

Thanks to Donna, Mark and Inky for writing and giving us permission to publish this.