Living on a sailing boat is a different life. When my husband and I planned to sail away, we had a vague idea of what living on a sailboat would be like, but not what it´s really like to live on a sail boat. While there are many reasons why I love living on a sailboat. It also has its challenges. It´s not all wine and grapes and sailing into a beautiful sunset. Living on a sail boat is often windy, a lot of hard work and it means intense lack of space and long between each time we meet family and friends.
We have had challenging days! In periodes we have experienced a lot of wind, high waves and thunderstorms. We´ve been through a storm at anchor, when another boat nearly crashed until us. Life on the sea also means to feel fear, taking charge of your safety, and spending some sleepless nights to take care of each other and make sure your boat is securely anchored.
What about the fear for long passages, when sailing at night, of looking out and not seeing land, maybe for days?
Before doing a long passage or a night sail, I only had experience of costal navigation. We usually sailed using line of sight and frequented the same marinas or anchoring places along the Scandinavian coastline for years. However, since buying Summer Wind things have changed, and you don´t know how you´ll feel until you do things. We have sailed Summer Wind from Sag Harbor in Long Iland, New York to Forte Lauderdale, Bahamas, Turks & Caicos in the Caribbean, Dominican Republic, (Haiti, Cuba) and Miami. The last year we have sailed from Forte Lauderdale to Bahamas, Miami to Bermuda. Then in the months of May we crossed the Atlantic Ocean to Azores and sail from Azores to Portugal, Gibraltar and Spain. Actually, most of the time I have felt peaceful. The whole experience felt liberating and I have enjoyed sailing long leg, day and night. Except the Atlantic crossing and the long leg from Domenican Republic to Miami and Azores to Lisboa. At this stages friends have had the opportunity to join Ståle and Summer Wind. Yes, I wonder all the time what´s under the boat. There are loads of whales in the ocean and sometimes they are right below us and one night our boat hit a whale. That went well but was a scary experience! We have experienced sailing at night into fishing nets. The boat quickly stopped, sails had to be lowered and fishing nets picked up and cut, not easy to handle in the dark of night.
What does one do to keep busy when living on a boat?
I never thought we´d be so busy. Sometimes it´s much harder for yourself as a human to do normal human things, when you live on a sailboat. The daily life can be a multi-hour to full-day event depending how far you are from civilization. Getting food or water, cleaning your laundry, moving the yacht from one place to another (often long distances), preform the necessary maintenance and repairs on the boat. It´s amazing how long it takes to do a simple task such as filling the water tanks or walking into town to get groceries.
When we bought our first sailing boat 14 years ago I had no idea that taking care of a boat was that much work! When I´m not cleaning the inside of the boat, the outside always needs some attention, clean the teak, wash the windows, get the rust of the metal work and polish the hull. Whenever we enter a marina we often spend hours maintenance the boat, refresh the boat and get the salt water off.
My experience is that it is necessary to be handy! I´m so grateful that Ståle knows how to fix almost everything. It seems like boats need endless attention and maintenance; care of any mechanical electrical, rigging, self steering, toilet, water pump, holding tank, any other system that breaks – or maintenance so that no damage occurs.
What about the sloping floors and all the waves?
Then there is the rocking. You have to make sure everything is stowed away before you sail. The waves and wakes when sailing and sometimes on anchor mess with you. Maybe you get seasick. Luckily, we have been able to handle the movement for most of the time. The small swells that turned into long, rolling ones hit from the back, sometimes make the stomach balled and we have to concentrate on breathing and staring at the horizon. A good night sleep is never taken for granted. High winds, swell, other boats anchored too close, waves crashing on our hull, irrational fear of dragging and sometimes hight music from the promenade or other boats nearby is a part of the boat life.
What about the space, considerably less space than in the house with garden we moved from in Oslo to year ago?
Sailing boats are designed to be multi-use spaces, to fit everything in small places, witch is really cool when you´re first looking at buying one. Then you start spending time on it, and you find out that simple living is preferable.
The boat is 55 feet, but that dosen´t mean there´s a ton of storage, space on it. Many of the lockers are crammed with tools, sails, fenders and rope of various types. We have shelves for books, towels, linen, food, pots and pans, and some lockers for sailing clothing and a select numbers of clothes.
You have to be careful with how much water and electricity you´re using. You learn to pay attentions to the environment and to simplifying your life by reducing your waste. Hopefully, I will have the opportunity to tell more about my experience on the topic later.
A big deal about living in a really small space for a long period of time is that you have to really like and get along well with your partner!
I feel that it has been an advantage for us that we have been together almost the whole life. Another important part is that we both had our home office before we went on the trip and were used to spending a lot of time together.
How do you keep your brain engaged in a business like manor living on a sail boat?
Before we went on the tour, Ståle graduate to be a captain, the Captain Coast skipper exam. Every day and night he is learning by doing and my experience is that he is a confident and brilliant captain. Furthermore, I am still studying and practicing yoga and have attended several yoga event along the way and expanding my network of people interested in health.
We read a lot of books and articles, spend time updating our geography, history and politics knowledge with is relevant for the next experience. We´re always meeting new people – discusses and acquires new knowledge, going on amazing adventures, keeps us updated on sea life (different from Atlantic Ocean to Med), high and low tids, all technology on board (maps, navigators systems, water maker, generator) and custom clearance routines and laws.
Some hobbies we´ve picked up while sailing and being disconnected from technology is to spend even more time together!
Sailing and even more sailing, snorkling, hikes, reading, yoga, eating, writing, fishing, taking pictures, sup-padling, lisen to music and creating awesome new recipes and meals. It maybe surprising to realize that happiness is available for you at every moment!
“The plans of sailors are written in the sand and low tide”
Making plans when sailing is very difficult. The weather, wind and boat maintenance influence our daily decisions. Living on a sail boat requires its patience. Our plan is to keep going while it´s fun. We headed to the Mediterranean in July and we don´t know what the future holds, but that´s what makes life even more adventurous. I don´t think living on a sailboat is for everyone, but right now the good outweighs the bad parts. Living this lifestyle provides endless amounts of simplicity and freedom. You are forced to get outside no matter how the weather is. You don´t miss a sunset, full moon, rainbow or a thunderstorm.
We both like having options when it comes to life, and with sailboat living the potential for adventure is endless. I love the idea of being able to move our home around to explore distant part. There are numerous destinations to visit, explore, discover, learn, share and ignite childlike wonderment. It´s always an event happening, from the live aboard happy hour, to yoga classes, be out in the nature and learning more about sailing, reading books, traveling to new places, making new friends.
So grateful for this life.
Get out there, feed your soul and feel truly alive!
Christina Hop 