I expected a maze of brick walls when starting to arrange my life with living aboard a boat in mind,
So far I’ve yet to hit a single one.
At the start of the year I decided it was time to stop dreaming about living aboard my own boat, and to start actually trying to make it happen.
There is much I need to do. I need to own a hell of a lot less stuff for a start. And I need to own a lot more boat too, by which I mean the seemingly interminable list of jobs, upgrades and improvements my Rob Roy needs in order to be anything other than a day-sailing boy’s toy.
And a lot of stuff about my life needs to change too, like all those things that I need an actual, real address for.
Here I expected to encounter a maze of brick walls.
Or at least a few brick walls.
So far though, I’ve encountered none.
Paper
Most aspects of permanently living aboard my boat excite and entice me. One or two concern me and chief among those is not having a permanent, residential mailing address.
Even if I strip down my commitments to the essentials there’ll still be dozens of companies and organisations out there that need my address, even if they never use it.
I guess I won’t know for sure until I actually do it, but fortunately there seems to be plenty of options, and surprisingly plenty of willingness to accept them:-
- Marina berth: I would expect initially to have a permanent UK marina berth. Now not every marina will willingly accept liveaboards, or turn a blind eye to them, though it appears that mine will and don’t have a problem receiving mail for berthholders. And it also turns out that every (yes every) bank account, credit card and service I use will accept that address for correspondence. This surprised me the most in this computerised, identity-theft-mad day and age, and while I suspect it would be a bit different if I were trying to prove my identity when applying for something new, at least I can keep my existing ones.
- Forwarding Services: Part of the dream of living on my own boat though is spending as little time as possible in my home country. I’m not averse to keeping a marina berth open and popping back occasionally to pick up my little bits of mail, but that’s a waste of time and money. Fortunately there are companies such as My UK Mail and UK Mailing Address, aimed at ex-pats and the globally mobile who can help by providing a UK residential address and holding, then forwarding mail when required.
- Post office box: Wherever I am in the world I’m likely to need to pop back to the UK now and again and for anything that isn’t time sensitive a PO box address might be cheaper and less hassle – not everyone accepts these for mailing addresses but to collect any bulky or non-urgent mail once or twice a year this could be very cost-effective.
- Attorney: Identity is probably my biggest concern here though – the theft of it as much as being able to prove it. Setting something up with a solicitor or a private bank who will both handle my correspondence and act as a legal representative or vouch for my identity is almost certainly the safest way to go, but I suspect a rather expensive one. Still, for peace of mind this is one option I’ll investigate further before making this move.
I suspect the solution may be a combination of these, but it’s encouraging to have some choices to go at.
Scissors
I currently own a two bedroom flat choc-full of crap I neither need nor use. I’m not a hoarder, just a lazy spendthrift, so I’ve no worries about dumping 99% of this stuff and I’ve already made a start.
What’s left can eventually go to charity shops or just left for a local house clearance outfit – there’s plenty in the phone book, seemingly aimed at clearing out the homes of the recently deceased for the disinterestedly bereaved, but nonetheless perfect for my needs.
Stone
There’s a core of things I can neither get rid of nor would want to try and stow aboard my 30-foot sailboat (she’s beamy but not that beamy!) Anything other than clothes, laptop, phone and a few other necessary odds and sods will have to go somewhere else.
Self-storage facilities are abundant but when you need your stuff you have to go there to ferret it out, and long-term storage can work out to be expensive. Fortunately there are more interesting alternatives. Companies live EvaStore offer amazingly cheap long-term storage of archive boxes. Though their service is aimed at off-site storage of business records, they will handle small batches of innocuous boxes very economically. I’m only looking at storing stuff like media, books and paperwork anyway so they’re perfect for almost everything I need and they’ll collect and return my items to any UK address whenever I need them.
And then there are a few precious little things that I’m happy to have around the flat but would be a little more concerned about being on the boat with me – things like certificates and valuables. Safe deposit boxes are going out of fashion with banks but there are some independent outfits that will provide one for a couple of hundred pounds a year such as Metropolitan Safe Deposits, conveniently handy for major airports.
So why aren’t you doing it?
Over the years I’ve told people about my dream of living aboard my boat and sailing around the world. I’m a freelance IT worker and I’ve already spent weeks aboard other people’s boats while working at the same time, so I’m happy I can earn a living on the water and fly back occasionally and rent when I need to.
I’ve always described my dream as a plan, and every time I’ve described it I’ve stopped and asked myself why I’m not doing it. Truth is that change is unsettling and the unconventional always feels slightly uncomfortable. The status quo has always been the easier, lazier option.
But it’s definitely time to grab this one by the balls while I’m still just about the right side of 40 and able to make the best of it. I will make some time over the next year or two to get my affairs and my boat in order and finally make my dream a reality.
