19th October 2012 - Living Aboard At Anchor With Baby + Dog

Jeff's blog of his life living aboard a yacht, at anchor, in the UK, with his wife, a dog and a baby.

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Jeff
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19th October 2012 - Living Aboard At Anchor With Baby + Dog

Post by Jeff »

My computer got a virus and I was meant to be working today but I can't - I'm stuck in SAFE MODE while I scan all my files etc. So thought I'd post something about the difficulty of living aboard a yacht, in the UK, with a baby and a dog, without a permanent berth... mostly at anchor.

Problems and unexpected non-problems:

1. Drinking Water
Not a problem. We have two 4 litre spring water bottles purchased from Morrisons which we fill when required, when ashore. There are public water taps in a number of locations, on both sides of the river Dart - and in our experience rounding the UK, they are in abundance elsewhere also.

2. Washing up, brushing teeth, and showering water
Not a problem. Towser (our Nauticat 38.) has a 250 litre stainless steel water tank. We find we need to fill it approximately once a month. I put in some purification chemical (some cruisers use ordinary bleach in small amounts) and away we go. We have a pressurised water system with a hot water tank and hot and cold taps in the heads, the galley and our ensuite shower room. Water is heated whenever we run the engine (by pipes through the engine and hot water tank) or turn on the immersion heater when we run our big 4kW generator, or are plugged in to the mains. Water is available free of charge in most shore-connected pontoon moorings and also on the trawler pontoon in the river Dart. We go to the latter for 30 mins when the trawlers are off fishing as it's free to do this. The alternative would be to pay to have a pontoon berth in a marina for a time, but we've found this not to be necessary.

3. Electricity for laptop, iPad, phones, torches, fridge, anchor-light, water pump etc.
Not a problem... well, it actually is a problem, but one we've solved. We're super diligent about using our most precious commodity - electricity. It is hard to come by when you're not plugged in to the mains. We have 4 ways to make it. All of which we use to put charge into our 3 230AH truck batteries (total of 690AH - realistically 200AH usable regularly without charge):
3.1 Solar Panels. We have 160W (2x80W) of solar panels, bought off ebay for about £200 total inc P&P which put in up to 12A in the summer with no shadow and direct overhead sunlight. I splashed out on a Marlec smart regulator as it shows us amps in, batt volts, total amount in etc, and also has inputs for a wind gen in the future if we so desire. Now we're moving towards winter we're having to use options 2 and 3 more, but surprisingly have almost never had to over the summer.
3.2 Honda EX650 portable generator. Uses about half a litre of unleaded per hour and is nearly inaudible when on the aft-deck. It can put in about 40A when running, and often trips out if we exceed that (when fridge kicks in or something).
3.3 Fischer Panda 4.5kW Built-In generator. We hardly ever use it as we don't need to but it's a nice backup (though not working at this moment in time, needs fuel lines bleeding/replacing). It's noisy and uses a lot of fuel but is powerful enough to put in 40A into the batts while running the immersion heater, a 1kW fan-heater, Rose's hair straighteners... in fact it could run a kettle as well, and a toaster! Bonkers!
3.4 Ford Lehman 2715W - 6-cylinder, 6.2 litre 120HP Inboard Diesel Engine. This is obviously our main boat engine. A beast! And it has a 60A alternator so can put in a lot of amps into the batts, but we don't have a smart regulator on it so invariably it only puts about 5 to 10A in as the batts voltage soon goes over 13.6 which the regulator in the alternator is clearly set to use as a maximum. I don't really want to use the main engine for power generation very often as we have the alternatives above, so I can't justify the £400 ish expense of a alternator charge regulator, but it would be nice. Overkill though.

4. Lights
We bought warm LED bulbs to replace all of the filament bulbs installed. They take about 100mA each as opposed to 1 or 2A for each filament bulb. This is such a tiny amount that we can leave them on overnight as needed and really not worry about it.

5. Keeping Food Fresh - Fridge
Previously we did without a fridge but it's proved not necessary now with solar panels. We have a nice little automatic 12V/240V unit made by Engel which uses about 3A when running on 12V, but we have it set low so it actually only is using power for a minute or two every so often. Great bit of kit. Expensive though I believe so hopefully won't break!

6. Car Parking
We found that one of the local car parks will sell us a parking permit for 6 months which we do in the summer. It's expensive at about £300, but it enables us to have easy access to the car which feels important - though we hardly use it. In winter we use on-street parking for free.

7. Anchoring
We have a Rocna 25Kg anchor which has never dragged even with very low chain/depth ratios. Sometimes when the wind is unexpectedly high we sleep a little less soundly and put on the anchor drag alarm, but on the whole we sleep just fine. You get used to it. Part of my daily routine however is a very thorough check of WindGuru, MetCheck and the inshore waters forecast. If it looks like it's going to be gusting to gail force, we move to a visitor's pontoon. A big drawback of anchoring though is that you cannot leave the boat overnight or at turn of tide. This means when at anchor we live our lives around the tides. I like this. At first it was a bit annoying, but it forces us to do things differently each week. We would not be able to do this if we also had shore-side jobs. We are very lucky to be able to work for ourselves, on the internet!

8. Berthing Fees
All boats on the Dart have to pay harbour dues. We pay them early, annually, to keep costs down - this works out at about £130 per year for us. Anchoring in the river is then free of additional charge. Going onto a visitor's pontoon costs us (2012) £10.10 per night, and during the summer months there is a maximum duration we can do this non-stop of 14 nights total - after which time we would officially have to go back on anchor. The upshot is, if we stayed afloat all year and had visitor's berthing say, pessimisticall, 10 days a month, that's a total annual berthing fee of £1342.00. Compare this to the near £7k-£10k annual fee we'd have to pay to be in a marina here and you can see the advantage of our chosen solution! We also have a far far better view here than ANY marina berth, and anchoring is also nearly silent. Not at all the case in a marina where fenders, ropes and other boats clang all night, every night, even when there's no wind (due to tide/swell).

9. Post
Who needs post!? Well, I do sometimes it turns out. We needed a new kettle and I found the perfect one on Ebay - but it was in Manchester... solution is to have it sent "post restente" to a nearby post-office (but you can only use this for 3 months at any one branch) or have it sent to the harbour office. It has been made clear that the harbour office do not like people taking this service for granted, and we want to not upset them, so we only use this when absolutely essential and important - like when we need a new kettle. In fact that's the only time we've used this option. All other post has been brought in bundles by visiting parents (where all our bank etc stuff is registered). Unsure how we'd deal with this without parental help. Thank you parentals!

10. Getting Ashore
I was worried about this on the Nauticat - even without Nina (our baby daughter) I'd have been a bit concerned, because the tide really shoots up and down the river at times, and sometimes with wind in the opposite direction it can get quite bouncy. We have a high freeboard so it's quite a climb from the dinghy to the deck, and back. So we have a "fender step" which is a fender and a ladder in one. It transpires I need not have worried. We have a little routine of who does what and when in each direction that goes a little something like this... I get the oars off the roof and put them in the dinghy then untie the dinghy while getting in and holding us alongside. I grab Lunar by her doggy lifejacket handle and drop her in next to me, then grab bag(s) which Rose has prepared (nappies/wipes/etc) and drop them in next to Lunar. Rose meanwhile puts Nina in her mahoosive padded LJ (thank you to my sister for buying us this) and Nina is passed from Rose to me and then I sit with Nina on my lap in the middle of the dinghy. Rose then climbs down and locks the door ont the way. I then hand Nina to Rose in the dinghy and off we set. The process when we reach the shore is much the same, in reverse, but with more shouting of things like STAY, LUNAR STAY!! etc. This at first seemed like a heck of a lot of hard work to just go ashore and back to walk the canine and get a pint of milk or whatever - but we have it so routine now that I hardly think about it. And if the tide is running more than a couple of knots or the rain is coming down or the wind is too high, we simply take the water taxi. The water taxi runs from 8am to 11pm in the summer and costs £1.25 per adult (with multi-buy concession ticket), per trip, so it's £5 for a return to shore for all of us. Not super cheap, but we hardly actually find the need for it. In winter the service only runs from 10am to 4pm which is awkward at times but it turns out the rain stops more often than you'd think, and the tide slows down pretty quick if you're patient. You may be wondering why we don't have an outboard motor attached to the dinghy? If we did we would almost certainly never need the water taxi unless leaving the boat overnight while we have a trip away - but I have a very well thought out answer to this... outboard engines are a pain in the bum. They are noisy, prone to failure, heavy and did I mention they are noisy! One of my absolute favourite parts of this life afloat is the row ashore and back. It's peaceful and good for me. If we had an outboard and used it most of the time, and then it failed, I'd not be "rowing fit" and would not be able to row hard for long against a strong tide. By always rowing I am always rowing fit. And oars hardly ever go wrong. They do get stolen on occasion, but we use a lock now.

11. Entertainment in the eve
The radio plus Mobile broadband and iPlayer, ITV Player, LoveFile instant etc are more than enough. Much much better than TV. We watch/listen to what we want, when we want. We have two mobile broadband packages with Three. One is a MiFi which gives us Wifi throughout the boat, limited to 15GB a month (which is the equivalent of watching about 3 high res, long, movies, but we watch slightly lower resolution options and can get a lot out of 15Gb) but we also now have unlimited internet on my phone contract and my phone can double as a wifi hotspot - so we have as much as we want. I don't push this too much though as I don't want to hit some threshold they may have set for super high usage customers. We usually get at least 3Mb broadband speeds, but sometimes it's 7Mb which is faster than I've ever had on land. It's amazing.

12. Heating
In the summer we didn't need any. Ventilation was required in fact to keep the heat down in the wheelhouse because of all the glass we have, and the greenhouse effect. This still helps now it's colder when the sun is shining but we are now needing heat on in the morning and evening. In the morning if the batteries are nicely charged I put on the Eberspacher D5 (a 5kW diesel fired fan heater with outlets in most cabins). It uses a lot of power to run but a LOT of power to start up and power down. So if the batts are a bit low I put on the Honda 650 generator also. A pain as it lives in a cupboard in the wheelhouse and doesn't take kindly (I think) to being rained on. In the daytime we sometimes again run the Eberspacher to warm us up a touch but this is rare. A good jumper and a nice row is usually enough. In the evening we put on the Vapalux M320. A paraffin pressure lamp. It sits on the floor and kicks out about 1kW of heat and a lot of light. It also kicks out carbon monoxide and about 1 litre of water vapour every 8 hours, so we have to ventilate considerably, but it keeps us super toasty all evening while we watch iPlayer or listed to radio Devon or 4 etc. At night we do not use any heating at all. Never have - even in -15C one winter. We were fine. Nina sleeps in bed with us also so we're snug as a bug in a rug. This is what Eskimos do also I believe. But this all leaves a gap in the heating which I think will be a problem as days get shorter and colder. The daytime, when I'm working and Rose is entertaining the sproglet. We could run the Eberspacher on low, but it would coke up pretty quick (found this by experience). We could run it on max all the time, but it would use too much electricity and diesel. We could run the lamp all the time but it is only enough for one cabin and only runs for 8 hours on one fill up, so it would become a pain. So we need a solid fuel stove I think. We can manage as we are - but a solid fuel stove (which will cost max £1500 to have made and installed) would really solve our problem. Lovely constant dry heat - and with a dehudifying effect to boot. It has to be the way forward. Most of the other liveaboard boats on the Dart seem to have one. Watch this space.

13. Laundry
Thought with Nina added to the mix we'd need some kind of portable washing machine. Did some research. There's a lot out there with good reviews and which will run on 12V. Nearly bought one. Turns out however that Nina is more than happy to eat her meals in the nude - and tolerates a "wipe" bath after. So in fact with care we produce very little laundry anyway. And when we do there is a fantastic launderette in Dartmouth which take in a big drybag of mixed clothes and bedding and they wash it, dry it, fold it and even match up socks together and put boys/girls/babies clothes into separate sections! It's always a good day when the washing comes back! It costs about £4 extra per bag than spending half a day in the launderette to DIY, and comes back so much nicer also, so well worth it. If/when we move back to land, I will use the space where a washing machine would go in the house for a fish tank or something!

14. Space
Because we don't have a marina berth, the size of our boat is less important than it would have been. Marinas charge by the metre - including all protusions - which would make us measure 13.5 metres long. HUGE! And expensive to berth. But not to anchor! We're paying much less annually (including wintering the boat on the hard which we're doing this year) than we were with Isabella, our previous 30 footer. So we have oodles of room. In fact there's so many cupboard in here that I don't know where my fishing rods and fishing tackle are. I know they're here somewhere but I haven't seen them since July 23rd!

15. Lack of Baths & Showers
This is not a problem for me but it is for Rose. Nina seems indifferent. Lunar prefers it this way. I feel that we did not co-evolve with baths and showers - they are an unecessary modern invention! However we have a shower in our ensuite shower-room, there is a free shower in the Dartmouth public loos. Dartmouth Yacht Club have showers you can pay £1 to use. But! We don't use any of those. Instead we keep meticulously clean using a sink, soap, water and sometimes also baby wipes. I also make extensive use of "shower in a can". Also also, I made a promise to Rose that where possible, if we lived on a boat, we would have a night in a marina, hotel or B&B etc every couple of weeks. We tend to do this last minute, during the week to get the best deals - and we've had some great deals! We always insist on a room with a bath. When we leave we probably resemble a family of prunes!

16. Cooking With Gas And No Microwave
And without a grill or electricty. We toast in an aga toaster held over the hob flames. All else is fine. We have two burners on the hob and a small oven. I have not missed anything I don't think. But then we do eat ashore a lot. They do awesome sarnies, pastys and all manner of gorgeous delights here in Darmouth. It's the Dartmouth Food Festival shortly also. I'm hungry! But upshot is, it's fine - there's no problem or major difference to land based cookery.

17. Washing Up
Same as on land. No issue whatsoever. Rose does it! :D


Did I miss anything you want to know how we cope with/without?
Reply to this thread (you need to sign up and log in to do so) to ask and I'll do my best to answer.
Last edited by Jeff on Mon Oct 22, 2012 7:59 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Terry T
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Post by Terry T »

Excellent post Jeff . You're both my heros!! You are obviously enjoying your life at anchor . Where are you coming out for the winter ?? Are you remaining onboard over winter?

We are still in PYH . hoping to "Do" Southern Ireland next year unless the bugger factor pays us another visit
:( :lol:

terry
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Post by Jeff »

Thanks Terry! We're coming out at Baltic Wharf this year. We both really like Totnes. We'll spend a little time aboard ashore but then we're off up to have a family Christmas - planning to live in a caravan on the moors. There will be much snow and cowpattage!

Southern Ireland hey! Big swell over there isn't there? Should be an excellent adventure!!
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mickbond
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Excellent post

Post by mickbond »

Excellent post very informative. I have been reading your blog ever since you changed your stern seal afloat and have enjoyed your adventures. Hope to move on board in 2014 and enjoy a similar lifestyle. Well done and keep up with the reports. Best wishes
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admin
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Re: Excellent post

Post by admin »

mickbond wrote:Excellent post very informative. I have been reading your blog ever since you changed your stern seal afloat and have enjoyed your adventures. Hope to move on board in 2014 and enjoy a similar lifestyle. Well done and keep up with the reports. Best wishes
Thanks Mick! Good luck with your plans! Welcome to the forum also :D 8)
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