Off the Grid: Finding Bliss on a Narrowboat

1. Who are you, and what's your background?

I am Michaela, a self-employed spinner and weaver. My husband Marlon is early retired, he was a secondary school teacher and is now a passionate woodcarver. I am originally from Germany and met Marlon 13 years ago in the South of France, where I lived and worked as a stone carver.

2. Why do you choose to move to a narrow boat?

Before we moved onto our 60-foot narrow boat, we lived in a big house in a new housing estate. I felt totally deprived of nature and Marlon had become very ill from his stressful teaching job, so we knew we needed to change something. We wanted to escape the rat race and reconnect to nature, to live a slower and healthier life. Our ‘inner free spirit’ was shouting to be freed, three weeks after we decided to live on a boat, we bought the ‘Swan Goddess’ and had also emptied our house.

3. What is the biggest change for you after you move to a narrow boat?

The biggest change is to live an outdoor life, which means that we truly live with all the seasons. We are always outside, no matter what the weather is. I find the winter can be quite harsh because it can be very cold on board, but it is also the most magical time as we cruise through a winter wonderland. I now celebrate seeing the first snowdrops in the early spring, pretty wildflowers during summer, and It is absolutely wonderful to watch natures colours change during the autumn.

I have learnt to forage beside the boat, I connect to the water creatures and enjoy listening to the birds. Living and travelling on a narrow boat gives me all that fulfilment of a slow and enchanted life in the most profound way, this would not be possible for me to do if we lived in a house. I feel very blessed to be so close to nature and to cherish it in a much more meaningful way. When I lived in a house, I often used to take for granted the little miracles of nature. Now it is like being a curious child again, exploring everything for the first time.

4. I am so impressed by your passion for life, Michaela!  How do you keep the passion for life?  And do you think the life living in “Swan Goddess” is the dream life for you?

It is definitely a dream life for me. I think this because, over the last few decades, we have both experienced very stressful lives resulting in mental and physical difficulties. We now cherish a slow life in nature. We are most happy when we moor our narrow boat in the beautiful rural English countryside with nobody around, no urban noises, no timetables, no harsh targets to fulfil. We also have learned that we do not need much for this lifestyle. We just have a few items on board are very precious to us, we often refer to these as ‘soul items’. Some time ago, I vowed that I would make things around me beautiful, for myself and others and I guess this is where my passion is coming from.

5. What Jackery product do you have? And how has it helped for your boat life?

We have the Jackery Explorer 500, and it really was a game changer for us. We already have two solar panels on board, but we love the Jackery because it is also portable, and we can take it on journeys when we travel away from our boat with our van. It is so important for the environment to be off grid on a boat because otherwise we would need to use our leisure batteries of the boat, and they are usually powered by Diesel. Marlon is using the Jackery for his woodturning craft, to charge his electric saws and for all our other on-board appliances, phones and laptop. I even have a record player I charge with the Explorer 500.

6. Any advice for people who want to live in a boat?

If you have the option, I would always suggest that you first try out living on a narrow boat, ideally for a longer period of time. If you do not have the option, I would recommend hiring a holiday boat for a few weeks in the colder season. Narrow-boating can also be quite physical when you need to operate locks or if you have to pull the boat towards a waterside bank, you need to be relatively physically fit. If you move on a narrow boat you need to be able to cope with living in a tiny space and if you live with someone else, you will also have to accept that you will have hardly any private space.

However, before we bought our first narrow boat, I knew nothing about them, nevertheless I fell so much in love with the idea that we just bought her, and it turned out to be the best thing that we have ever done. Sometimes we just have to be brave to live our dreams.