What Is Life Like As A Teen On A Boat?
This is probably a question lots of people wonder about when they hear that there are teens that live on boats with their families. It’s definitely different for everyone so here’s my summery of sorts of what it’s like on board Happy Days living with my parents and three younger siblings!
Obviously it’s tight living quarters on a 46ft Catamaran with six people, but, maybe surprisingly to some, we each have our own cabin – our own space where we can take a break from everyone if we need to – and so there are rarely any good excuses to get worked up about not having enough space or getting annoyed at everyone. I’m not saying that there aren’t the occasional fights but they are usually put out by jumping over board and swimming laps for a bit!
As a super quick day-in-the-life: everyone wakes up, each person chills in their room and reads their Bible and for some of us, journal as well. Then we come upstairs and grab some brekkie – usually consisting of oats and some sort of topping – then it’s time for maths and each of us goes off and does their own on a device since it’s online. Following that we either work on projects like a new song or drawing, or we do group work together using a cool set-up where Mum can read about the subject and then each of us will do our graded work in our books. It works great! After school activities generally depend on our location; if we’re near surf then it’ll be an hour midday session, come back and have a late lunch, and then go out for a sunset session. Or if we’re in town then we’ll head in and do whatever jobs we need to do that day. And then finally, usually after sunset, we make dinner and shower before sitting down and watching something educational while we eat. And then it’s bed time and most of us will read for a bit before heading off!
From a responsibility perspective and what we’re trusted to do onboard, really Mum and Dad are super good with that sort of thing and we have a great level of stuff that we’re trusted to do. At the moment Finn and I are doing night watches when we’re on passage, I’m the one that captains the boat whenever we anchor up or come in to a new spot. All of us can drive the dinghy and cook with the gas at sea and stuff… so yeah, so long as we’re careful I guess it’s fine!
Another question would likely be ‘what about friends?!’ and that is a very good question! It’s definitely something that is different to if you lived on land and stayed in one spot for a long period of time. Out here, if you come across another boat with similar aged kids than you have to be able to become friends in a few days! Although the sailing community is definitely bigger than most people think so this can happen often… and so we have developed the skill of being really friendly and getting to know people quickly. I definitely keep in contact with some of the great friends that I’ve made along the way and some from back in Australia too.
Other questions I commonly get asked are things like ‘what do you miss from Australia?’ and ‘what are the worst and best things about living on a boat?’ and ‘what’s the favourite place you’ve been so far?’ well, here are the answers! Probably the main thing I miss from Australia is family and friends, but really the actual place we lived has changed so much in the time since we left that it doesn’t feel like home at all anymore. Best and worst things about boat life… for me my favourite thing would probably be waking up somewhere new every morning and still be at home! And for worst thing for me it would likely be the lack of community I think, although I don’t have a super solid answer to that one. And for the favourite place so far… definitely a hard question! My top three I would say are New Zealand, French Polly, and Mexico! But for sailing and water sports French Polly trumps them all, so there you go, I guess French Polly wins!
Of course there are probably way more questions about how life works out here, but like I said, this is a ‘summery of sorts’ and so you’ll just have to ask me more questions in the comments so I can answer them as well!