Boat Life

It's an interesting life, staying on a boat. I have never done it before, and I would have thought that my tendency toward motion sickness would have made it impossible. However, with a steady diet of crackers and carbonated beverages, I seem to be managing. (It helps that we have only left the harbor once.)

Waking up mere steps from the lakeshore is fantastic and eating many of our meals in the open air is great too! What is surprising to me is that I like it so much, considering that it is a motorboat. I have always had a preference, some may snobbiness, in favor of sailboats. But I find that a motorboat seems to be just as comfortable.

There is a fridge, well-stocked with wine and beer by our friend. Electricity lights the evenings, and a coffee machine starts my honey's day out right.

For entertainment, besides the constant interplay of blue sky, clouds and rain, we have a mama coot nesting on a nearby boat, while her mate brings her plastic to line the nest. This morning we witnessed a fight between two waterbirds with mohawks.

And, of course, any time those clouds clear to the south, we have a view of the not-so-distant Alps.

The lake from the top of the city

Our friend says that he has had a series of boats since he was eighteen. He has had this boat for ten years and he only switched to sailboats because you need sun, wind, and no rain for a sailboat, while for a motorboat, you need only gas. He is on his boat every day, sometimes for breakfast and/or dinner, but almost always for lunch, as he works quite close to the harbour.

The only downsides to the boat are the small toilet and the bed. The bed is  a little better than sleeping on the ground, but not by much and it's a funny shape that requires a bit of contortion for tall people. The harbour has showers, which we used this morning, but otherwise we've been swimming in the lake, as we do when we're camping.

All in all, we're happy to be living on the boat, but we're not sad that tomorrow night we'll be sleeping on a regular bed. We'll miss the lake, though.