The Joys and Sorrows Of a Life At Sea

After two months of “holidays” back home in the Czech Republic, we are back on board. Kaohsiung welcomed us with heat and rain squalls produced by a tropical storm on its way to Hong Kong.

Even though we’ve left the boat  in all that tropical heat completely closed for two months, she smelled good and there was just a little bit of dust and mildew here and there.

When we left Kaohsiung in late May, we moved out of our tiny condo, where we were writing our theses and we dumped all our books that we could not part with just yet and two folding Dahon bikes into the main cabin. We’ll sort that out when we get back, we thought.

Now we are back and the boat is a mess. Not to mention that now that we have filled the water tank, bought few stores and unpacked our bags, we are close to sinking. For two days we were sorting everything out and at the end of the sorting we ended up with one huge Costco bag full of books that will be loaded back on board when we head to Hong Kong in the autumn (you can’t send surface packages from Taiwan to Europe anymore and air is too expensive), and two smaller bags one with Czech and one with English books, which we donated to a friend. Bikes are now locked at the stern and covered with black garbage bags — a sight to be seen. True harbour gypsies!

So the real living aboard thing is happening. Perhaps we got used to the space and comfort of our folks’ places and the cool and clean air of the good old Bohemia. Now, once again, we carry our water in jerry cans, we check our batteries regularly and worry about every amp consumed. We watch the weather more closely, it’s the typhoon season here after all…

But all the little discomforts allow us to enjoy everything else with much more intensity.

It’s time for a round of refit that turns our little boat into a comfortable home. So far we only had time for important upgrades that made our boat safe to sail. And sail her we did. From Singapore to Langkawi and back again and on to Borneo, Philippines, Hong Kong and Taiwan. Now comes a little bit of interior redesign, new dodger, some awning system, and few other projects. And when the typhoon season is over, let the cruising begin: east coast of Taiwan, perhaps we’ll be able to pop into Okinawa, then Hong Kong for a haul out and onto Philippines! Let’s see how it goes…