Comparing life on a boat to life at home

Boat school is different than going to Perry School.  First of all, I'm not surrounded by all my classmates all day.  Now, I am surrounded by my family and sometimes my new friends, like Fiona, Jack, K, Melissa, Franklin, Immogen, Betsy, and Eric.  These are friends that we've met on other boats.  Second of all, I had only one teacher at home, now I have two, my mom and my dad.  Sometimes that's fun, like learning about sea beans (seeds that float across the ocean from the Amazon river all the way to sand beaches in the Bahamas)  and sometimes it's not fun, because they make me write journal entries.

Sea coconut, mermaids purse, sea heart, and sea patty

The space here on our boat is very little.  It's 40 feet, like a school bus!  At home there is a lot of space.  Instead of having two bedrooms, Riley and I have one and share it.  It's called a v-berth because it's shaped like a V because it's in the bow of the boat.   It's not always but sometimes claustrophobic when it's raining and the hatch is closed.

Me, in the V-Berth

Power on a boat is different than power at home.  First of all, instead of having electricity lines we have a batteries that we have to charge now and then.  We charge them by solar panels, a wind mill, and running the engine.  We can't waste any power.  We have to turn lights off when we are done using them and we have to turn off the computer and ipad off when we are done.

Wind power generator

One of two solar panels

Water on a boat is very different and here are the reasons why:  Instead of using as much water as we want, now we have to use a teeny tiny bit of water.  We bathe in salt water and rinse off in fresh water and we're done!  We only have 55 gallons of water on the boat, not a well full.  Our water comes from a marina and we have to pay for it.  It is 20 to 75 cents a gallon.

Catching rain water in Hope Town harbor

Food on a boat is way different than food at home.  Instead of buying as much food as we want we have to look at the prices.  It's very expensive here because it's harder for the market to get the food.  We can't buy more than one cart full of food because we bring our bags and backpacks and if we buy 2 carts, we couldn't carry it all back to the boat.  We've been eating less frozen food (like blueberries, peas, and ice) because we don't have a freezer on the boat.  Instead we just have a refrigerator.

Shopping in Marsh Harbour.  How will we carry it all?

Half mile hike to the dinghy!  Whew.

And that's how life is different on a boat than at home.

Hope all is well!

Wrenny poo, poo