So in dramatic news, boat plan is now a go.

Here are my thoughts about boat life and FI after sailing across the English Channel.

Sailing your home is exactly as cool as it sounds

Technically, we’re not living on the boat yet, so let’s see if I agree that this is a good plan in twelve months’ time.

What I can tell you is: sailing your floating home across the open water is exactly as cool as it sounds.

We set off from Southampton water around 1730hrs BST, headed to the West side of the Isle of Wight, then left the Solent and sailed straight for the Channel Islands.

That put us in open water and across shipping lanes at night. Overall, not bad for a first sail on her.

There’s something cool about using wind power to ride over the untamed ocean waves. It should be terrifying: if you get something wrong, there’s a very real chance you could be lost at sea, never to be seen again.

Yet, inexplicably, as we guided our new home through the waves, I felt more and more relaxed. More present, more in-the-moment than I have felt in years.

As we got into a sleeping shift routine, the boat quickly began to feel like home. We started to bond with her. I can see why sailors throughout history have personified their boats.

I can’t say I’ve ever felt the same about a house.

I don’t need that much to be happy

Like I said, I’ve not felt that connected to what I was doing in a long time. Well, not for as long, anyway.

I think I was in a flow state, like I get into when I’m practicing guitar; except that when I play guitar there’s always the feeling that I’m going to be called away to do something else.

Around halfway through – which turned out to be the ten hour point – I realised why I was so in the zone:

It’s hard to be distracted in the middle of the sea.

Sure, the Channel isn’t the world’s biggest offshore crossing. There are loads of sailors who might read this post and giggle. Whatever.

All the same, the combination of being isolated and having an absorbing (and fun!) job to do worked wonders for my mental state.

The only things I needed were food, water, warm layers and stuff to keep the boat running. I didn’t need gadgets, toys or games, or any number of distractions to keep me distracted from other, less entertaining distractions.

Everything I needed was in that boat.

Well, except the dog, but that’s purely because of the logistics of picking the boat up.

There’s a lot for me to learn

We brought a friend with us who is a professional sailor and is building up to their Yachtmaster Offshore assessment. He was brilliant. Not only was it a helpful and skilled pair of extra hands, but he also showed me first hand how to read situations on our boat.

We probably could have crossed the English Channel without him. Sure, we could have. We would have been much more cautious about it though, and if we had been we would have missed out on the learning opportunity.

All the same, I can now see where I need to get to with my own learning to get to the point where I, too, can fearlessly sail anywhere around the world.

Which is cool, because I love learning new skills.

What this all has to do with financial independence

On the face of it, this just looks like SierraWhiskyMike having a play around on the water. Good for me.

However, going a little deeper:

1. The trip reaffirmed that I can be quite happy while living minimally.

2. I can probably be quite happy spending most of my time doing boat things – which is important! This is definitely something I would enjoy doing with my time.

3. If I can be happy living minimally on a boat, I can reach financial independence reasonably quickly.

It’s not all plain sailing

(Is it ‘plane sailing’? I don’t actually know.)

The boat needs work. She’s likely to absorb a lot of cash in the near term. This means I can’t just quit my job any time soon (as much as I’d like to – having an adventure made me really question my paperwork-based lawyer existence) because I need to build up a decent kitty to fund the boat as much as my own survival needs.

If it wasn’t for the fact that we plan to live on her, the boat isn’t economically feasible for us, and wouldn’t be for the majority of people. I can see why most other sailors are wealthy pensioners.

All the same: I’m quite happy so far with our decision to launch the boat plan early.

Final thoughts

This experience has reaffirmed our Why of FI.

I’m seriously doubting whether I can reconcile maintaining my lawyer job with life aboard. We’ll see how that goes, but if I want to disappear in a couple of years I need a decent start towards my FI number and law certainly propels me towards it.

If it wasn’t for the fact I live in the Channel Islands where property is comically expensive, it would be a tough call whether a boat is better value for money that living in a house. Here, though, it’s a lot cheaper.

I guess we’ll see if I’m still this optimistic in a few months’ time(!).