Wednesday 11 May 2016

Living aboard a RIB

One of the usual questions we are asked is how's it possible to live aboard Quickstep, so we thought we would give you a insight in to living aboard. 
There is effectively two rooms aboard, the cabin and the wheelhouse. The cabin is where we sleep, and where we store most of our things too. At the bow end of the cabin there is a chain locker, where our anchor chain is stored when not in use. The sides of the cabin originally showed the tubes, but for this trip we had added some additional lockers built around the tubes which is great for storing our clothes and a few extras. The cabin floor is made up of several lockers, one of which houses our sea toilet and the others are filled with everything from food to toolboxes, all the essentials aboard. 
On top of these lockers at night we lay down our 2 inch foam "mattresses" which give us about 45cm of space at our feet end and just under 150cm where the pillows go. This with an average of about 80cm height gives us our bed! Above one of our heads hangs our oven and hob and above the others is our heater and whisk! I'm glad neither of us suffer too badly with claustrophobia!!
In the wheelhouse we have full standing height!! Well for about 80cm2 anyway!! Crammed in to this space is two seat, two steering positions and associated gauges and controls, all of our on board electronics from chartplotters to AIS, and chart holder and book holder!! Again to help us store everything we need aboard for up to a year we have three further lockers in the wheelhouse two smaller ones on either sides footspace and a larger underdeck locker in the centre. 
It's quite a squeeze but we seem to manage! I think the biggest thing we would have loved aboard would be a shower (although we do have a portable pet shower...) Besides that we really have it all! Who said RIBs couldn't make good liveaboards?! 
We are still in Stongfjord waiting for the surveyor, after which we will make a few decisions on where we will be based over the next few days. The weather is set to deteriorate for a few days before getting back to calmer warmer weather. 
Coming up on the 17th of May is Norwegian Constitution Day, a national holiday which is celebrated nationwide and from what we have heard in great style too! We look forward to being in Norway during this time. Also coming up is Daniels birthday on the 19th, a rather special one too!! 21st I hear you ask?! Again depending on the outcome of today will likely influence what we do on that day, but we will be sure to celebrate it at some point! 

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