Love, Sailing and Pilates

Just before the events of 2020 I met a sailor, turns out he’s the love of my life..high fives all round for the timing right!?! We endured the pandemic with visits between his floating home in Ireland and my bricks and mortar in Tring.
Fast forward two years, a stack of life events in between and we are set on living on a boat long term. We are looking to incorporate off grid, sustainable living as soon as finances and time allows, somewhere warm.

So, the movement part. I’ve lived on board on afore mentioned boat (Bavaria 34) for those who are interested. There is not a lot of room below deck, my partner is over 6 foot and really he could do with some more head room and I’m a perpetual fidget, randomly throwing shapes when the urge takes me. Living in a space which is confined changes the way you move. The bed is one of the ones where you climb in at the top and then shift yourself around to get into a comfortable position and then try not to move too much. I normally sleep like a starfish, I was waking up sore.

When the boat was in a marina and were living aboard, I found I didn’t move around anywhere as much as I did at home. We would walk to the shops and have our daily work routine but I could feel that I wasn’t getting the same as I would when in a bigger space. You really have to make a concerted effort to move around more. It’s easy to sit and read to watch tv and do all things sedentary. There is nothing wrong with down time and being on a boat forces you to slow down in a way which is beneficial for your nervous system. However there is a distinct lack of opportunity to make bigger moments when living aboard a boat that need attention if you are going to live aboard for any lengthy period of time. Keeping in mind that you need to vary the movements you do day to day is first part. Start to noice how you are moving your body. Do you move your spine in all the directions its can go? How about your arms, shoulders, neck, legs, ankles, fingers, toes?