Our English Oasis: Barge Living on the Thames

Name: Bill and Lucinda Voorhees
From: Colorado Springs, CO
Living in: Isle of Wight, England

Our home has a key advantage most don’t: an engine that allows us to cruise the Thames between London and Oxford, 100 miles away.

Our 57-foot-long barge, where we spend months at a time, has two bedrooms, two bathrooms, a living room, and a fully-equipped kitchen. Life is made easy with onboard central heating, air conditioning, a washer and dryer, and a dishwasher.

We purchased our Dutch barge Elsie six years ago, for £210,000 ($270,000). It costs us £17,000 ($22,100) each year for a license, insurance, maintenance, fuel, and her berth at a West London marina—the single largest cost.

Now, as our boat plies the River Thames, my wife and I take turns helming or sitting up on the bow. It’s a particularly relaxing spot as Elsie parts the water at a leisurely five miles per hour. This section of the river is dotted with towns steeped in history, full of appealing shops and fresh food markets.

We’ve taken Elsie into central London a few times despite mooring being very limited and expensive. Viewing the city from the river is spectacular, and it’s a real treat to moor up in sight of Tower Bridge with easy access to the Tower of London and the HMS Belfast.

In the evening, we like to tie up close to a town center, where we can wander over to a local pub or restaurant for a good meal to cap off the day. Towns typically charge £10 ($13) per night for mooring on the riverbank, and no reservation is required.

Henley-on-Thames is our favorite riverside town, brimming with restaurants and interesting events such as the Henley Royal Regatta and the Literary Festival. Our dog Teddy particularly enjoys chasing after balls in the riverside meadow.

Downriver, we like to moor in sight of Windsor Castle in Berkshire County and stroll into the town for some shopping. On the occasions we moor in the countryside, our cozy home is a contrast to the wild beauty around us.

We’ve also strayed further afield, cruising Elsie across the English Channel to spend a couple of months on the waterways of Belgium and the Netherlands. It was a magnificent— yet affordable—way to explore the historic cities of Bruges, Haarlem, and Gouda. And the waterways of the Netherlands cater to the cruiser, with extensive facilities and waterside towns like those on the Thames.

It sounds like a bucolic lifestyle—and it is most of the time—but there are additional chores that keep our vessel running smoothly. For our domestic water use, we need to fill up every couple of weeks at one of the many of the locks and marinas. And any wastewater needs to be emptied at sanitary stations along the river.

When we’re moored at our marina in West London, we have “shore power” available so we can just plug Elsie into the power grid. When cruising, we rely on the onboard generator and solar array atop the wheelhouse.

But the perks outweigh those drawbacks. Bringing our home with us wherever we go means no packing or unpacking each time we move to a new town. And living off the grid, on a boat and with no schedule, gives us a sense of freedom. Elsie is a wonderful oasis: away from the busy world of deadlines and traffic, but with all the comforts of civilization close by.

We split our time between Elsie and Ventnor, a 5,000-person town on the Isle of Wight in the English Channel. Our home on the island is a two-bedroom apartment on the top floor of a Victorian villa.

The Isle of Wight is like a miniature England, from towering chalk cliffs to rolling green pastures and primitive forests. Public footpaths are well marked in England, and it’s possible to roam over the chalk downs and across all of the island. Mountain biking is also popular here, with a wide network of bridleways and old railroad beds serving as routes.

Our home in Ventnor is steps away from both the center of town and the beach, with sweeping views of the English Channel. Fresh seafood is landed daily at the little fishing harbor, and there’s a good selection of restaurants.

Ventnor also hosts events: a summer carnival, a Christmas parade, the Boxing Day swim (a chilly dip in the sea for charity the day after Christmas), and the quirky Fringe Festival. That’s not to mention world-class island events like the Isle of Wight Music Festival and Cowes Week, the largest sailing event in Europe.

In the summer months here, we like to wander to one of the local quiet coves, or buy ice cream at a beachside cafe. In the winter months, we marvel at the huge waves that crash over the breakwater.

Seaside properties on the Isle of Wight cost some 25% less than England’s south coast—largely due to the inconvenience of taking a ferry to get to the mainland, but that isn’t a big concern for us as retirees… or boat owners. We purchased our apartment here four years ago for £188,000 ($240,000). Remarkably, we found that sea views such as ours commanded only a 15% premium over other similarly-sized apartments in town. And since the UK left the European Union, the exchange rate from dollars to pounds has been favorable, providing another 15%-20% discount.

Ventnor is an excellent tourist destination, so when we are aboard Elsie, we rent out our apartment to offset the costs of maintaining a large boat. With a rental agent and local cleaning person, little effort is needed to keep the vacation rental business running smoothly while we are away.

While there’s always something to do at our home base in Ventnor, we mostly enjoy spending time by the water, visiting old friends or meeting new ones in this sweet town by the sea.