You what now?

Yeah. This isn't exactly a new idea for me so lets start with a delve into the past and my background. Those who know me doing unusual things is nothing special for me but if you, the reader, are someone who stumbled upon this from whatever search engine rules the world at the time... welcome! This blog aims to document my project of determining whether it is viable for me to live on a boat in Finland and if so going forward from there. If it goes through, this will probably be a multi-year project and might span multiple vessels.

Content will be mainly in the form of text but also occasionally pictures and videos, either recorded or livestreamed. I will try to future proof it so that someone reading this 10 years from now can use it to avoid whatever mistakes I make because from the research I've done into the viability of the project already (more about that in posts) there are many resources which have unfortunately been unable to do so. But I'm getting ahead of myself so back to what I said above, the past.

I've always lived relatively near water all my life. Nearly all of it on the southwest coast of Finland. I still live on the coast. I also am a part-owner of a plot of land on it (well technically on an island) by inheritance. From said island I have fond memories of going to see a lighthouse by boat and also visiting other islands, both back then and also recently but the recent ones have been only with borrowed boats. Most weren't overnight stays (that I can remember anyway) but quite fun ones regardless once my parents managed to rip me away from my electronic gadgets. Nowadays of course I can bring a smartphone as a portable gadget and it has more than enough processing power. Aged 34 as of writing this now on 4. of October 2020 though I guess I also have some more self control in keeping it in my pocket as opposed to back then 20+ years ago.

Even during my stint of exchange studies in Gent, Belgium there were canals nearby. Not that I unlike maybe some of my student friends ever swam in those, either by a dare or by accident. The exchange however was my first introduction to the existence of houseboats. Not so much in Belgium but during a weekend trip to Amsterdam during it when we went there for, well, probably obvious reasons with a group of students. Anyway, we didn't stay in one but the boats lining the canals of the town looked appealing. So there was the initial spark I guess. This was back in 2007.

Over the years the idea got kind of buried as I got sucked from my studies into a normal corporate life, working as an IT professional in all imaginable roles from salesman(that sucked and while I did decently enough to make a living I have no wish to do that again) to maintenance of anything from a consumer laptop to being one of the few people with physical access to my current employers datacenter with tens of servers containing hundreds of virtual machines. Nowadays I have a new role in the company closer to project management but this is not a blog about that so enough about it. I did also do a bunch of non-IT jobs before getting into my own field of work, namely metalworking and post delivery.

Okay so those are quite irrelevant to boat ownership let alone living aboard one you might think and you'd be mostly correct. an IT background does however give me a very good skillset in locating information, whether it be manuals, tutorials or youtube videos, the latter of which I may have been binging on for a while now. I do also have proficiency at a hobby level of electrical work and while of course I'd have a professional do or at least check any bigger installations on any potential boat I buy I could do some of the preliminary work myself if need be. Somewhat related to that, I am also one of the founding members of our local hackerspace, Hacklab Turku. While I can't exacly park a boat inside it, there are many tools (and ideas) that I can get from there if need be. Also as a bonus with the hackerspace I've been able to keep my modest woodworking skills somewhat honed.

That is also something that brings us back to something mentioned in the initial chapter, unusual things. Or "weird shit" as it has been called sometimes. I have been told and agree with that I have a hacker mentality. When I see a device I don't only consider its end function, I also think oh, what if I modify it? Can I make it do something unintended that is also cool and/or funny? The answer is usually yes but I do not modify everything I own... I just consider it. Oh also the obligatory disclaimer, no I don't mean  not the attacking computer systems kind of hacking. I do have some proficiency in information security but that is not the type in question here. When/if I purchase a boat you can however expect to see quite a bit of hacked up contraptions in it though. Think speech controlled systems but without reliance on an internet connection.

I also have during the years both before, during and after that 2007 year gotten myself a very extensive social network. Not only that but being from the coast I do have people who are more knowledgeable about boating than me even in my relatives. So I am for now convinced I have all the knowledge to pull this project off available, even if there are quite a few challenges. But more about those and also of my reasonings for finally choosing to actually start the project in future posts. Hope you enjoyed this one!

-Tatu