living on a boat: it can be cold, expensive, miserable, wet ... and wonderful

Above: Old, new and expensive; the historic 1937 Tarporley narrowboat, moored outside the new Guardian building, over looking Battle Bridge Basin where moorings cost £150 a week.

THE Guardian/Observer seem to have caught canal and boating fever with two articles on the subject in the space of two days. Maybe this is because they have moved into a very trendy waterside office block in Kings Cross, over looking the Regents Canal and Battle Bridge Basin.

Today's Sunday Observer warns their typical romantic dreamer type readers of the dangers of thinking they could last five minutes living on a boat, even if it is moored outside a John Lewis. And forget about living on the cheap. The Observer got some excellent advice from Rex Walden, chairman of the Residential Boat Owners Association;

"If you are serious, then try it out. Book a narrowboat holiday, ideally in the winter when it's freezing cold and raining, to see what it really would be like."

Meanwhile, it seems the best thing for Guardian readers is to book a hotel boat trip up the Thames (in the summer); this Saturdays Guardian has a very sweet article all about that.

I will always remember the reaction of a friend from New York visiting me on my beautiful traditional narrow boat, moored on London's picturesque Regents Canal;

"Hey! What are you doing living in a tin can, floating in a sewer?"

Living on a boat is not for everyone, that's for sure. All to often romantic dreams end up as rotting hulks, as the credit crunch sinks the poetic fantasy, and everything gets rusty, damp and behind on all the bills.

Of course there lies an opportunity for some - people who know what they are doing. It is possible to create a wonderful floating existence; a realistic dream. If that's you, maybe look out for adverts of the "must sell - it's the boat or my wife" variety. But you have probably thought about that already.

• There is an interesting link in the Observer article to Great Escape Narrowboats who rent live aboard narrowboats from £600 a month for 6 months, plus cruising license (approx £300) and fuel (est £140). They favorably compare these costs with renting a typical 3 bed semi house, but I did notice they included council tax for the house, but not for their boats. Having just been hit for over £800 council tax at my mooring I am wondering if this is not a mistake. If council tax is included, renting a boat from this company is almost exactly the same price as a 3 bed house. The site is fairly informative, except for everything it misses out, and very 'flash' so only people with broadband can look at it. This got me thinking it might be worth checking that the boats for hire have broadband.