I work at Microsoft full-time from my narrowboat. There are downsides to living on the water, but I'm happier than I was in a 3-bedroom house.

• Marius Blauuw bought a canal boat for £35,000 in Northampton, England after his divorce.
• Blauuw, a manager at Microsoft, said he is happier on the water because of the slow pace of life. 
• However, he mentioned the planning necessary, especially around sewage, can be a drawback. 

This as-told-to essay is from an interview with Marius Blauuw, a 51-year-old canal boater. It has been edited for length and clarity.

I'd always harbored a dream of living on a canal boat. I liked the idea of not paying rent and living on a boat sounded like a fun adventure.

Once my divorce was finalized in June 2021, I  traded a 3-bedroom house with a garage for 391.5 square feet of floating living space.

Remote work is easy from a narrowboat

I work full-time for Microsoft as a partner manager and support the Nordic region. Lots of Nordic people I work with have boats, so it's always a good talking point. My bosses know I live on a narrowboat and they don't seem to mind. 

The job is 99% remote, with two meetings a year held in either Reading or London, each about a two-hour car ride away. Sometimes I do voluntarily drop into the office once a month just to see colleagues in person.

I have a wifi connection onboard wherever I have strong signal. Most of the time when I am traveling, I keep the Wifi on to make sure I will have a signal wherever I choose to overnight. 

I have 4G and 5G network connections, and if there's a strong signal, then it's a good place to work. If it's the weekend, I don't have to worry about any of that

I found the perfect boat and consider it an investment 

I paid £35,000 for my boat and consider it an investment. Boats need a lot of maintenance, but they can appreciate in value, especially if you're diligent about upkeep.

My boat measures 6 feet 9 inches wide and 58 feet long. Boats are built to be under 7 feet wide so they can pass through the canal locks. My boat just barely fits, with 5 cm to spare on each side.

I found that 58 feet long is the sweet spot. You can buy a shorter canal boat, but then obviously you lose space. Canal boats can be as long as 72 feet, but not all locks can accommodate that size, which restricts where you could travel. I wanted to see as much of the UK as possible, most of which is connected by navigable canals.

My daughter stays with me part time on the boat, so her approval was important. Together, we looked at about six or seven boats before choosing this one because it fit the budget and it felt right inside. 

Costs of living in a canal boat

I still have family commitments and decided to secure what's called a permanent mooring in Northampton. It costs £3,000 pounds a year, and I can pull into my spot anytime. The only requirement is that my boat has to be out of the marina at least four weeks a year.

The next two biggest expenses are the boating license, which is £1,200 a year and boat insurance, which is £400 per year. 

Even after paying for diesel to heat the boat and also gas for the stove, living on the water still works out cheaper than land.

Cruising is a much slower way of life

The trip to the village of Crick from Northampton by car is 30 minutes. By narrow boat, it's at least three days of travel because the canals follow the contours of the land. 

I could get to these places much faster by car or bike, but the joy is the slow and deliberate pace of travel. It's a slow process, but not a complicated one.

I live solo on the boat, and one good thing is how easy it is to operate it all by myself. Two ropes are all you need to tie up to the side of the canal. It's not a big operation to push off and go. 

I like the flexibility of boating. I can cruise and decide as I go where to spend the night. In some spots, boats moor together and a group of us might have beers and a chat. If I don't like my neighbors, I can untie and find a new spot. 

One of my favorite things is to overnight in the middle of nowhere with no people in sight.

You can always tell who lives on a boat from who is just holidaying. Vacationers keep to themselves, but those of us who live on our boats are part of a strong community that is very friendly and very welcoming. 

There are some downsides of living in a canal boat, but I'm happier overall

The hardest part is planning. If you go cruising for a few days, you need to carry enough gas and fuel and, if it's winter, you need wood and coal to burn to stay warm. Your water tank has to be full and your sewage tank has to be empty. 

In your house, you just flush the toilet and that's it. On a boat, your bodily waste goes into a tank that needs to be flushed out about every two weeks. Not every marina has pump-out capability, and not every location has a bath and toilet house. 

You certainly don't want to get stuck with a full sewage tank and no options.

Every day I wonder if I am doing the right thing by living on a boat. My friends all say that I seem much more relaxed now, but I keep questioning: "Can I pull this off? Can I adjust to this in the long term?" All I know is that right now, I am really happy.