Rubric: Pros/Cons.On a boat?
The summer draws people to the water, some to a boat. We debate here whether or not floating on the water is a pleasure.Pros of boats
All right, maybe this is the reason: I’m a Pisces. Plus, I have a fear of heights.
So of course that means that I prefer everything that has to do with water and boats as a "living space". At the same time, talking about a "boat as a living space" – sorry, but this comes across as a bit fake, from the perspective of a Pisces, I mean. Because these fish live more UNDER or IN and less ON the water – the latter could even be an existential crisis. But enough of splitting scales...
What this has to do with a fear of heights might not be as obvious. I mean: you rarely fall a long way in to the water. From a diving platform into a swimming pool, or maybe from the balcony on the 23rd deck of the M.S. Nightmare – but people have to force themselves to take on these challenges. You just don’t do it on a voluntary basis.
In a nutshell: I like boats. They make an impression of lightness and coolness; they have an image of being a clean kind of transport; they radiate luxury and romance; they are exclusive and subtle. All attributes that – you have to admit – stroke your own ego.
The best thing, though, is that they unite the contradiction between privacy and extroversion. Anyone sitting on a boat is very conscious that they are taking up an exposed position, revealing themselves, separating themselves from others and putting themselves in the limelight. At the same time, the distance creates a pleasurable situation of not having to communicate to keep this Level One status. In whatever way people have to constantly prove their extraordinary individuality and personality via hard communicative work in countless discussions and appearances every day – here, on the boat, physical distance alone does all of this.
You are who you are: the woman in the boat.
And imagine that you are sitting on her deck, your laptop on your knees. You let your thoughts follow the movement of the water and suddenly have THE idea! That’s the way to do it, right?! .... Which sends me back to where I started from – to my usual workplace – to work on the first step: how do I get a boat?
Anna Voltren
Cons of boats
As a notorious claustrophobic, I am the perfect person to write up the contras of living on a boat. My circulatory instability – hereditary, of course – does the rest and goes straight to sea sickness mode as soon as the foundation tips even slightly. There are other reasons why I can’t stand the rocking motion: I can’t read. Can’t write. Can’t think clearly at all. And what’s a holiday without books, huh?!
My problem, OK. But on a boat you’re rarely alone. And this brings us to the next problem: living together. Believe me, the tight space on the tiny boats that people like us can afford to buy or charter promotes the emergence of a very specific kind of person: the pedant. Although they impose their tyrannical madness for order by arguing for the necessity of the nautical, even masculine art of survival. Freely according to the motto: everything must have its place, every handhold must sit perfectly. And always be done with pinpoint precision. Otherwise, chaos will break out, which means: we’ll sink!
Believe me about this too: it’s all just pretence. Submission is what they want, and not just in terms of the scanty accommodations. Boat-dwellers must say goodbye to every kind of spontaneity; otherwise, both their floats and their entire social system will begin to wobble. No thanks! I’d rather become a synchronised swimmer.
And tell me, who is the captain here, huh? Let’s not get started right now, in the middle of the high seas, on this debate... I’m sticking to my guns: sitting on the beach and watching the waves – wonderful. And if a boat happens to cruise by now and again – wonderful. I’ll wave to it – from a distance.
Dora Marquard
