Want to find out more about living and sailing on a boat whilst pregnant and preparing for the arrival of a mini sailor before you commit to a change of lifestyle, or, find some tips and tricks you could use yourself if you already live aboard? Read on to find out how Lauren manages it!
Lauren (33) & Ed (33) live aboard their 1990 Hallberg Rassy 36, ‘Amoret’, and are currently expecting their first baby. They’ve spent the past 17 months living and sailing aboard and have sailed from the UK down to Cartagena, Spain during that time. ‘Amoret’ is currently wintered in Spain as they have returned to the UK to have their mini sailor. They plan to return to the boat in Spring when the baby is a few months old to continue their journey.
Tell us a bit about yourself...
What are your names, where is home and when did you leave etc?
My name is Lauren. My husband Ed & I live on our boat ‘Amoret’, she’s a Hallberg-Rassy 36 from 1990 and we’re currently awaiting the arrival of a new little sailor.
We bought ‘Amoret’ in May 2019 as relatively novice sailors and after the coronavirus lockdown in the UK earlier this year, we set sail south to the Med.
Over 2000NM later, we left ‘Amoret’ wintering in Cartagena, Spain for a few months whilst we headed back to the UK to have the baby.
Why do you choose to live this lifestyle?
Ed says he chose to live this lifestyle because I made him… which is funny because people always assume it was his dream! The true answer is we had been lucky enough to go on a few sailing holidays that planted the ‘let’s buy a boat, sail off into the sunset and never look back’ seed.
We both love to travel and weren’t satisfied with the bright lights of the city. Following my fortunately timed redundancy, we decided to pack up our comfortable London lives for living a life bobbing around at sea instead. It’s been harder than we anticipated. Sometimes we miss the ease of just going to work 9-5, but if you can roll with the troughs, then the peaks are well worth it!
What do your friends and family think about you living and travelling on a boat?
When we first planted the idea, most people thought it was just a phase and we’d soon move on to something else. However, once we bought ‘Amoret’, other than a few ‘what about your careers?’ comments, we’ve been largely supported. Also, with the pandemic this year, people’s priorities and values have changed a lot and we think it’s made our choice of lifestyle easier to understand. But, let’s be honest, our mums would much rather we lived down the road from them!
Did you spend any/much time aboard while you were pregnant?
We moved onto the boat in March this year (2020) and then got locked up and knocked up in Portsmouth. Therefore, the majority of the pregnancy has been on the boat until we got back to the UK at 30 weeks pregnant.
I was incredibly lucky to not suffer from morning sickness. Other than Ed losing his drinking buddy, being pregnant on the boat hardly had any impact on our journey.
How did you manage all the appointments they like you to have during pregnancy to keep tabs on you and your baby's development?
This was an interesting one. We had a 12 week scan in the UK before we left to check all was OK, and, as we didn’t really know when we’d be able to do the next scan, we also had a NIPT test.
Then, once we’d set sail, I enlisted the help of two friends, one french and one spanish, to try and book 20 week scans somewhere on the continent. The French were French and impossible, but we managed to provisionally book a couple in Galicia allowing us time to cross Biscay with favourable weather.
It’s not free in Europe unless you have all the local paperwork or are covered by EHIC (E111), but the prices for a scan were from 80-110 Euros.
The doctor who did our scan was lovely, although she did tell us we were having a girl (even though we knew it’s a boy), but then she zoomed in further and apologised for her mistake pointing out his “poco poco testicular”. Language was a hurdle but luckily a lot of medicine comes from Latin and we got by.
The final test was a blood test in Gibraltar for iron etc.
I obviously missed out on some midwifery care, but I bought some urine sticks, a blood pressure monitor and scales to take with me and monitored myself.
Returning to the UK I’ve had some confused doctors who’ve insisted on doing it all again, but I’ve been confident along the way in the professionals we’ve met and knew I was happy with the knowledge provided and that’s the most I could have asked for.
How old will your baby be when they move onboard?:
We plan to move back to the boat in March 2021 when the baby is around 2/3 months old. We will spend the first month in the marina adjusting to life with a little one on the boat.
What modifications are you planning to make to your boat to have your baby onboard safely:
We’re still doing a lot of research on this and getting advice from other boats with babies, so reading your other interviews has been really helpful. So far, we know we want to be able to secure the car seat so he can be safely restrained as well as have large lee cloths with a material with good visibility so he can see us. Thankfully, boats are designed for rough seas and most cupboards and drawers are childproof already.
What pieces of equipment are you planning to have onboard for your baby that you consider to be vital?
A baby carrier, lifejacket and of course his parents! He’s going to be tiny to begin with but at some point a harness.
Do you have any funny stories that involve your pregnancy onboard you'd like to share?
When we first started sailing when I was pregnant, I was a little worried about morning sickness multiplying with seasickness and being rendered unable to do anything. Sure enough when rounding Portland Bill on our way down to Dartmouth, Devon, my stomach wrenched and I started throwing up over the side. Convinced this was the beginning of a horrendous nine months at sea, Ed came sheepishly out of the toilet. Luckily that was the last and only time I suffered any ‘morning sickness’ all pregnancy.
How do you plan to keep your baby occupied onboard?
We haven’t given a huge amount of thought to keeping the baby occupied on board or on a passage yet, I’m still preoccupied with the idea of getting him out of me. With our sailing trip so far, we’ve largely figured things out as we’ve gone along and we feel that is the best option here as well. Friend’s babies seem as interested in everything around them as they are any specific toys so we hope the boat will be enough – and that he enjoys engine maintenance. 
What will you do with your baby while you're on passage?
We’re going to work this one out as we go. No baby is the same so our plans will change depending if we have a wriggler, a screamer or a sleeper I think. I guess for close quarters he’ll be strapped in and gagged (aka dummy), although if he’s screaming, it might give us more leniency for dodgy maneuvering skills.
We’ve done some unnecessarily long slogs this year just the two of us, so we are used to sailing shift patterns of three hours on three hours off to get sleep. When the baby is with us, our plan is just to reduce the distances and swap the sleep for baby duties.
How do you think your little one will cope when it gets rough? Do you suffer from seasickness?
Neither of us suffer from seasickness and hope the baby will be the same. The main problem I have to overcome when things get rough is my husband having a meltdown. Our sailing plans this coming year will be much more relaxed than the year just gone, so we’re hoping to ease him (the baby) in gently.
What are you planning to do to make sure your baby will be able to socialise with others?
There are so many boat kids out there so we hope he will never be short of friends! Social media really helps here as well as it will allow us to make contact with other families in the same area.
Have you had any surprises along the way?
When the second line appeared on the test! And on the ten we took after…
What do you think will be the best thing about living onboard with a baby?
We will be incredibly lucky to both be with him all the time and share the parenting. We can’t wait to be sitting in a secluded anchorage watching the sunset as a family, just us and our boat.
What do you think will be the worst thing about living onboard with a baby?
Even less sleep?! We’re still getting used to the irregular sleeping patterns of being constantly on the move, but we’re also pretty afraid of the nappy issues.
What tips and tricks have you picked up during your pregnancy that you'll be using to make your life easier?
Previously I was the navigator and my husband the helmsman. However, being pregnant, we decided it was safer for me to be helming rather than jumping onto the jetty bringing the boat in. So tip and tricks for manoeuvring the boat in the marina is definitely what I’ve picked up whilst pregnant, and, as much as he hates to admit it, I now do much better than Ed!
I think in general though it’s much better if you’re both comfortable doing everything onboard.
What does the future hold for you?
Previously we were total dreamers and made so many plans. The one thing we’ve learnt this year though is you never stick to them, so now we just take each day as it comes. Loosely our aim is to sail for at least one year in the Med and adapt to life with a baby whilst enjoying some sunshine. Then there is talk of heading up to Norway or that Atlantic crossing…
What advice would you share with a future sailing Mumma-to-be?
I think the same as I’d give to a landlubber mumma-to-be… go with your instinct and don’t overthink things. Most importantly, don’t give up on anything because you are pregnant. Many people thought we’d give up the sailing dream once they found out we were expecting, but there is no reason why you can’t be pregnant on board. Your body knows what it wants and needs, so listen to that. Everyone has their own unique pregnancy so go with whatever makes you happy.
Find out more...
I hope you enjoyed reading this interview and finding out more about living on a boat with a baby.
If you’d like to find out more about Lauren and follow her on her journey, you can visit her website here and follow her on social media.
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