A man who was dreading facing a retirement of watching daytime TV and staring into his garden has taken a radical plunge by selling up and moving into a 42-ton boat on the Thames. Now the couple are travelling sedately through picturesque towns and villages and living a dream mortgage-free life.
Michael Buxton decided to take early retirement and with his wife packed up their belongings and moved out of their cul-de-sac home in Havering, having bought a 70ft by 13ft wide barge in 2016. Now they are enjoying life on the Thames. What he claims to have been an “out of body” boating experience has added excitement to his retirement with the adventures he and Janice, 62, embark on and the social boating community they have joined.
The 63-year-old said: “I can’t tell you how much I love it. In the summer we can wake up in the morning and we can have a different view every day, but it is the social side of it which is the best.
