Whether you’re thinking of living on a boat, or are looking for a boat for sale for an extended period of cruising you may be wondering how boaters collect their snail mail? Depending on your situation there are a number of options you can choose to collect your mail when you’re on a long cruise.

1 Moorings

The easiest option is if you have a permanent mooring that can accept mail. Some permanent moorings, whether they are outside a pub, a stretch of secured towpath or a marina with full facilities may have an address with postcode and could be willing to accept mail for boaters. My first mooring was rented from a pub and the landlady was happy accept my mail which I collected from the bar at my convenience!

2 Friends

You could ask a trusted friend or relative to receive your post for you. You could even ask them to scan important letters and email the documents to you if necessary. If you are travelling you could ask your chosen one to pass on your post to the nearest post office. Phone your intended post office first to check they provide a post restante service. It’s free in the UK and they will keep your mail for up to three months. Your mail can then be addressed to, “Your name, Post Restante, Post Office name”, followed by the post office full address. Get your friend to put a return address on the back of the envelope.

3 Mail Forwarding

If you have no willing friends or family you could try a mail forwarding service like Boatmail who will forward your mail and parcels to an address of your choice. They will even receive and print email if you wish.

4 Mail Boxes

If you’re likely to remain within easy travelling distance of a certain area for some time you can rent your own mailbox from a company like Mailboxes Etc. This gives you an address to call your own and some companies will allow you to be creative with the description of your mailbox, so that Box 55 could alternatively be addressed as ‘Suite 55’ or ‘Flat 55’ for example.

If you can prove you have another address (with a utility bill or landline phone bill for example) you will be able to rent a Royal Mail PO box. This allows you to collect your mail from a Royal Mail delivery office. To rent a PO Box, you must work or live at a permanent UK address and it takes about two weeks to set up the service.

5 Work Address

The final option, which I have also used, is to have mail sent to your work address. Even though I cruised some distance from London during the summer (through Hertfordshire and Essex) I still commuted to a job in central London and had an understanding boss who was happy for me to have all of my personal and official mail sent to the business address.

If you’re ready to start cruising in 2013 then browse our website now to find a boat in your price range today!

Peggy
www.narrowboatwife.com

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