In October of 1990, Mary Hughes moved into a floathouse on Victoria’s Fisherman’s Wharf with her husband, Alan. It was the beginning of a twelve-year adventure in the unique experience of living on the water fulltime.
With pathos and humour, Mary Hughes shares her perspective on weather, community, tourists, keeping a home afloat,and not least of all, the exhausting politics of defending a chosen alternative lifestyle.
Mary Hughes relates her experiences of re-floating a twenty-ton structure (with the help of many friends and neigh-bours), negotiating with the wharfinger(s) for basic services such as power and water, struggling for the preservation of a working harbour, and working towards a mutually respectful relationship with the authorities whose many and conflicting ‘rules’ govern the floating lifestyle. She also shares the joy and beauty of living close to her aquatic environ-ment, building a unique community, creatively finding solutions to both physical and political challenges.
This book is also a retrospective on the important role that floathouses and floating communities played in the histo-ry of British Columbia on the coast as well as inland lakes and rivers. These unique communities made it possible for many early pioneers to live and work in an environment where it was impossible to build roads or have any access other than by water. This experience continues intothe present all along our rugged coastline. Hughesalso relates the history and importance of Victoria’s working harbour. Over the past four decades, the working aspect of Victoria’s harbour has been sacrificed to gentrification. Large condos and resort hotels have largely replaced the facilities and services of a real working harbour. Hughes documents her and many others’ valiant struggle to slowthis process. Unfortunately, the power of money and politics has been too great and now there are only a very few marine business and services left in the harbour. The floathouse and liveaboard communities in the harbour are part of that history.
As those of us who have also chosen to adopt a nautical live aboard lifestyle know so well, it takes a determined commitment of the heart, head, and bank account to make our choice work, but as we view a beautiful sunset over West Bay, admire the seamanship skill of the Coho’s crew backing into the Inner Harbour, or watch the small fish swimming under the hull, we know how special our experience is and all the rest is worth the effort.
Reviewed by Rick Schnurr and Judy Brooks
MV Julie May
BC Nautical Residents’ Association, Winter 2012 Newsletter
The Life and Times of the Floathouse Zastrozzi
Author: Mary Hughes
Publisher: First Choice Books (2011)
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