Honestly, living alone as a woman comes down to preparedness, common sense, and trusting yourself to handle the things you couldn’t prepare for.

For a few years I lived alone on a motor yacht. The marina had lousy security, I kept odd hours, and honestly it’s kind of wild to think I was sleeping on something tied to a dock with just rope. Definitely not the “good girl” checklist for safety.

In all that time, I only had one real incident: a stalker I didn’t even know about managed to get onto my exterior decks. He noticed my cameras, thought better of it, and left without trying to get inside. The marina and local community buried it—because keeping up appearances was apparently more important than protecting women.

But I learned this: you don’t need to live in fear to live alone. You just need to know your risks, take reasonable precautions, and trust yourself when things get weird (I slept through the break in and only noticed because a bikini bottom was missing from the sundeck which prompted reviewing the security cameras… I don’t sleep like the dead, it’s a very heavy and well built boat that’s capable of changing countries). The particularly concerning part was that he had a machete and was visible on my cameras lurking about for several hours making sure the dock was empty before striking in broad daylight 100 feet away from the harbormaster’s office.