Why Did You Decide to Live Aboard ?

[Don1500]

Originally Posted by CaptForce

Living aboard for economic reasons, to reduce your carbon footprint, to escape political concerns, to facilitate travel, to escape harsh winters........ I guess these can all be valid, but they seem like they express the negative side of choice. What about the joy of boating?

The former are the excuses, the latter is the reason.

[Missou]

Originally Posted by Don1500

The former are the excuses, the latter is the reason.

And the positive outweighs the negative!!!

[Kindle]

Originally Posted by CaptForce

Living aboard for economic reasons, to reduce your carbon footprint, to escape political concerns, to facilitate travel, to escape harsh winters........ I guess these can all be valid, but they seem like they express the negative side of choice. What about the joy of boating?

Wonderfully stated.

I am choosing to move back aboard because I feel like I am living when I am aboard. I like to FEEL the weather instead of watching it on TV, I like to SEE where dinner just came from instead of a well packaged, proccessed, and shipped meal. I like to REACT to real things like tides and currents instead of artificial time lines. I like to make new FRIENDS (and be able to leave the less pleasant neigbors behind). Most of all, I like to have the ability to make real CHOICES throughout my day.

(Mowing contest: I come in last-sold the house only 8 days ago- the lawnmower, weedwhacker, edger, wheelbarrow, insect sprayer, fertilizer spreader, pruners......all included with house purchase!)

[IdoraKeeper]

Moved aboard my 26' sloop during divorce. My Dad stopped by and told me to go over and stay on his trawler. It was a natural reaction to a personal disaster.
To my surprise I discovered that I loved being at the dock and brought my sail boat over to be able to sail at will. Got over the EX in vey short order with the help of a young blond from Malibu....much later I live on 10 acres in a dream house and still spend most of my free time at the dock tending to my boat.... loved living aboard and could easily do it again. HMMMM ........7 acres of grass anyone??

Todd

[Don1500]

Originally Posted by Kindle

(Mowing contest: I come in last-sold the house only 8 days ago- the lawnmower, weedwhacker, edger, wheelbarrow, insect sprayer, fertilizer spreader, pruners......all included with house purchase!)

All during the process of selling my house I had been dreading the "Downsize" phase. What am I going to do with 40 years of stuff? Well my buyers want ALL my furniture, all my gardening stuff, all my pots and pans, dishes, cleaning stuff, knickknacks, anything I don't want they do. I will still fill a dumpster but now it really will be junk that goes. I don't need to call goodwill, I don't need to do a garage sale. I AM downsized.

[Kindle]

Originally Posted by Don1500

All during the process of selling my house I had been dreading the "Downsize" phase. What am I going to do with 40 years of stuff? Well my buyers want ALL my furniture, all my gardening stuff, all my pots and pans, dishes, cleaning stuff, knickknacks, anything I don't want they do. I will still fill a dumpster but now it really will be junk that goes. I don't need to call goodwill, I don't need to do a garage sale. I AM downsized.

Congrats!! Just did the exact same. Doesn't it feel good!! I really liked not having to do a garage sale.

[Don1500]

Yep, and on top of it I can add another 10K to the boat fund!

Check my blog The Nomad Blog

[imagine2frolic]

Idorakeeper,

Mine too was a seperation from wife. Moved onto the boat for economic reasons. Found out I was much happier there in the marina. It has been 18 years, and have never looked back, I have moved into a house a couple of times for the other half's benefit. Have found myself going back to the boat. Even though the house was paid for. The house was lovely with a pool, and an awful huge yard....AWFUL!.......i2f

[Rakuflames]

Originally Posted by CaptForce

Living aboard for economic reasons, to reduce your carbon footprint, to escape political concerns, to facilitate travel, to escape harsh winters........ I guess these can all be valid, but they seem like they express the negative side of choice. What about the joy of boating?

That's whty I moved aboard. I was spending so much on my boat I felt guilty about neglecting my cats. So I just brought them (and clothes, etc.) with me. I dearly love sitting in the cockpit eating my supper. When I first moved on I cherished the feeling of being rocked to sleep. Unfortunately, the human brain being what it is, I now completely tune out the normal rocking... so now I find myself wishing for a storm. I live in a marina and I do feel a bit guilty knowing that the storm will be more than a gentle rock for those anchored out ...

The absolute joy of coming up at 9PM, throwing a bit of leftover ice into th marina and watching the algae light up electric blue like a stupendous fireworks display. I never get tired of that. I've rowed around the marina just to watch the bioluminescence, something I might not have EVER seen if I hadn't moved aboard.

Then there's the dolphin who hunts sheepshead -- at 4AM. He uses his VERY strong tail to thump boats out of the way when needed. More than one resident has been rudely awakened at 4AM because this dolphin decided it was dinner time! I'm so glad I had the sense to open my life to these experiences.

[zeehag]

living aboard is the best way to cruise.

[Bash]

I don't sleep as well on the hard.

[Don1500]

Geeee, all the things I need to get used to. I've gotten used to sleeping through a war, I can do this, too.

[zeehag]

i dont sleep at all on hard......just doesnt work. cant cruise there either, not with my keel....

[webejammin]

We've been sailing a Macgregor 26M about 200 days a year up untill last fall when we found a deal on our catamaran and bought it in San Diego at Mission bay. After living aboard for 3 weeks in Mission Bay CA the truck picked up our cat and delivered it to Portland Or ( the fall weather up the west coast is not the greatest going north so we trucked it) where I contenued to live aboard while setup was done and launched into the Columbia river. After crusing up stream to our home port we did not want to go back to living in one of my apt's and we've been living on the water every sence. I had been getting tired of my tenants knocking on my door at every hour of the day and night for really nothing so we are unificially liveaboards because that would be against the rules of the marina so we say were recorating lots. We've been working on getting yard sales done and getting rid of stuff to rent our apt unit which will more than cover our moorage and elect bill plus but lots of fuel to cruse on. I guess both my wife and I had had the dream of living aboard sence the 60's when er were starting to sail, so you could say were living our dream. Our next step is to put our apt complex into management and go crusing

[Capt. lulz]

I decided for a few reasons:

• I was growing weary of living in one place for too long.
• I want to easily (cheaply) own an asset in which I could live with less possibility of it being seized due to many possible points of failure which i believe is designed as a part of our society. (The government wants to legally steal ur **** at any opportunity)
• Also implied in owning shelter is the idea that I have shelter taken care of. I don't necessarily have to pay rent - something that I might not always be able to pay for in the event of financial emergency.
• I hate dependency. I was not born a social creature. This is an unfortunate thing to be when it comes to support. People aren't as willing to help, so I gotta do everything on my own. I associate living aboard with independence because living on land has many things to hold you down. Dependency on material and location - huge anchors.
• I want to minimize and simplify my life. I want to live how humans are meant to live. I want to manage my life with my mind, and with my own two hands, not anyone else's.
• I want to get away from the herd of sheep and all their ********.