Alright.
I'm going to do something impulsive in the next month or two.
My job allows me to
work at home and I find myself sitting at home for days at a time without much reason to go out. I'm
single (obviously).
Some weeks, I'll be traveling the whole week out of town.
So, my requirements are: reasonably reliable
Internet at home port and reasonable access to an International
Airport.
I'm looking at a
liveaboard and hoping to find
mooring in Santa Barbara or nearby as I have a large number of friends there. Living on a hook seems OK for a few months.
My
budget is very tight. I've seen some decent boats in the $10k range. My only issue with the ones I've looked at were the lack of a
shower facility. Even with limited fresh
water, it drives me a bit batty not to be able to at least rinse off.
Here's my criteria.
1) It floats. No sinking is preferable. The pacific gets cold sometimes and some of my
electronics aren't waterproof. Swimming over a mile to shore in sub-60
water is also no fun. I've done it twice. ;-)
2) It
sails. Both upwind and downwind. (or at least one of the two) Motors piss me off anyway.
3) A
motor. I have paddled a 25 foot
cabin cruiser before. It works, but it's slow and leads to general soreness in the upper body.
3) Electricity. I have a
solar panel that can run my
laptop an
cell phone, but I'd prefer the
boat helps me store some of that.
4) Water. I've been pretty dehydrated before, but I
recall seeing knights jousting in the wall. We'll have none of that. Showers rock too, if possible (yes, one-minute, half-gallon showers are fine).
5) No loan. If it breaks in half and sinks, I'd rather not owe someone for something that's resting on the bottom of the sea.
6)
Dinghy. Gotta get to shore somehow, eh? Rowing a
dinghy sucks too.
7) A
shower. I could park at a marina and have shower facility, but the idea is that I want to live off the grid (for the most part), but still need to go the
airport sometimes and not smell like death.
I'm a nerd. I have access to lots of raw materials for geek-hood, such as industrial
solar panels for nearly free and the experience (and tools) to wire them up. I have lots of high-gain antennas for wireless communication. I can build one out of a pringles can, a coat hanger and a few washers, in a pinch. I can probably build an
antenna array for close to zero as well, to pull in GSM signals from miles off-shore too. Hooray.
Anyone have a
boat for sale in the sub-$10k range that.... doesn't sink and can hold fresh water?
How the heck do I qualify a
purchase like that. I'd rather get something that can actually go down the coast from
Washington to Southern Cali, rather than being stuck on the hook and constantly worried about folding it in half in light seas.
I've looked around on craigslist and found some boats. A particular 30' Maple Leaf design in Bellingham captured my eye, but it didn't have a shower. Damn. Would have been perfect other than that. Except that it's in Bellingham and would take a few weeks to get down to SoCal.
I'd rather not get a boat that needs to be
on the hard for months after i buy it.
I don't really know how to go about this particular search. I don't imagine there are too many "brokers" who deal in $5000 boats. :-) If there are, do they charge huge
fees?
I know the standard
advice is to get a thorough
survey, but how much does that cost and is it really worth it on a $5k-$10k boat?
I know it's wacky and crazy, but I need an adventure.