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cbtucker · 22-07-2011, 11:29

Yep, it's been a little while since I posted one of my questions. So I felt it was time to see what kind of discussion I could get going.

I like reading various blogs on sailing and have compiled a list (it's 84 now) of people in various stages of sailing (Favorite Links). The question I have is, If you returned to living on land, why? Was it for health reasons? Homesickness? Financial? Just didn't like living on a boat?

Now I realize that on a Sailing forum maybe there won't be that many people that have returned to land and are on here. But I thought I'd take a shot.

redcobra · 22-07-2011, 12:40

Ran out of food.

**GordMay** · 22-07-2011, 12:44

Quote:

Originally Posted by cbtucker

... If you returned to living on land, why? Was it for health reasons? Homesickness? Financial? Just didn't like living on a boat? ...

Loved living aboard, and especially cruising; but returned home for a complex of family responsibilities, financial, and pending health reasons.

dana-tenacity · 22-07-2011, 13:52

Mum had a heart attack.

**skipmac** · 22-07-2011, 14:01

We went back to land mainly because my wife was getting tired of boat life and also wanted to raise our daughter on land. The fact the finances were getting a bit tight didn't help the situation.

Thirty years later it's time for phase two and I'm heading back to sea as soon as the refit is done. Wife says she will fly to where the boat stops and miss the offshore parts. She gets seasick anyway and never did get her sea legs even after months on board.

**Hudson Force** · 22-07-2011, 18:40

We fully expect there will come a time when health, boredom with cruising or some other events cause us to return to living on land. Though we bought our first live aboard in November of 1971, it was the day of the Watergate burglery, june 17th of '72, that we first cruised away from shore for fulltime living aboard. So, more than a month into our fortieth year we're still hanging in there. It's been tough, but we can't all have basements with pool tables and attics with Christmas decoration boxes, cars, lawns, furniture, garages...........dish washers, ice machines, clothes washers and dryers, riding lawn mowers, George Foreman Grills, sheds...........neighborhood comittees, driveways, trees, fences, sideboards.............pianos, gazebos, mailboxes and garden gnomes.

**hummingway** · 22-07-2011, 18:49

I only lived aboard a year but I decided I wanted to make another record and try as I might, I couldn't figure out how to do it on board. I miss living on the boat but there are things about being on land that are nice too. The veggie garden and the trailer I call my brewery are some compensation.

mbianka · 22-07-2011, 19:06

I've use to live on board for most of the year (until the water gets hard) in New York City when I worked there in the nineties to 2001. Now I just spend most of my summers on board unless a freelance work job calls as it did this summer and I'll live back on land as long as the gig lasts usually a week or two. It's not until I get back on board that I am reminded of the things I miss by being on land:
THE BIANKA LOG BLOG: WHAT A LITTLE MOONLIGHT CAN DO
I sometimes feel a little sadness for all those people who miss what I see just by being on board.

Capt Phil · 22-07-2011, 19:21

Ill health and wife desired to return to medical school otherwise we would still be aboard. There was something magic about waking to the slight roll, the clean smell of the ocean and the excitement of new harbors, friends and weather changes.
We spent many enjoyable years cruising and living aboard and still miss it but life goes on. Capt Phil

wingNwing · 23-07-2011, 06:25

Hey, if the same question was posted at SailNet, do I get to copy and paste the same question to both forums, too? <*insert emoticon for good-natured ribbing here*> Actually, I'm reposting here because the one posted at Sailnet hasn't gotten much traction.

You missed one, Tux. This month we're helping very good cruising friends move off their boat after 10 years to buy a house on land. Their reason? "We accomplished our cruising plans, learned what we wanted to in this cruising life, and are seeking new adventures."

sv_makai · 23-07-2011, 06:45

Our plan was a 1 year cruise that ran into 2 1/2. So we had not gotten rid of everything and had stuff in storage. We came back to re-organize buy a bigger boat and apply all of the lessons learned in first couple years out.

Then the economy happened. We will get a new boat and head back out. It just won't be in the 5 years we thought.

svpattyd · 23-07-2011, 07:03

We postponed cruising for one season and rented a house. Our sin had been hit by a drunk driver and had major injuries. His left leg was amputated. We helped him recover and are back on the boat getting ready to leave in the fall.

John A · 23-07-2011, 07:25

After living aboard for 25 years and cruising for ten, I was deliberatjy rammed by a coastal freighter in the Bahamas.

At the age of 70 I decided it was time to move ashore rather than spend two years and considerable money to repair the boat.