Live on a Boat While Not Cruising ?

[Greg S]

Originally Posted by dw5055

I I have yet to meet anyone that wasn't helpful when I had a problem. !

Agree! Throw a ladder up on the roof of your house and see how many of your neighbors run over to help. Rig up the boson chair to go up the mast and you'll most likely need to turn down some of the offers to help.

I found living and working on a boat in a marina was enjoyable indeed. Do it and spend the time getting to know your boat inside out, top to bottom. I doubt you'll regret it, in fact, I think you'll have a hell of a lot of fun.

[terrygandh]

We lived aboard for two years while we worked and renovated the boat which is a 42ft trawler. We cruised for 4 years and then came back to for for 4 years and lived aboard and then set out again. We were in a marina in the Houston area. There is a great social atmosphere when living at a marina. There was never a problem with livaboards and we had a great community of liveaboards. We all tried to meet for dinner every Wednesday night. Also the marina had toilets, showers and a laundry.
The advice about making sure your significant other likes the life style is really important. If she doesn't like it in a marina she will probably hate it on the hook and certainly will not like being at sea in a storm. Also, the advice about boat selection is very important. My advice is to make sure that it is a liveable boat. When we are cruising we spend about 600 hours a year underway. Since ther are almost 9,000 hours in a year you can see that most of our time was either on the hook (most of it), on a mooring or in a marina (usually when someting was broken and waiting on parts). Our cruising range is from Key Wets to Maine with the Bahamas thrown in.
Good luck. It is a great life and a great way to see the world.