Living Aboard - The Marina to the Mooring

[osirissail]

Originally Posted by unbusted67

Well folks the deal is sealed. I just signed up for a slip, 90/ft, deeply discounted from $120/ft. . .

What period of time is that $90/ft for? Month? Quarter? 6-month? Year? Or is there a "decimal" missing?

[bobconnie]

Its funny how where you are makes such a difference ? of course it has to do with supply and demand ! cus down the bayou theres 50 to a hundred docks with power poles and meters ! any one of them rent for 100 to 200 per mo. and mostly fresh water, and schools and stores and such LOL but the weathers like everywhere in the gulf HOT most of the time !! but the seafoods great LOL We like it down here !! will like it better when we find our new boat !! Bob and Connie

[roverhi]

San Francisco is not all that expensive compared to most other places. My 40' slip in Alameda was $325 a month. Some areas in the Bay Area may be expensive but found it to be one of the best areas to have a boat for both interesting places to go and cost.

If you want the flavor of cruising as a tuneup, living on a mooring may be something to try. If I had to hold a normal job, would want to be in a marina for the convenience. BTW, you should have two dinghies to cruise. With only one dinghy there is either a lot of forced togetherness or someone is confined to the boat. Doesn't have to have a motor or be anything fancy, just something to row to shore so you aren't stuck on the boat or shore. It is possible to get around in a dinghy by rowing it. Good exercise and not all that much slower. You'll also be more appreciated by your anchorage mates.

[txtowman]

Lots of hospitals and doc offices really close to the marinas in Houston and Corpus Christi Texas. Come on down!

[Bash]

Originally Posted by osirissail

Fact of life - if you are not actively cruising you are living in a "floating apartment."

You don't need to validate your lifestyle living aboard a boat by sucking up to orissail's standards of "actively cruising" the boat. It's okay to have a job, and to sail within the parameters of keeping that job. It's okay to have a spouse pursing an education. You don't need orissail's blessing to pursue your life goals while living aboard your boat. Your lifestlye doesn't change your boat into something less than it is. A boat is a boat.

I lived aboard a boat while going through grad school for many years. During that time, in addition to earning advanced degrees at two prestigious universities, I put more than 12,000 nm on the keel of my boat. It was not a floating apartment, or a floating dorm, or a floating condo. It was a sailboat, one in which a hard-working grad student happened to live and study and sail.

You're no less cool for keeping a boat in a slip while you support your wife's efforts to earn a degree. Indeed, you're a better man for it. Anyone who tries to tell you different, or who somehow suggests that you are profaning your boat in the process, isn't worth listening to.

[bobconnie]

Bash ++++++20 right On Bob and Connie

[Dockhead]

I sort of live aboard. My boat is my only home (other than hotels and friends' guest rooms) in the UK, where I spend about 1/3 of my time.

I have done it both in a marina and on a mooring. Both have their own plusses and minuses. Actually the biggest plus and biggest minus of the mooring are the same thing - you are physically separated from land life. On the mooring you are already "out there", with all the joys of being in the sea, in an anchorage. Peace and quiet, views, self-sufficiency - you're really on the water. On the minus side, it is quite a lot more trouble. For me, getting back and forth from the boat is less of a problem than getting fresh water. My boat is a little big to dock single handed, and so if I spend an extended period of time alone on board, I have to watch the water.

Now that I have my own permanent mooring on the Hamble, I'll be spending 9 months based there (although I'll be cruising all summer), and 3 months over winter in the marina at Cowes. Spending winters in the marina is for doing annual maintenance and repairs, and to have shore power to run heaters.

I would probably not want to live year around in a marina, personally. Too few of the joys of being on the water to make up for the lack of comfort compared to living in an apartment. Unless I were aggressively saving money and just didn't want to pay for a place to live on land, in which case, why not? If I couldn't afford both a boat and an apartment, I would definitely go for the boat!

[osirissail]

Originally Posted by Bash

You don't need to validate your lifestyle living aboard a boat by sucking up to orissail's standards of "actively cruising" the boat. . . .

I guess you flunked reading comprehension - and as supposedly a "CF Advisor" - personal attacks are not the way here on CF unless things have recently changed. And your post is offensive. Sounds more like a post you would find on Sailing Anarchy than CF.

No way, no how did I disparage living on a boat. Many folks for money reasons, etc., do not like living in apartments, condo's, motel efficiencies, etc. and instead become "static liveaboards." IMHO, they may not be "actively cruising" but they are simply more comfortable in a smaller environment.

The OP's question was centered around the differences between living aboard a boat moored out in the bay/harbor versus one tied to a pier/dock considering his work schedule and his lady's educational pursuits.

As such, they are using the boat as a "floating apartment" with the added side benefit of being able to occasionally take the boat off the mooring or off the dock and spend a day or so out on the water. Folks living in RV's and such things also have a similar capability, but on land.

The vast majority of the post in this thread have no problem discussing the pro's and con's of being physically able 24/7 of getting prepared for work/school and stepping off the boat onto shore versus having to row/motor across a stretch of water in a dinghy in various weather conditions before proceeding to work/school.

[waterworldly]

Yeah, BASH, whats up with the attack? I noticed that you said "I" lived aboard blah blah blah. Maybe that's why it was an "I" instead of a "WE". If you had been a "WE" perhaps your opinion here would be more relevent. I haved spent significant time at both moorings, on the hook and at docks. Most would agree that working and going to school and living aboard can be taxing enough without adding the uncertainty of a dingy ride to shore to get these things done. At the dock it is very easy to simulate the systems testing that you want, without the added pressures of living/working/studing at a mooring.

[Bash]

Originally Posted by osirissail

No way, no how did I disparage living on a boat.

"Floating condo" and "floating apartment" are terms of disparagement. To claim otherwise is disingenuous. The clear implication here is that the vessel is being utilized other than for its intended use--that being to cruise actively--and that the vessel has therefore been profaned.

Consider it an attack if you must, but the intent of my previous post and this current one has been to defend the OP's decision to move the boat into a slip to support his wife's pursuit of a degree. I think it's a noble decision.

[Orrjames]

Were at Barber Marina in Elberta, AL. It is a gorgeouse marina with floating docks and all the facilities. $8.00 a foot, plus about $30.00 for electric. Awesome area with white sugar sand beaches all around. Close access to the gulf too.

[Blue Crab]

My experience as a small boat sailor (as in no shower) is that it's tough enough living aboard in a marina and getting to work/school. Add the mooring complications, and I have, just takes the fun out of it.

[Target9000]

Originally Posted by bobconnie

Its funny how where you are makes such a difference ? of course it has to do with supply and demand ! cus down the bayou theres 50 to a hundred docks with power poles and meters ! any one of them rent for 100 to 200 per mo. and mostly fresh water, and schools and stores and such LOL but the weathers like everywhere in the gulf HOT most of the time !! but the seafoods great LOL We like it down here !! will like it better when we find our new boat !! Bob and Connie

Bob and Connie,

Where down on the bayou are ya? If you make it up to the NOLA area in search of your next boat ping us, would love to talk to some cruisers. Most people around the area that we meet never leave the lake. Hell, most of the people on the lake never even leave their slips!

[Brian in Az]

Originally Posted by unbusted67

We are having a conundrum!

I have an opportunity to go out to a mooring this summer but am feeling a little nervous about the transition. I will be working 50+ hours a week and my wife is in school. We own one car and one dinghy. I can save about $1500 by living on the mooring. But the marina is calling me! I feel like a total wuss by not ruffing it. I would like to hear from other people who work and have made this transition.

If you want to save money, why not consider a small apartment. Then live on the mooring on the weekends. Since you need to work and your wife is going to school, it may be wiser to live on land during the week and save$500 or more per month by not living at the marina. If the long term goal is to eventually break away, then bank the money now instead of making the marina owner rich.

[Sailmonkey]

Originally Posted by Target9000

Bob and Connie,

Where down on the bayou are ya? If you make it up to the NOLA area in search of your next boat ping us, would love to talk to some cruisers. Most people around the area that we meet never leave the lake. Hell, most of the people on the lake never even leave their slips!

We anchored in Jean Laffite for 3 days and most people acted like they'd never seen a sailboat, much less one with people living on it!!