What Was Your Inspiration to Live Aboard?

[creakyboy]

"A house ain't nothin but a badly built boat that doesn't float,so firmly run aground that there is no hope of ever moving it"

Just wish i could remember who it is was who inspired my live aboard dream

[maxingout]

Originally Posted by Jace

Okay, new here, but I happen to be a bold kinda' guy.

I'm a writer, www.joekeck.com, as yet unpublished, and I want to live cheap (planning to live on the hook). I love the ocean, always have. So my goal is to circumnavigate the globe with two other boats - sort of tandem, if you will - film the whole thing and edit, direct, and produce it for some Discovery Channel type network. However, I have to learn to film, direct, edit, produce, sail and buy a boat first.

I went sailing with a friend on his 22' clipper and was hooked.

I'm going to sell everything I have and get something liveaboardable, find two other sailors interested in making the trip with me and head out.

As for why I'm doing all this? I'm single, no kids, never been married - not gay, by the way - and I have just the right level of imbecility balanced with insanity to think I can pull it off.

And God loves me.

I checked out your website, and it looks like you are doing the writing thing big time. I would recommend that you focus on your writing rather than pursuing a documentary style video of a sailing voyage around the world.

The standards for video are extremely high, and everyone can recognize good and bad video a hundred miles away. It doesn't take training to separate the good stuff from the bad. But it takes massive training and experience to make the good stuff. I don't think that it's worth the effort for most folks.

We did our videos as a project for my son who was a media major in college. It was his project from start to finish. After the shooting was complete, it took a year and a half to edit, produce, do voice overs, write and perform the music, and finish a thousand other jobs to create a marketable DVD of our Red Sea adventures (The Red Sea Chronicles) You don't do it for money. You do it for love. The market for cruising video is small unless you want to put short segments on YouTube for which you will receive no pay.

Shooting video is much harder than shooting still photos. There are so many more things to control besides the light in the scene. It's ten times harder than shooting photos for written articles for the sailing press and for your own website. The market for written material and still photos is much larger than it is for video.

Focus on your writing and become a good still photographer.

I've done writing, still photography, and video. Writing and still photography is the way to go. That's just my two cents.

[slomotion]

My first taste of cruising was also inspired by divorce, but it was short lived. Later, after 23 years of marriage, my wife and I, for uncharacteristically impulsive and in hindsight silly, but somehow right for us reasons, decided to go. Our goal was to sail the Leeward/Windward chain to South America.

On our practice cruise to the Keys, we decided to just keep going. In two weeks in the Bahamas I learned more than I had in nearly forty years of off and on sailing - and not all of our revelations were pleasant and positive. The two most important were:

1. It did not matter one bit whether we ever made to South America because

2. We were in love with the cruising life style - at least our version of it.

Yes, we made it to South America - in a very leisurely and casual manner. For some people I think it's more a matter of fate or destiny rather than determination and planning.

[Pelagic]

I just couldn’t get this on my Home Entertainment Centre....

[Jace]

No imagine, you're a wise and thinking guy, and I take your advice to heart with the spirit with which it was intended. I pray not only for my dream, but also for enough wisdom to bring it to fruition. The poor gentleman you mentioned that had to be rescued simply had stars in his eyes. I will endeavor to take a more serious and rational approach to the whole thing.

Again, thanks for the sage advice. It is a wise man who heeds the words of the experienced. I hope I will always have the humility to seek out and put to use such aid.

[Jace]

From maxingout: I checked out your website, and it looks like you are doing the writing thing big time. I would recommend that you focus on your writing rather than pursuing a documentary style video of a sailing voyage around the world.

The standards for video are extremely high, and everyone can recognize good and bad video a hundred miles away. It doesn't take training to separate the good stuff from the bad. But it takes massive training and experience to make the good stuff. I don't think that it's worth the effort for most folks.

We did our videos as a project for my son who was a media major in college. It was his project from start to finish. After the shooting was complete, it took a year and a half to edit, produce, do voice overs, write and perform the music, and finish a thousand other jobs to create a marketable DVD of our Red Sea adventures (The Red Sea Chronicles) You don't do it for money. You do it for love. The market for cruising video is small unless you want to put short segments on YouTube for which you will receive no pay.

Shooting video is much harder than shooting still photos. There are so many more things to control besides the light in the scene. It's ten times harder than shooting photos for written articles for the sailing press and for your own website. The market for written material and still photos is much larger than it is for video.

Focus on your writing and become a good still photographer.

I've done writing, still photography, and video. Writing and still photography is the way to go. That's just my two cents.

First of all, thanks for checking my site. Yes, I am first and foremost a writer and will always be. However, I am not racing the globe, I'm cruising it. I'll sail, film, write, eat, snorkel, write some more, film some more, snorkel some more, etc., etc. The film part is not an ambition, it is an addition. All the time I have aboard during the trip will involve all of the above mentioned activities. And if it is too daunting, I'll adjust accordingly. Very casual, very easy going, no pressure. It's the experience I'm after, not the money or the project ... although I would welcome both.

Rah, rah, to Pelagic, by the way. That's probably the best succinct and seminal reason I could think of.

[michaelmrc]

like so many on here i just found that i was unhappy being landlocked. i find a gentle peace while on the water and while i know that a C27 is not what you would call an ideal liveaboard it serves me just fine for now. maybe one day i will get something bigger but until then i will just enjoy what i have.

[MarkJ]

Originally Posted by maxingout

It doesn't take training to separate the good stuff from the bad. But it takes massive training and experience to make the good stuff. .

Uncle Davey has writted a memorable quote.
I get kind of insulted that people think they can just jump on a street with a camera and shoot viable footage. It is a skill and an art that takes a lot to learn. All those I know are professionals who have been doing it for decades before the likes of the National Geographic channel would even read their CV let alone waste time looking at their showreel.

As for the equipment necessary.... well, put the price of a boat as a downpayment for the camera gear and the price of an Oyster for the editing suite.

After that come back to Dave's point: Its will take a lay audience person 10 seconds to see your footage is crap. And documentary TV stations know it because they see it in 5.




Mark

[Ocean Girl]

Jace, go for it.
Cheers,
Erika

[Jace]

Thanks Erika, you're a gem.

[aboutgone]

closing on my house in 4 days and counting................ssshhhhhhhhhh did you hear that? oh hell i forgot to pull the conch shell off my ear....lol
no really.........me and my wife love the call of the sea.....she was raised in Annapolis, she could see thomas point light house from out her window. had a 14' cape dory when she was 8 and has been around sailboats all her life.got her six pack at 18 ,her 100 ton when she was 21,hung around famous folks like Melbourn Smith and Sam loray... her folks Ed & Addy wright spent 17 years on their boat (10 years on this side of the pond and 7 in the med)...and Me? was born in Atlanta. the last boat i was on besides a john boat fishing was the USS Kennedy.....but i was an eagle scout..lol ...but im in so much love with her ,that she is the main reason i want to live aboard....countless stories about deliveries she made down in the islands...well i wont go on.....but what a life.............man i can't wait......looking for a place in punta gorda ,Fl.......then the boat.......then some short runs.....to get me up to speed.then were gone..........Ed

[Ocean Girl]

Wow Ed, too cool!!
Love of the sea is contagious! Or maybe its always there, its just is waiting to be ..awakened. Hope you find your "place" soon and the boat sooner
Happy trails,
Erika

[Hudson Force]

In 1971 my wife and I moved into a portion of a small trailer in order to see if we were capable of living in a sailboat. My parents had briefly considered moving aboard a sailboat in 1958, but it never happened; however, the "seed was planted". We bought our first live-aboard sailboat in 1971 in our early twenties and we have never owned anything ashore. We're now in our early sixties and loving life. 'wondering what inspires people to live in a house? Our inspiration is renewed by adventure, independence, self-reliance and the beauty of living close to nature. 'take care and joy, Aythya crew

[unbusted67]

I couldn't afford an apartment and the slip fees! I like the self sufficiency of it. I like solar panels and wind generators, because I am a dirty hippy!

[barnakiel]

A word of advice to Joe that I hope he will listen to but not follow.

Hey Joe,

I would not be writing this but I have circumnavigated and since you want to repeat the exercise I dare to share some hints that may help you in your undertaking:

1) avoid contradictions: "...(planning to live on the hook) ... so my goal is to circumnavigate the globe...",

2) make a list of objectives and order them: "...film the whole thing and edit, direct, and produce it for some Discovery Channel type network. However, I have to learn to film, direct, edit, produce, sail and buy a boat first..." - probably start at learning to film, direct ... and when you have achieved these then learn to sail, get the boat, and then go,

3) be realistic: "... I went sailing with a friend on his 22' clipper and was hooked,..." - sailing around the world will probably be a completely different experience, it will last longer than one weekend. If you do hurry (not recommended but viable) you may do it in just under one year - say we are talking about "meeting the right person, getting pregnant, getting nausea, carrying the load for 9 months and then, when you are already worn and very tired - giving the birth to a baby" - excuse my licentia poetica but I mean - it will be a major project, unlike sailing a 22 footer with your friend,

4) it is OK to be gay: you are not, I believe I am not, but then again how much have we lived? Maybe there still is a long way to go, many oceans to sail, we may change. I am sure we will.

5) build upon the right skills: "...I have just the right level of imbecility balanced with insanity to think I can pull it off...". - you can pull it off, but imbecility and insanity are not the best grounds for long term involvement. You do seem to have a lot of enthusiasm and you seem religious - and I believe these could be much better foundations for what you say you are about to undertake.

"And God loves me."

On this one I have a good story for you. I have an older friend, a sailor, a circumnavigator, who once got stranded in Western Sahara. After many years he told me his story - of how difficult, how dangerous and hopeless his efforts to re-float his boat were. But then it all ended fine, and he finished his story not by saying how great he was but rather by humbly stating "... it was many years ago, when gods were still on my side ...".

So, Joe, go get your job done while God still loves you. And try to forget my advice if you did get this far.

Good luck,
b.