There's some really excellent
advice for everyone in these posts. Just a couple of things to think about.
Water is a real issue. Carting drums of
water from shore to ship is no joy. Think about how you might store more (eg flexible bladders in the bilge) so that you can live cleanly and comfortably between dockings.
Electricity is another issue. Fridges do chew up plenty of
power and what you have on board to manage this is probably not enough. Remember that you can only charge your
batteries at the rated charge value of your charger. You might have a 2kw
generator but your charger might only be rated at 20 amps and so you you can only use 240 watt/hour to charge. Given that you should only drain your
batteries to no more than 50% this means that it might take 6 hours to fully charge your batteries at the best. Who wants a gennie pounding away for 6 hours a day?
Many water heaters also use waste
engine heat to warm the water. Running your main
motor for an hour will put power into your batteries and give you hot water for quite a while.
Of course you can live without a fridge, not wash, not keep the
boat clean, eat all
meals on shore, travel around a lot and basically use the
boat to sleep in. Maybe if you stay on the boat you can sit still, go smelly, read a lot and basically do everything which is not typical of living an active and pleasant lifestyle.
Yes
living aboard does require compromise but not privation.