Where Should Cruisers Live?

[River Cruiser]

I live in Kansas 3 months of the year and on the upper Mississippi, I’ll

[Chris Cringle]

My experience in 22 years of world cruising is that the vast majority of cruisers travel full time. The part-time cruiser was a rare bird.

[gulfcoastsailor]

I dream of a category in this forum, reserved for kooky questions.

[Ifitsworthdoing]

Interesting and important question - bearing in mind that the ‘Cruiser community’ (if there is such a thing) clearly consists of a large spread of subcommunities with sometimes very different life choices ...

We are currently preparing for a largely liveaboard retirement in the Mediterranean, with almost all our cash spent on a shiny new boat. Upside is it’s built to our requirements and shouldn’t need much upkeep for a decade; downside is we have very little disposable income left other than our basic pensions.

So our Plan A is to find one or more owners of holiday properties standing empty during the winter months agreeable to letting us home sit or rent cheaply from October to March. Plan B would be to join an overwinter expat liveaboard community e.g. in Cartagena, Marina di Ragusa or Preveza. Plan C would be to look for seasonal onshore employment - maybe caring for an elderly person or couple with a live-in arrangement.

Anyone here with experience of any of these strategies? Our EU passports will stand us in good stead, but the choice of official residence will be a tricky one as it has ramifications for the boat in terms of possible added taxes and mandatory national boating qualifications (which seem to rule out Spain which otherwise would have been our top choice) ...

[MJH]

Originally Posted by zamber

Considering almost no cruisers travel full-time, where should cruisers live? Near the sea is the obvious general answer, but where? North shore of the Mediterranean, the Caribbean, SE Asia? Little harbour towns such as Mystic Connecticut should top the list. How about sailing centers such as Annapolis or San Diego? Florida is full of towns to pick from. There are countless fishing villages along the coasts. Sag Harbor NY is a paradise if you can afford it.

Living by the sea would provide marine work. People say do not work your hobby, but if full time work is fixing engines or sails, how is that the same as out sailing on the sea? Way different.

I got thinking about this because I came across a small apartment for rent on a beach in Corsica for only 350 euros a month. Live in in a cheap place by the sea or an expensive place by the sea in NY to make money? NY is one of the best boating areas in the world. Lots of jobs in marine and little seaside towns to live in.

Living on the boat is a way to finance it. No need for many to live in an apartment. Just go to work as normal. There are people that live year round on boats in New York City. Easier to live on a boat in dry dock than a marina, where allowed.

Post your ideas of where to live with pictures, please.

Mystic CN, Cassis France, Sag Harbor NY

As much as I love sailing/cruising I do not want to live within the limited square footage of a boat fulltime, i.e. without a land home. When I sail and cruise it is to go from place to place...I'm not one to spend excessive time (more than a couple days) in one location. If I wanted to spend weeks/months at a specific location then I would just fly there and get a room.

That said, I love the natural sights and environment with smaller populations...I don't like crowds. I have found Washington State ideal in that regard. There are so many small seaside communities to visit by boat to say nothing of the adventures of crossing over into Canada or venturing up to Alaska...One could spend a lifetime just cruising the Pacific Northwest and enter new waters every day. For the more adventurous there is easy access to the Pacific Ocean/Hawaii and the rest of the world if you so choose.

But upon return from the cruise I want to tie up to my buoy, row ashore, walk home, pour myself a glass of wine, throw a log into the woodstove, and read my mail.

~ ~ _/) ~ ~ MJH

[zstine]

Originally Posted by wolfgal

i've been pondering the "land-base/no-land-base/but-where?" question for a while; but now that i'm putting my house on the market, i'm definitely a deer in the headlights

following

If you're worried about cutting ties with your house 100%, why not rent it out? That's what we did for a year when we went cruising.


As for the OP, I don't understand what he means by "where cruisers live"... I guess my definition of cruising is that you live on your boat and cruise around, so by definition you don't live anywhere in particular. We never stayed anywhere more than 2 or 3 weeks. rental income was our primary income, though we had negative cash flow and spent our savings to cruise for 16mo. Having a 'land-base' sit empty for months on end is a waste of money and stress, not to mention somewhat unethical IMO. Your empty land base has a carbon footprint and, if empty, that is pollution for no real gain/purpose.

[Simi 60]

Originally Posted by Ifitsworthdoing

with almost all our cash spent on a shiny new boat. Upside is it’s built to our requirements and shouldn’t need much upkeep for a decade; downside is we have very little disposable income left other than our basic pensions.

..

Yeah, good luck with that

[CassidyNZ]

Originally Posted by zstine

If you're worried about cutting ties with your house 100%, why not rent it out? That's what we did for a year when we went cruising.


As for the OP, I don't understand what he means by "where cruisers live"... I guess my definition of cruising is that you live on your boat and cruise around, so by definition you don't live anywhere in particular. We never stayed anywhere more than 2 or 3 weeks. rental income was our primary income, though we had negative cash flow and spent our savings to cruise for 16mo. Having a 'land-base' sit empty for months on end is a waste of money and stress, not to mention somewhat unethical IMO. Your empty land base has a carbon footprint and, if empty, that is pollution for no real gain/purpose.

Depends on where the home is. Where we live, a landlord who wants to rent a home has to jump through a series of costly hoops to be legal, if you choose to not be legal, the tenant has you by the short and curlies exactly because you’re not legal. Then what to do with personal stuff and how do you protect your stuff from tenants because evacuating the home is expensive and for short terms, nigh impossible.

Our property is mortgage free, runs on almost zero services and for us to lock up and go is easy, safe and inexpensive. And living on our boat up in the Islands north of us costs very little more than having the boat on its mooring when we’re home.

Unethical? What?? So I’m unethical because I don’t want some stranger occupying my home while I’m away? And when I get back I could find the property wrecked or with people in it that refuse to leave? Seriously?!? We don’t need income from our home and would definitely have a whole lot more stress knowing we have strangers occupying it. Our costs would substantially increase because we would need agents and lawyers to manage the rental.

Maybe where your home is, these issues don’t exist or maybe you’re just happy to let them flow over you. Not me.

[apirate]

Originally Posted by zamber

Considering almost no cruisers travel full-time, where should cruisers live?

This is a ridiculous notion.

There are many of us that cruise full time. I’d venture to say we’re not the minority amongst cruisers. Just as there are a zillion ways one can choose to live on land, the same applies to those on boats.

[gbowen]

For living on a boat and being accepted you cannot beat SE Alaska. Lots of fishermen live on their boats and travel between ports. There are others doing it too. It is not frowned upon. The problems are: always chilly, swift currents, rocky beaches, bears (they swim too), winds not so good except SE gales. I love coastal NZ too. Great climate and friendly folks. Right now it is locked down so no travel. Favorite places: Whangarei, Whitianga, Tutukaka, Bay of Islands (Russell, Karikari.

[wolfgal]

Originally Posted by zstine

If you're worried about cutting ties with your house 100%, why not rent it out? That's what we did for a year when we went cruising.


As for the OP, I don't understand what he means by "where cruisers live"... I guess my definition of cruising is that you live on your boat and cruise around, so by definition you don't live anywhere in particular. We never stayed anywhere more than 2 or 3 weeks. rental income was our primary income, though we had negative cash flow and spent our savings to cruise for 16mo. Having a 'land-base' sit empty for months on end is a waste of money and stress, not to mention somewhat unethical IMO. Your empty land base has a carbon footprint and, if empty, that is pollution for no real gain/purpose.

hello zstine, some places make easy rentals. unfortunately my current place would be too demanding.

[Jim Cate]

Originally Posted by Sailor647

Uhhh, no. Obviously you haven't done both.

We've lived on the hard for two months in Astoria, Oregon while working on the bottom during our initial refit. And again twice in La Paz for 5 days while the bottom was painted and other bottom work done.

• Up and down the 15 foot ladder a bazillion times a day
• No onboard toilet (outhouse in boat yard. Ya, super clean. Not.)
• No drains for the sink or shower (showering blocks away in the Marina showers.)
• Doing dishes in a bucket and then carrying the dirty dishwater down the ladder to dump into the yard's drain.
• Carrying all provisions and supplies up and down the ladder.
• And all the dust and debris and log dust that lands on the boat. Uugh.

We prefer being on the hook first, marina second, and yard dead last.

Absolutely correct! Living on board whilst on the hard is AWFUL in my opinion. Especially if on a marine railway where the boat is tilted aft a few degrees.

Sheer misery!

Jim

[hpeer]

We retired in 2016 and the first year was on one or the other boat. Starting in 2017 we have live half time in the boat and half time at our cabin in Newfoundland. But we have now been on the boat since November 2019. 6 months on the hard in Beaufort. Damn near killed our legs.

I like looking at real estate where ever we go. I have had in my mind that someday we will need a more permanent dirt dwelling in a more benign winter climate than Newfoundland. We are now in a marina in Edenton, NC which meets our land dwelling criteria very well. So we were casually looking at houses. We discovered a few things about ourselves.

1. Despite living in center city Philadelphia for 30+ years, we have become hicks. Of all the places we looked at the only one we liked was a small cottage on 30 acres 12 miles out of town. So much for living in a walkable small town, no dam grass for us.

2. We have become accustomed to living on the boat and being able to move around. If anything, when the companion way gets too much, we may revert to a car or a houseboat.

We have become comfortable to saying “Lets to HOME” when referring to the boat. Our boat IS our home.

[hpeer]

Obviously CAT not Car (egads!)

[Hudson Force]

During the 45 years that our boat was our only home we were only fulltime cruising for 15 years. During our first 30 years we were employed for at least 190 days of each year and sometimes as much as 240 days a year. We still kept our boat ready to sail away for an evening; for a couple months to the Bahamas; and to hide out for tropical storms.

Our haul outs were less frequent than most, as we kept our home port and jobs in Florida without cold and ice concerns. We kept our hull clean with scuba gear and often completed bottom painting while careened on a steep sandy bank with one side cleaned and painted with two tide cycles during a weekend. Northeast Florida has about a six foot mean tidal range. Our actual marina haul outs averaged once each four years, but more frequently as we aged.

During the times that our cruising was limited to Florida and the Bahamas due to our jobs, we kept our boat in a location where we had quick access to using our boat within minutes from our dock in open, yet protected waters, for spontaneous day sailing.