Where Should Cruisers Live?

[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

[grantmc]

Living by the sea doesn't necessarily provide work when cruising in another country as mostly you'll not gain a work permit.
Covid adds another dimension.
But sure living on a boat and commuting to a job everyday is usually much cheaper than renting. Especially so if you seek out a cheap mooring.

[CassidyNZ]

On a micro scale, see image 1. We live here now.

On a macro scale, see image 2. We immigrated from our home country to be here, best move we ever made.

If you’re serious about cruising, you need to live somewhere that can fulfil that desire whilst also providing the essentials of your present life (that may or may not include jobs, income, a home)

[Chotu]

You’ll have all the rent to pay on the slip. It would make sense to calculate “break even day” to see what day of the year you are actually starting to make money for the cruising kitty after paying for everything.

None of these harbors will be too happy with someone living full time at anchor.

[Simi 60]

Cruisers are cruising, not living near the water, they are on it.
I would think most not using marinas nor needing land to work.

Considering almost no cruisers travel full-time

No one travels full time but we all need to be able to move at a moments notice as the weather dictates, so we travel often, not necessarily big miles but miles non the less.

[valhalla360]

Define cruising first:
- Most full time cruisers do just that. They may stop for a month or two but the boat is their home. (
- Weekend cruisers, typically it's driven by being close to work.
- Retired but part time...usually the grandkids or their home town often hold sway.

If there is nothing tying you to a particular location, just live on the boat somewhere.

For us a small remote town would get boring pretty quick if not moving around.

[RaymondR]

Originally Posted by valhalla360

Define cruising first:
- Most full time cruisers do just that. They may stop for a month or two but the boat is their home. (
- Weekend cruisers, typically it's driven by being close to work.
- Retired but part time...usually the grandkids or their home town often hold sway.

If there is nothing tying you to a particular location, just live on the boat somewhere.

For us a small remote town would get boring pretty quick if not moving around.

Don't you watch movies, a lot of terrible and exciting things appear to happen in small towns near the sea.

[LittleWing77]

Everywhere and nowhere!

(That's why they're cruisers.)

LittleWing77

[Benz]

Sometimes cruisers have to wash up ashore for various reasons, but still want to keep their feet wet....When my kids outgrew the boat (3 kids; 31' boat: tight quarters!), we moved ashore in Rhode Island. It's exactly as the OP describes. There's maritime work (captaining boats, building boats, rigging boats). We lived at anchor and mooring for a long spell until finding an apartment and later a house to buy. Now my cruising boat is in my yard for some much-needed upgrades, the family has all the room we need, and we go daysailing and mini-cruising around Narragansett Bay and Buzzard's Bay and the islands, and when the kids are old enough to leave behind, we'll be in good shape to think about voyaging again.
Having cruised for years without a home base and all our stuff on a boat, I think it'll be good to have a permanent house to 1) let out while we're away, and 2) return to from time to time. Also just to keep our things. I have a nice shop setup here, with a decent array of tools, and every time I'm out sailing I think of things I want to build.
So here's a vote for Rhode Island.

[Dockhead]

Originally Posted by zamber

Considering almost no cruisers travel full-time,. . .

What makes you think that? Really cruising means living in no place in particular; drifting from here to there, living on the boat.


Maintaining both a cruising boat and a land home is a greater expense, but may be a better life depending on how you live and work. Some people like to live on land for half the year, and cruise the other half, or 9 months/3 months or whatever. Also a nice way to live. YMMV, but I happen to prefer this to living on the boat full time, as there are a lot of things about land life that I like and don't want to give up.



I don't see much reason to have a land home right next to where you keep your boat, other than it's easy to check on and work on the boat when you're not cruising, which is nice, but that would never be all that high on my list of priorities for locale of land life. So live on land wherever you want -- wherever land life is best for you, near the sea or not, whether "best" means near your friends or family, in a city you love, wherever the girls are prettier, wherever it's really cheap, or whatever turns you on in land life. And leave the boat wherever, when you are on land. The boat can be moved from place to place; that's one of its main appeals. Whereever your boat happens to be, that's your other home.


As to what part of the world to do this in -- well, any. I keep my boat in Northern Europe; for many years winters in Cowes, summers in the Baltic Sea. These are good places -- South Coast of England, tremendously expensive berthing in the summer, is dirt cheap in winter, yet far warmer than other places at this latitude and absolutely nice place for winter sailing. Baltic Sea with millions of anchorages (not exaggerating) and thousands of dirt cheap small yacht harbours -- fantastic place for summer. Last year my boat spent a month in the center of Riga, Latvia, one of Europe's most beautiful cities, in the middle of the summer, for €175. Including elecrical power. Many harbours are €10 or €15 a night (not in the major Scandinavian cities); anchorages are unlimited.


But the world is wide and full of lovely places. Take your pick. And you can change the place as often as you want.

[atoll]

The op actually raises a good point for UK cruisers in the med or europe who might need to do the shengan shuffle and leave the boat somewhere every 90 days for 90 days.

[sailorboy1]

seems the factors are like normal: cost, access, travel time

[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

[kas_1611]

Kind of a pointless question in my humble opinion but then I live in the Highlands of Scotland and sail in the Ionian in Greece.

Live where you want or have to and sail where you enjoy or want to. Don't complicate matters by trying to live where you cruise. We cruise and sail to see different places and explore not stick to the same stretch of water or corner of the planet.

[Sailor647]

Originally Posted by zamber

Easier to live on a boat in dry dock than a marina, where allowed.

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.