Best/Cheapest Places to Live and Learn

[Just a Tinch]

No-one has mentioned it....but the Dog River area just south of Mobile on Mobile Bay has a tone of marinas, and when we were berthed there last was a few years ago...the slip prices were very, very good....much less than FL, and even lower than TX. It might be worth a look.

[capcook]

Originally Posted by babykinz

Panhandle of Florida has some pretty inexpensive place to live...here in Pensacola its about $9.00 a foot, where they once shunned liveaboards they are now welcoming them as to fill massive empty slips..

Ha.. what a difference a financial crisis/recession makes... use to be there was a waiting list for all those marinias...

The Panhndle is a beautiful area, but there is no place to go when a Hurricane rounds the corner of cuba... That is why the Georgia/N. Florida Coast or even Indiantown would be my preference... that is if I had the boat already...

Cheers

[Pblais]

I am really starting to like the Texas area sounds much better than Florida.

No place is like it sounds. If you can afford to pull up everything because you don't have to then you can afford to find out yourself in person. Perhaps a month long trip would help get the kinks out. It takes a while to get used to a place and being in one you don't like is way worse than TN where you at least know a few folks and your way around.

This woukd be one time when a road trip was called for. Look up old friends and relatives and try out some places pretending you were stuck there. If you took a poll I think you'll find someone that likes every place (not the same people). It just comes down to why. If you can find a reason then it's probaly a god fit.

If it makes a dfference I spent a lot more time in FL than TX and like TX better and I really don't like Texas enough to want to live there. Some times it works that way. I do know nice folks in both. Good folks are where you find them.

[Hudson Force]

We've lived aboard since 1972 at numerous marinas on the US East Coast and about a dozen of them in Florida. Those that we enjoy most in Florida are away from the "Tiki Bar-Resort" areas. Those places in the panhandle can be good as well as on the St. Johns River, St. Augustine or even in Ft. Lauderdale if you can get off the ICW up the New River. Most of the marinas that we have resided at for a year or more have been marinas that state a policy of not accepting liveaboards. We have most often cruised in for a month and continued our presence at a monthly rate. We have not maintained a "marina" as a legal address on our driver's license, passports or voter's registration or recieved regular mail at a marina even though these have been our only physical locations for our boat over the last 38 years except when anchoring out. 'take care and joy, Aythya crew

[aboutgone]

I found a spot on a deep water canal in Jacksonville with a private dock for 500 a month...might be a mobile home, but at least i can drag my table saw and tools to get my boat ready to go. with out hauling them from the truck every time...it might be that i need a little dirt just to make me feel better...LOL...i just like the solitude of a private dock......well just untill we weigh anchor.... but Paul is right .good folks find each other,its kinda magnetic. if you positive, positive thinks will happen....keep looking you'll find it...........Ed

[bstreep]

Originally Posted by Pblais

No place is like it sounds.

Oh, no kidding. Seriously, Texas beaches... Well. Let's just say for a guy who grew up on the Jersey Shore, went to college in Florida, and married a lady who's parents had waterfront on the East Coast of Florida... Texas beaches suck. Some are OK - depends on the weather and what has washed in. The further south you go, the better they get.

Someone mentioned the Packery Channel. Folks in Corpus Christi say that this has dramatically improved the quality of the water in CC Bay. However, when it's windy - which is most of the time - it's still quite a bit murky.