Is liveaboard lifestyle a dying lifestyle

[wingssail]

Originally Posted by a64pilot

To put it into perspective, if you were in N Fl today, first it’s hurricane season, so you want to tucked way back away from the open ocean.
Today it was 98 degrees, with a 6 kt wind out of the East, Africa hot and no appreciable wind.
Now I anchored out for six months straight last winter, but anchoring out in 98 degree weather with a 6kt breeze is not my ideal Retirement.
So, we are in a well protected Marina with floating docks and tall pilings.
And shore power for the Airconditioners. We visit family as her Father won’t be with us much longer, do our Dr’s appts, get our teeth cleaned and sit around the pool a lot waiting for Hurricane season to end.

Two things have become apparent in this thread, many are confusing Marina’s with Yards, you don’t do bottom jobs etc in Marina’s.
Plus all the prices quoted are daily transient rates. Average 40ish ft Mono cruising boat can stay in a very nice Marina with all amenities included for less than $1,000 a month, often if your off the beaten path, well less.
Then factor in that your only there for a few months and it’s not but $4,000 or so a year.
What gets expensive is those people that hop from one marina to another paying daily rates.

Met a Lady at the pool the other day that was complaining that she just couldn’t sleep at anchor, I was nice and said once you get some time cruising you’ll sleep well. That offended her, her answer was, well we did the whole loop and only anchored three times, honestly why would anyone want to anchor?
I didn’t bother answer her.

Where "off the beaten path" can you find a marina with all the amenities for well less than $1000 a month, and how many months in advance would you have to pay to get that rate?

SailorBoy mentioned Gulfport, and that's a possibility, but hurricane alley and Mississippi bay depths kinda turn us off. But hey let's be open minded.

[Pelagic]

Originally Posted by Dockhead

I agree. I haven't noticed it, either.


We need to be careful what we mean when we talk about "The Lifestyle". Do we mean being basically boat bums, living with almost no money and mooching off free services whenever we can scrounge them? I'm not necessarily for or against this "lifestyle" but it's not something I engage in, and it's not something I necessarily see society being obligated to support. I do not think this can be called "cruising", either, especially if one doesn't move much.



If "The Lifestyle" means cruising around from place to place on a reasonably well kept boat, even if it's modest, and reasonably patronizing local businesses along the way -- I have not seen anyone anywhere in the world being hostile towards that, and I have not observed any drop in popularity, either. On the contrary, the prevalence of cheaper and cheaper mass produced boats seems to be making this accessible to more and more people, which is fine with me.

Thanks DH for putting this in perspective

When I said, get a boat that is not dependent on marinas, it related to self sufficiency and choice, not abstinence from Marinas.

Apart from Solar generation and water making/collecting capabilities, as a live aboard, having a seaworthy enough Tender to take you a few miles from a quiet anchorage near a community to a convienent place to get ashore is part of that remote independence.

Using marinas should simply be an positive choice if the priority is convenience for medical or land trips....or an interesting harbour tie-up to enjoy the community

The amount of time should be a personal decision, not a forced one because your boat and basic comforts, cannot be sustained on the hook

[Sojourner]

Originally Posted by Pelagic

having a seaworthy enough Tender to take you a few miles from a quiet anchorage near a community to a convienent place to get ashore is part of that remote independence.

Yes, this^^^ People can and do get by with little tenders with little motors (or oars) but if you want to be on the hook most of the time, get as big and bad as you can fit. I get some strange looks rocking up on a 3.3m all metal tender that people assume came from army suplus, but then understand why when I take them 3 miles across a bay to a creek, bash upstream with the engine almost out of the water, and pull up beneath a bridge where there is a Lidl 50 m away. Even better when we return with hundreds of cans of beer, on plane, in 1/2 meter chop and 15 knot wind. Get a good dinghy, and you will expand your options exponentially for being independent.

[GordMay]

Originally Posted by garychurch

$16-$25 per per day? We are cruising from Washington, DC and now in Grenada. Nominal Marina rates $2 US per foot per day. Cheaper on average for weekly, monthly or semi-annual or annual rates. We are in Port Louis Marina in St. George's Grenada for the hurricane season. Arguably one on the finest marinas in the Caribbean - less than a $1 a foot a day.

Port Louis Marina Berthing Tariff - Valid from 1st December 2018
➥ http://api.cnmarinas.com/wp-content/...ason-Rates.pdf

[CommodoreDoug]

You don't need a marina to live a very comfortable existence while enjoying modern conveniences like the internet if you have a seaworthy vessel with the following:

Adequate ground tackle;
Plenty of tankage for fuel (engine, generator, and cooking) and freshwater:
Holding tank:
Generator/solar panels;
Inverter
Refrigerator

A comfortable place to sit and sleep.

I'm fortunate enough to have found a fantastic liveaboard slip at a beautiful secure marina with close and ample parking, but I have spent many a comfortable night on the hook for free, or on a mooring ball in a marine park for cheap. Although I'm keeping my berth I plan on many more adventures leading to days or weeks at anchor.

In addition to $9.50 a foot/month moorage, I pay an $85 monthly fee for the privilege and pleasure of being a liveaboard. Worth every dollar.

Fair winds and calm seas,

Doug
S/V Egret
The Salish Sea

[Jack Buck]

I liveaboard in Fort Myers, Florida and there quite a few liveaboard marinas. St Petersburg, down the west coast and into the Keys there are a lot of marinas still friendly to those of us that choose this lifestyle. Hope this helps?

[Augi]

Originally Posted by Kenomac

Yes, boating in general is a dying pastime. Your average person with “the dream” to sail away seems to only last 1 year to 18 months before giving up, which is why you see so many boats for sale.

I personally wouldn’t recommend anchoring anywhere near Honduras. My uncle has lived there on and off for many years.. with armed security. You’d best do some homework.

Rio Dulce, Guatemala is a good spot to consider to be based among many.

[nauticalnomad]

Ive been living like this since 2003 and unless work is paying for my housing, I am content on the boat..
I know alot of people doing the same thing.. I guess if you have a house and a boat then you are torn between the 2 and your shore friends pull you in.
Personally i dont like living in a house anymore.

[JanetGroene]

Dying or just low profile? Most of us are individualists, loners, doing our own thing and we may not broadcast how or where.

[1Jazzsailor1]

Originally Posted by resoluute

We are getting ready to buy another boat after having been out of cruising for 6 yrs, we are in our late 50's and hoping to age out on boat, but wondering from people out there doing it now, if this is a lifestyle on life support. Georgia cracking down on anchoring , solomons, md 1 liveaboard per 100 slips, cost at marinas etc, etc.... we are interested for now in md to west coast of florida we are not looking to stay very long term in 1 marina are prospects much better for regulations etc Guatemala, honduras, etc... anchoring and marinas are of interest

Bonaire, Santa Marta & Cartegena Columbia, Panama, Guatemala, Bay Islands Honduras, Isla Mujeres Mexico and points in between.

[Haddock1]

I hope not!

Retiring soon myself and already spending 3 months in the summer cruising around the western med. Fabulous places to go, hundreds of anchorages (just make sure you do your swell calcs correctly or this can be a misery). Don't go near a marina unless getting low on fuel and then it's just a quick in and out. As mentioned by many above good power arrangements (solar), watermaker and a well sorted piece of floating plastic and the world your lobster! Not a big fan of aircon as you need the generator going which destroys the tranquility, however, good set of fans in each of the rooms cope most of the time and rarely need to resort to the genset for a battery top up and, yes, my beers are always chilled. Modern solar and a well founded arch out of the way of any shade and your sorted. Anchorages tend to get busy but he who dares win approach always gets you a spot. Can't agree more on have a good dingy with some serious HP attached for those trips for beer replenishment is essential. Good ground tackle is a must with over-sized hook and chain highly recommended also get the new gen stuff (if your bow is angles at 45 degrees you have probably overdone it!). We have met some good friends at anchor, also have lent my marginal skills to help out fellow sailors from engine fixing to anchoring. I am very much looking forward to spending more time next year but do escape home for the winter and maintaining relationships with my multiple children. Even this approach aint cheap. Reckon I spend 10K euros a year just for maintenance and storage, however, I can afford it and know many people in my position. Maybe a circumnavigation on the cards before the body says NO and there are still atolls to visit! Who knows????

[skipgundlach]

I laughed at the descriptions of living aboard, many of which specified (or certainly inferred/imputed) that it happens mostly in marinas.

I think OP has done the sailing/cruising bit, absent almost any time in marinas, and intends an international lifestyle, the concern being for physical ability as they age.

That said, a close friend of mine, Larry Butler, wrote the "Liveaboard Simulator" which was aimed at those living in a marina. Another close friend of his and mine memorialized it on his web page, rogerlongboats. However, he has retired from boat design and the page no longer exists.

So, my apologies for reproducing it below rather than merely providing a link:

This came from here - the author and the web page owner are both personal
friends of mine: rogerlongboats.comÂ*-&nbspoceanographic research vessels UNOLS Woods Hole naval architects Resources and Information.

The Liveaboard Simulator

By: Larry W4CSC

So you think you want to liveaboard?
Try the liveaboard simulator first.

Just for fun, park your cars in the lot of the convenience store at least 2
blocks from your house. (Make believe the sidewalk is a floating dock
between your car and the house.

Move yourself and your family (If applicable) into 2 bedrooms and 1
bathroom. Measure the DECK space INSIDE your boat. Make sure the occupied
house has no more space, or closet space, or drawer space.

Bring a coleman stove into the bathroom and set it next to the bathroom
sink. Your boat's sink is smaller, but we'll let you use the bathroom sink,
anyways. Do all your cooking in the bathroom, WITHOUT using the bathroom
power vent. If you have a boat vent, it'll be a useless 12v one that doesn't
draw near the air your bathroom power vent draws to take away cooking odors.
Leave the hall door open to simulate the open hatch. Take all the screens
off your 2 bedroom's windows. Leave the windows open to let in the bugs that
will invade your boat at dusk, and the flies attracted to the cooking.

Speaking of the garbage from the cooking, on a boat there's no room for that
big garbage can in your garage and the little sink, just like the one in the
bathroom, has no garbage disposal to get rid of the stinky stuff cooking
generates. If you dump it overboard you'll soon find out how serious all
those tree huggers up and down the dock take keeping the water clean.
They'll have the EPA down your throat in a matter of hours. So, we need to
use that little knee-high plastic trash can in the bathroom to store all our
garbage on our simulated yacht. As boats don't come with any kind of
trash can storage, be sure to leave it against the doorframe of the bathroom
where you can trip over it all the time. Any trash can in a boat is always
where you can trip over it and knock it over spilling its stinky mess onto
the "deck" to clean up. Put a plastic bag into it to dump the mess into.
We're not totally uncivilized in yachting, you know. When you can't stand
its smell any more, there are two things we'll do with the full trash bags.
If we are docked at a marina, we'll add the trash bags to our daily trek to
the 7-11 with the dock cart to put it in their dumpster (marina dumpster).
Drop by the nearest biker bar and ask them for a big 32-gallon trash bag full
of nearly-empty beer and wine bottles. Put these in your big trashcan in the
garage and pull it out onto your front lawn by your sidewalk. This is to
simulate the "normal" state of any marina's fancy little dock trash bins
which are always full like this because of the constant partying up and down
the dock, especially on weekends. Dock hands have a very hard time keeping
up with emptying them. Because of this fact, you will haul all your smelly
trashbags up the "dock" to the 7-11's big dumpster on your treks to the
marina (7-11) parking lot...if we're "in port". Only store the untoted
trash bags in two places....next to your little bed under the kitchen
table...or next to your chair in your "cockpit" out on the patio. If we are
on a "cruise" or anchored out, we store the smelly mess bags in the dingy
trailed out behind the stern, so hook up your little lawn trailer to the
back of the "helm" riding lawn mower someone is going to sit on "at sea" out
on the patio. We'll transfer all this garbage to the marina (7-11) dumpster
in the dock cart when we "return from sea" to any port. For some reason, the
first items off the dingy at the dinghy dock is always the garbage...

Borrow a couple of 55 gallon drums mounted on a trailer. Flush your toilets
into the drums. Trailer the drums to the convenience store to dump them when
they get full. Turn off your sewer, you won't have one.

Unless your boat is large enough to have a big "head" with full bath, make
believe your showers/bathtubs don't work. Make a deal with someone next door
to the convenience store to use THEIR bathroom for bathing at the OTHER end
of the DOCK. (Marina rest room) If you use this rest room to potty, while
you're there, make believe it has no paper towels or toilet paper. Bring
your own. Bring your own soap and anything else you'd like to use there,
too.

Run you whole house through a 20 amp breaker to simulate available dock
power at the marina. If you're thinking of anchoring out, turn off the main
breaker and "make do" with a boat battery and flashlights. Don't forget you
have to heat your house on this 20A supply and try to keep the water from
freezing.

Turn off the water main valve in front of your house. Run a hose from your
neighbor's lawn spigot over to your lawn spigot and get all your water from
there. Try to keep the hose from freezing all winter.

As your boat won't have a laundry, disconnect yours. Go to a boat supply
place, like West Marine, and buy you a dock cart. Haul ALL your supplies,
laundry, garbage, etc. between the car at the convenience store and house in
this cart. Once a week, haul your outboard motor to the car, leave it a day
then haul it back to the house, in the cart, to simulate "boat problems"
that require "boat parts" to be removed/replaced on your "dock". If ANYTHING
ever comes out of that cart between the convenience store and the house, put
it in your garage and forget about it. (Simulates losing it over the side of
the dock, where it sank in 23' of water and was dragged off by the current.)

Each morning, about 5AM, have someone you don't know run a weedeater back
and forth under your bedroom windows to simulate the fishermen leaving the
marina to go fishing. Have him slam trunk lids, doors, blow car horns and
bang some heavy pans together from 4AM to 5AM before lighting off the
weedeater. (Simulates loading aluminum boats with booze and fishing gear and
gas cans.) Once a week, have him bang the running weedeater into your
bedroom wall to simulate the idiot who drove his boat into the one you're
sleeping in because he was half asleep leaving the dock. Put a rope over a
big hook in the ceiling over your bed. Hook one end of the rope to the bed
side rail and the other end out where he can pull on it. As soon as he shuts
off the weedeater, have him pull hard 9 times on the rope to tilt your bed
at least 30 degrees. (Simulates the wakes of the fishermen blasting off
trying to beat each other to the fishing.) Anytime there is a storm in your
area, have someone constantly pull on the rope. It's rough riding storms in
the marina! If your boat is a sailboat, install a big wire from the top of
the tallest tree to your electrical ground in the house so you can worry
about the lightning hitting your mast.

If your marina has big sport fishing boats with huge diesels, substitute
your neighbor's unmuffled Harley-Davidson hog for the weedeater and have him
light off an old oil stove for 20 minutes while its running under your open
bedroom window to simulate that "diesel smell" the big boats generate as
they idle them for half an hour, for no apparent reason, before they shove
off.

Each time you "go out", or think of going boating away from your marina,
disconnect the neighbor's water hose, your electric wires, all the
umbilicals your new boat will use to make life more bearable in the marina.
Use bottled drinking water for 2 days for everything. Get one of those 5
gallon jugs with the air pump on top from a bottled water company. This is
your boat's "at sea" water system simulator. You'll learn to conserve water
this way. Of course, not having the marina's AC power supply, you'll be
lighting and all from a car battery, your only source of power. If you own
or can borrow a generator, feel free to leave it running to provide AC power
up to the limit of the generator. If you're thinking about a 30' sailboat,
you won't have room for a generator so don't use it.

Boats don't have room for "beds", as such. Fold your Sealy Posturepedic up
against a wall, it won't fit on a boat. Go to a hobby fabric store and buy a
foam pad 5' 10" long and 4' wide AND NO MORE THAN 3" THICK. Cut it into a
triangle so the little end is only 12" wide. This simulates the foam pad in
the V-berth up in the pointy bow of the sailboat. Bring in the kitchen table
from the kitchen you're not allowed to use. Put the pad UNDER the table, on
the floor, so you can simulate the 3' of headroom over the pad Block off
both long sides of the pad, and the pointy end so you have to climb aboard
the V-berth from the wide end where your pillows will be. The hull blocks
off the sides of a V-berth and you have to climb up over the end of it
through a narrow opening (hatch to main cabin) on a boat. You'll climb over
your mate's head to go to the potty in the night. No fun for either party.
Test her mettle and resolve by getting up this way right after you go to bed
at night. There are lots of things to do on a boat and you'll forget at
least one of them, thinking about it laying in bed, like "Did I remember to
tie off the dingy better?" or "Is that spring line (at the dock) or anchor
line (anchored out) as tight as it should be?" Boaters who don't worry about
things like this laying in bed are soon aground or on fire or the laughing
stock of an anchorage.... You need to find out how much climbing over her
she will tolerate BEFORE you're stuck with a big boat and big marina bills
and she refuses to sleep aboard it any more.....

Any extra family members must be sleeping on the settees in the main cabin
or in the quarter berth under the cockpit....unless you intend to get a boat
over 40-something feet with an aft cabin. Smaller boats have quarter berths.
Cut a pad out of the same pad material that is no more than 2' wide by 6'
long. Get a cardboard box from an appliance store that a SMALL refrigerator
came in. Put the pad in the box, cut to fit, and make sure only one end of
the box is open. The box can be no more than 2 feet above the pad. Quarter
berths are really tight. Make them sleep in there, with little or no air
circulation. That's what sleeping in a quarterberth is all about.

Of course, to simulate sleeping anchored out for the weekend, no heat or air
conditioning will be used and all windows will be open without screens so
the bugs can get in.

In the mornings, everybody gets up and goes out on the patio to enjoy the
sunrise. Then, one person at a time goes back inside to dress, shave, clean
themselves in the tiny cabin unless you're a family of nudists who don't
mind looking at each other in the buff. You can't get dressed in the stinky
little head with the door closed on a sailboat. Hell, there's barely room to
bend over so you can sit on the commode. So, everyone will dress in the main
cabin....one at a time.

Boat tables are 2' x 4' and mounted next to the settee. There's no room for
chairs in a boat. So, eat off a 2X4' space on that kitchen table you slept
under while sitting on a couch (settee simulator). You can also go out with
breakfast and sit on the patio (cockpit), if you like.

Ok, breakfast is over. Crank up the lawnmower under the window for 2 hours.
It's time to recharge the batteries from last night's usage and to freeze
the coldplate in the boat's icebox which runs off a compressor on the
engine. Get everybody to clean up your little hovel. Don't forget to make
the beds from ONE END ONLY. You can't get to the other 3 sides of a boat bed
pad. All hands go outside and washdown the first fiberglass UPS truck that
passes by. That's about how big the deck is on your 35' sailboat that needs
to have the ocean cleaned off it daily or it'll turn the white fiberglass
all brown like the UPS truck. Now, doesn't the UPS truck look nice like your
main deck?

Ok, we're going to need some food, do the laundry, buy some boat parts that
failed because the manufacturer's bean counters got cheap and used plastics
and the wife wants to "eat out, I'm fed up with cooking on the Coleman
stove" today. Let's make believe we're not at home, but in some exotic port
like Ft Lauderdale, today....on our cruise to Key West......Before "going
ashore", plan on buying all the food you'll want to eat that will:

A - Fit into the Coleman Cooler on the floor

B - You can cook on the Coleman stove without an oven or all those fancy
kitchen tools you don't have on the boat

C - And will last you for 10 days, in case the wind drops and it takes more
time than we planned at sea. Plan meals carefully in a boat. We can't buy
more than we can STORE, either!

Of course, we came here by BOAT, so we don't have a car. Some nice marinas
have a shuttle bus, but they're not a taxi. The shuttle bus will only go to
West Marine or the tourist traps, so we'll be either taking the city bus, if
there is one or taxi cabs or shopping at the marina store which has almost
nothing to buy at enormous prices.

Walk to the 7-11 store, where you have your car stored, but ignore the car.
Make believe it isn't there. No one drove it to Ft Lauderdale for you. Use
the payphone at the 7-11 and call a cab. Don't give the cab driver ANY
instructions because in Ft Lauderdale you haven't the foggiest idea where
West Marine is located or how to get there, unlike at home. We'll go to West
Marine, first, because if we don't the "head" back on the boat won't be
working for a week because little Suzy broke a valve in it trying to flush
some paper towels. This is your MOST important project, today....that valve
in the toilet!!

After the cab driver drives around for an hour looking for West Marine and
asking his dispatcher how to get there, go into West Marine and give the
clerk a $100 bill, simulating the cost of toilet parts. Lexus parts are
cheaper than toilet parts at West Marine. See for yourself! The valve she
broke, the seals that will have to be replaced on the way into the valve
will come to $100 easy.

Tell the clerk you're using my liveaboard simulator and to take his
girlfriend out to dinner on your $100 greenback. If you DO buy the boat,
this'll come in handy when you DO need boat parts because he'll remember you
for the great time his girlfriend gave him on your $100 tip. Hard-to-find
boat parts will arrive in DAYS, not months like the rest of us. It's just a
good political move while in simulation mode.

Call another cab from West Marine's phone, saving 50c on payphone charges.
Tell the cabbie to take you to the laundromat so we can wash the stinky
clothes in the trunk. The luxury marina's laundry in Ft Lauderdale has a
broken hot water heater. They're working on it, the girl at the store
counter, said, yesterday. Mentioning the $12/ft you paid to park the boat at
their dock won't get the laundry working before we leave for Key West.

Do your laundry in the laundromat the cabbie found for you. Just Because no
one speaks English in this neighborhood, don't worry. You'll be fine this
time of day near noon.

Call another cab to take us out of here to a supermarket. When you Get
there, resist the temptation to "load up" because your boat has Limited
storage and very limited refrigeration space. Buy from the list we made
early this morning. Another package of cookies is OK. Leave one of the kids
guarding the pile of clean laundry just inside the supermarket's front
door....We learned our lesson and DIDN'T forget and leave it in the cab,
again!

Call another cab to take us back to the marina, loaded up with clean clothes
and food and all-important boat parts. Isn't Ft Lauderdale beautiful from a
cab? It's too late to go exploring, today. Maybe tomorrow.... Don't forget
to tell the cab to go to the 7-11 (marina parking lot)....not your front
door.

Ok, haul all the stuff in the dock cart from the 7-11 store the two
blocks to the "boat" bedroom. Wait 20 minutes before starting out for the
house. This simulates waiting for someone to bring back a marina-owned dock
cart from down the docks.....

Put all the stuff away, food and clothes, in the tiny drawer space
provided. Have a beer on the patio (cockpit) and watch the sunset.
THIS is living!

Now, disassemble the toilet in your bathroom, take out the wax ring under it
and put it back. Reassemble the toilet. This completes the simulation of
putting the new valve in the "head" on the boat.

No, no, no. Don't turn that ceiling fan on to pull the smell out. Boats
don't have big exhaust blowers in the head, you know....(c; Just leave the
windows open during dinner. It'll blow away soon.

After getting up, tomorrow morning, from your "V-Berth", take the whole
family out to breakfast by WALKING to the nearest restaurant, then take a
cab to any local park or attraction you like. We're off today to see the
sights of Ft Lauderdale.....before heading out to sea, again, to Key West.

Take a cab back home after dinner out and go to bed, exhausted, on your
little foam pad under the table.....

Get up this morning and disconnect all hoses, electrical wires, etc.
Get ready for "sea". Crank up the lawn mower under the open bedroom window
for 4 hours while we motor out to find some wind. ONE responsible adult MUST
be sitting on the hot patio all day, in shifts, "on watch" looking out for
other boats, ships, etc. If you have a riding lawn mower, let the person "on
watch" drive it around the yard all day to simulate driving the boat down
the ICW in heavy traffic. About 2PM, turn off the engine and just have them
sit on the mower "steering" it on the patio. We're under sail, now. Every
hour or so, take everyone out in the yard with a big rope
and have a tug-of-war to simulate the work involved with setting sail,
changing sail, trimming sail. Make sure everyone gets all sweaty in the
heat. Sailors working on sailboats are always all sweaty or we're not going
anywhere fast! Do this all day, today, all night, tonight, all day,
tomorrow, all night tomorrow night and all day the following day until 5PM.

When you "arrive" at the next port you're going to. Make sure no one in the
family leaves the confines of the little bedroom or the patio during our
"trip". Make sure everyone conserves water, battery power, etc., things
you'll want to conserve while being at sea on a trip somewhere.

Everyone can go up to the 7-11 for an icecream as soon as we get the "boat"
docked on day 3, the first time anyone has left the confines of the
bedroom/patio in 3 days.

Question - Was anyone suicidal during our simulated voyage? Keep an eye out
for anyone with a problem being cooped up with other family members. If
anyone is attacked, any major fights break out, any threats to throw the
captain to the fish.....forget all about boats and buy a motorhome, instead.

L8R

Skip, Living aboard full time, currently in the Bahamas

[Ndavies]

I will add my two cents - not based on a huge amount of data, but based on my observations from being what I would call a part-time cruiser since 2014.

I think its an "evolving lifestyle". From what i have seen, I don't think there are as many people selling up everything, moving on to the boat and heading off around the world with an indefinite plan. I have seen two predominant groups in my travels:

- young professionals that have made a pot of money from tech-based companies and have taken a couple of years off to go sailing/traveling, then plan on going back to work and selling their boat. i have kept in touch with a few in this category, and they have seemed to follow through with this plan, but hate going back to work. it will be interesting to see how thier future evolves.

- people in their 50s/60s that have owned a boat for a while, and decide to pack up and head out for 4-6 months at a time (maybe longer), and then bounce between home and the boat.

I have also come across a number of people that set off with great and get stuck in places like Boot Key (Fl). Probably with good intentions to leave but by whatever circumstances, they simply don't.

Its an interesting topic - thanks to everyone that has posted informed thoughts on this one!

[Goodxcharly]

I don't think so. I've owned boats for 40 years, retired, sold my house and lived on a sailboat for 3 years. No regrets!
You might do some home work first before purchase on available marinas in the area you wish to live. It can be any where.
Just follow your heart and dreams. They just might come true.

Cheers Dave

Pegasus

[jimisbell]

I saw this, "age out on boat" and decided I had to comment. I have been sailing and then motoring for over 50 years. I loved every harrowing moment of it....LOL. I thought I would always want to be on a boat. And I still do...sometimes. I owned a 44 foot ketch 15 years ago and as my wife began to age faster than I did, we switched to a 36 foot sloop 10 years ago to reduce deck duties that she could no longer handle. Then 5 years ago we got rid of the sailboat. We got the 34 ft trawler last year. At the age of 83 I am beginning to see that I cant "age out on boat" As much as I would like to, and as young as I felt at 63, the past 20 years have been hard on my wife and to a lesser extent on me. But after 63 years of marriage, the limiting time frame will be determined by the ageing of the frailest of the two of us and not by MY desire. The years between 60 and 80 are tough on the human body and the desire to be 60 when you are 80 does not help.
I sit here in my recliner writing this and thinking how happy I am looking out the window over Corpus Christi bay and not thinking, "I have to get into the bilge today to fix that leaking through hull."! My joints dont work as well as they should and just lifting the hatches and squeezing down into the engine room are hell and I will pay for it for at least another three days. AND, if I put it off because of my possible, no, for sure, discomfort, I will be risking a sinking due to deferred maintenance. That puts fear into my soul.

Now I need to get rid of the trawler.