Living Aboard - The Marina to the Mooring

[Target9000]

Originally Posted by Sailmonkey

We anchored in Jean Laffite for 3 days and most people acted like they'd never seen a sailboat, much less one with people living on it!!

Its possible that they never had!!!!

Most people around here are totally shocked by our boat. Its unthinkable that we don't have shore power and that we actually have TWO anchors on the front. Seriously.

[sailorboy1]

Originally Posted by Orrjames

Were at Barber Marina in Elberta, AL. It is a gorgeouse marina with floating docks and all the facilities. $8.00 a foot, plus about $30.00 for electric. Awesome area with white sugar sand beaches all around. Close access to the gulf too.

per day, per month, per "what" ?

[Dockhead]

Originally Posted by Brian in Az

If you want to save money, why not consider a small apartment. Then live on the mooring on the weekends. Since you need to work and your wife is going to school, it may be wiser to live on land during the week and save$500 or more per month by not living at the marina. If the long term goal is to eventually break away, then bank the money now instead of making the marina owner rich.

That's exactly how I would do it. Best of both worlds.

[rebel heart]

We've stayed in our marina as long as we can. The management very politely has told us that they can't have toddlers on liveaboard boats, which is fine. We've got one year left before Central America so spending that year on the ball will be another incremental step towards ensuring that everything works just peachy in being completely self sufficient.

I've lived on mooring balls before and it is indeed harder and more of a pain in the ass than a marina, especially for maintenance where it's *so* much easier to load heavy items and hop on and off the boat.

The cost is a huge motivator here in San Diego. Roughly ~$1000/month for a slip, or $225/month for a ball. That ~$10K a year in savings for our last year can really go somewhere good.

I don't really see the penis-measuring aspect coming into play. At least a few times a month a guy on a mooring would love to be tied to a slip for some convenience reason, and paying your slip fee (and having neighbors in your business) you'd rather be on a mooring. Pick your poison and anyone who judges you can get bent.

[osirissail]

Originally Posted by Bash

"Floating condo" and "floating apartment" are terms of disparagement. To claim otherwise is disingenuous.. . .

" dis·par·age (d-sprj)tr.v. dis·par·aged, dis·par·ag·ing, dis·par·ag·es 1. To speak of in a slighting or disrespectful way; belittle. See Synonyms at decry.
2. To reduce in esteem or rank."


You can't give it a rest, can you? I hardly think the folks living on houseboats in California or elsewhere, or power/sail yachts everywhere think that the terms condo or apartment are a disparagement. And the folks in condos and apartments be it Biscayne Bay or San Diego hardly think they are "disparaged." The use of the that term evidently has negative connotations to you and your view of the world - not to the vast rest of the world.

Clue - folks have different ideas and opinions and definitions and attacking someone for their correct use of terms that don't agree with yours is demeaning or disrespectful and way over the line. If you disagree, disagree respectfully and politely. If you want to be a "Flammer" I would suggest that maybe S.A. is a better venue for you.

[Kettlewell]

Contrary to everyone else it seems, I vastly prefer living on the mooring to being in the marina ghetto. I lived aboard for 12 years straight at one point, both on a mooring and at a dock, including many winters aboard in deserted marinas in New England. I loved coming home to the peace and quiet of the boat on the mooring after a long day at work. Yes, some days were a struggle to get in and out from the boat, but to me that makes the lifestyle more adventurous and fun. I personally don't like being cooped up in a crowded marina with people tromping up and down the docks, peering into your portholes, knocking on your hull to take a look at your boat, etc. To me a marina is a practical necessity required once in awhile to get stuff done on the boat, to get fuel, etc, but I try to avoid them as much as possible.

[Boracay]

Boracay's on a mooring at the moment, but we're not actually living aboard, but considering your question, why not try for the best of both worlds.

If your proposed mooring is associated with a marina ask about using their service wharf or vacant slips as necessary.

What I'm thinking is that about half the time, with good weather, reasonable schedules and no heavy loads living on a mooring is very enjoyable. However when it's pouring cats and dogs, howling a gale and freezing the copper/zinc alloy lower parts off small primates it's not going to be a lot of fun.

On weekends being on the mooring is not going to be a big problem?

But when a careful read of the forecast suggests that the above mentioned bad weather is on it's way being tied up to a dock with a nice warm heater on shore power has a lot going for it.

When the weathers bad, especially on week days, not many will be using the marina anyway. They could be happy to cut yous a deal.

[susanna reiter]

I agree with Kettlewell....I do love the privacy of mooring life...Boracay makes some good points as well, the convenience of dock time is fine...but you can't beat the wonderful feeling of being out on your own well secured mooring.

[Kettlewell]

A couple of additional pluses for moorings. To set sail you just drop one line and you're gone, so when you do get time off it doesn't seem like a hassle to go cruising. When you're tied to the dock, with electric cords, hoses, lines all over the place, junk on the dock, etc., plus the difficulty of getting into and out of a lot of slips, it often seems like too much trouble to go sailing. Also, in general a mooring is a much safer place for your boat: better in hurricanes or big storms, less chance of theft, nothing to bang into, etc.