Please critique my plan: want to buy a boat to live on; I'm clueless about boats

[Tom and Maje]

I read your initial post 2x, read all the replies, and your replies to the replies. Living on a boat is way different than living in an apartment or house, or anything else on land. I totally get being at anchor. I don't dislike people, but I am an introvert, and prefer to be at anchor. That said, if you have to be in a marina during the winter, people will leave you alone if you ask them to.
Here are my suggestions.

Seriously consider buying a custom catamaran in the 13.72m - 15.24m (45-50') range. That way you avoid the problem of 4 berths and 4 heads which you will not need, and you have enough room to make your living spaces. For example 2 offices vs 2 berths, as well as a pantry, space for a washing machine and dryer, etc.. You'll get the hang of what you need by taking a couple of 10 day fast track sailing courses. PM me if you want a couple of places who do custom cats.

It's not hard to learn to sail. Just take courses.

Spend some time living with your girlfriend on land before you live on a boat together. You've only talked about yourself, so none of us know anything about her.

Someone, or both of you, is going to have to learn how to fix stuff. That as a given. You can start off with a working boat. I can hear people laughing. Even brand new boats need work. Someone once said to me that on a boat, something is always getting read to break.

In the States and the Caribbean, and I suppose other places internet is always a problem for those of us who work remotely. It's relatively easy to keep a connection in the EU. Signals are good for about 3 Nautical miles offshore.

Your dad is not correct about several things. You can get sufficient solar and Lithium batteries to keep yourself powered up. I'd add wind as well a D400 make no noise at all unless it needs to be fixed. If you're worried about dumping, get a composting toilet. Absolutely get a watermaker.

There are other things you and your girlfriend can do to get ready, but this will give you a start.

I hope this was helpful.

Maje

[Buzzman]

Apart from a couple of offhand remarks about canal boats, I don't see anyone seriously considering whether or not living on a canal boat would provide you with the lifestyle you seek.
LOTS of introverted people who hate humanity live on canal boats. Think of a canal boat as a small 1 bedroom flat that is very long and not very wide.
Being motor only, they are SIMPLE to learn to drive, and have loads less stuff to go wrong and require maintaining, but what does go wrong is common to all other canal boats, so knowledge is readily obtainable via Youtube and forums. And you are 'anchored' against the canal bank, so getting off the boat is easy. It's not like it's breaking down mid-ocean!
You said you 'work remotely'. Does this mean you require full-time online capability, or could you get by just uploading stuff once a day or every other day?
If the former, then canal boat it is, as you need to be near wifi or broadband towers, and many, if not most, anchorages do not have this. Sure, most marinas do, but not always very well or very fast, and never cheap..!!
Canal boats in northern climes MUST be properly insulated, and a lot of older boats that have not been recently renovated are not. So this should be a 'must have'. Ditto a wood stove and lots of solar panels and a decent-sized battery bank. Many, many canal boaters live and work aboard, so it is definitely do-able.
I'd advise reviewing the canal boat lifestyle via YouTube first. "Cruising the Cut" is a very informative channel, as a first point of contact.
Canal boats start at 30' and go up to around 80', but these are compromised as they can't access some canals. But 40-60ft is plenty large enough to liveaboard, and you could theoretically do this in Central London - and still be avoiding humans..!! Google Maps and zoom in on the Regents Canal, as an example. Boats everywhere. But most of the occupants work in the city, so you, anchored among them, would be mostly alone! And thousands of miles of canals on whihc to find peace and quiet. And any humans you see usually are walking, cycling or driving past, so gone and forgotten instantly. But if you want a pub meal, or a cafe, there's usually one in the next village or town, never more than an hour or two away.
Also, be aware that it is possible to motor an English canal boat across the Channel and enter the European canals, which provides access all of Europe, to the Mediterranean coastal area, and the Baltic, but not necessarily the Med itself. Although theoretically you could coastal hop around the Med in sight of land and within easy reach of ports and marinas, and only motor in calm weather 'windows. Google it. Someone will have done it. So, in terms of avoiding bad weather, and/or touring about and seeing lots of new places, a canal boat is a much safer and easier way to get about and live the 'away from humans' life you seek.
A few other points to be aware of. While you could certainly get a decent-sized monohull for the approx. $200K you are able to spend, this doesn't buy much in the way of catamarans. So you need to try both and see whether a monohull is do-able for YOU. Personally, I'd go catamaran if you are intending to avoid marinas, as they are more stable, roll less than monos in anchorages, and are much more like "a small apartment afloat". There is a reason some of the slower charter boats are called 'condo-marans'.
Bear in mind everything is more expensive with a cat, as there are two hulls to clean and paint and anti-foul. Rig is larger, stronger, but therefore more costly, ditto sails, until you get well over 45' in a mono.
Berthing in a marina is ALWAYS more expensive in a cat, and you often get stuck on an end tie, exposed to wind, waves and wakes of passing boats. Marinas are not a place to stay for long periods on a cat.
And then there's the sailing, and anchoring, and fixing stuff.
Sailing and anchoring you can learn easily enough. Plenty of people set off for foreign climes with minimal experience these days. GPS and electronic aids make this almost ridiculously easy. Sure, you won't know everything, but you will learn as you go. Maintenance wise, it depends if you are the logical handyman type or not. Do you like working with tools and fixing or building stuff? If not, then a motorboat is preferable, as there are many more specialist mechanics who can fix engines than there are "boat fixers" who can fix "stuff". And even a sailboat needs an engine. Well-built and well-maintained engines *normally* don't fail. And learning the basic maintenance stuff is easy enough. Read everything by Nigel Calder, for example. If it's not in one of his books, google it. Someone will have had that specific problem before.
But, as others have suggested, try before you buy.
Rent a canal boat for a week. Several hire firms around. Will teach you the 'basics' before setting off, work it out from there.
Ditto charter yachts. Do a basic sailing course and go charter in a nice spot, like Croatia. I'd recommend doing a week on a monohull and a week on a cat in the same area, so you can feel the differences, both sailing and anchoring and mooring in marinas. See how the whole internet thing works, if it does.
But yes, it IS do-able for an absolute beginner.
Jason and Nikki Wynn (Gone with the Wynns on YouTube) switched from campervans (vanlife) to a sailing cat with zero experience. Look back at some of their early vids. They are now in NZ halfway round the world from their Florida starting point, and have had lots of adventures along the way.
Good luck and welcome aboard. Keep asking questions. In the beginning, some of your questions will look naive to those with experience, but gradually you will pick up the 'lingua franca' and become more knowledgeable. Ignore the nitpickers who whinge if you say front instead of bow, or right instead of starboard. Communication is the key, and being understood. Eventually, it will all come naturally to you, and one day a fellow boater will ask you to help them moor up, and when they request you drop the forrard spring over the bollard, and throw a coil of rope at you, you will instinctively know what that means and what to do.
If you don't fall in while doing it, you will then be a sailor!

[goboatingnow]

Why would anyone bother with English canal boat, 6 foot wide , outside of uk canals. on open water it’s basically a brick.

If you want canal go wide beam

[Buzzman]

Originally Posted by goboatingnow

Why would anyone bother with English canal boat, 6 foot wide , outside of uk canals. on open water it’s basically a brick.

If you want canal go wide beam

Ummmm....pretty obviously, if you want to travel any *English* canals, you need the traditional 'narrowboat'. english canals are famously narrower than many European canals. Not all, but most.



The narrow boats can also transit European canals, but none of thier wider canal boats can transit more than a few km of the English canal system.

[boatman61]

Get your RYA preferably up to Coastal Skipper..
https://www.boatschooldenia.com/
Yachtmaster Training Mallorca - Highly Experienced Instructors - RYA Training & Courses
https://www.corfuseaschool.com/

Ignore the scare stories of constantly repairing stuff, most is easy, just follow the manuals and it's a doddle, engine servicing, winch servicing, toilets.. its all easy enough.
Few do their own rigging or engine/transmission rebuilds, that's what engineers are for.. you soon become a Jack of all and master of none..
I bought a 5yr old ex charter Bene in the Caribe, sailed her to Portugal then the Med, Madeira, back to the Azores, Portugal then up to the UK.. in 2.5 years apart from doing the engine servicing the only other problem was the alternator ceasing to charge..
A mechanic from a garage in Terciera and €100 had it fixed in an hour.
Much of my time was at anchor.
Sailing is easy, navigation and weather tuition is more important.
If you want a Tidal RYA Ticket there's several good schools on the Algarve or Lisbon based.. Tidal is the better course, Med tickets are great for lakes..

[barkwright99]

Originally Posted by goboatingnow

Rya Day SKipper is brilliant ticket, world wide acceptance , great thing to do

I totally agree, I really enjoyed the course and learnt so much.
I was looking at maybe buying a boat to live on when I took my day skipper and found the experience and instructors advice so helpful.
I took my theory online with Ardent Training and the instructors has so much friendly and helpful advice to share I don't regret it at all.

[NormanMartin]

Welcome to the crazy world of sailing and cruising. Hope it works for you.

My 2 cents is that you take a sailing program and learn to charter. Then charter in a few places. Heck... have a captain for you first charter and pick his/her brain. Maybe sail around the world two weeks at a time.

Such has been my business for almost 30 years and it works. I am in the New England and Caribbean curcuit but there are plenty of other places to train.

[Freeeeedom]

Thank you for some very thoughtful responses. I'm very grateful for how generous many of you are with your time.

Originally Posted by BigNut

It has been a blast (so far), but expect your free time to be taken up with loads of boat work. It does not matter whether you buy new or used

I would think that a new boat requires significantly less work. If not, what's the point of paying more for a new boat?

Originally Posted by BigNut

unless of course, you are one of those uber-wealthy who have "boat people" who do everything for them.

Even if I could afford it, I wouldn't want to have a crew simply due to privacy - I would hate sharing my 'territory' with strangers. That's why I don't even hire cleaners for my apartments.

Originally Posted by R Hutcheson

As long as you can maintain your income, and again, get adequate training to prevent getting hurt, the worst probable outcome is you blow a lot of money and discover you hate it. If so, go back and make money to replace it.

I think this is the most likely outcome but still worth the shot since it might be such a massive boost to my life quality.

Originally Posted by OneBoatman

Also the very few people I've met that have jumped into boating without experience spend ~25% or more of the purchase price of their boat annually for the first few years as they "learn the ropes" independent of type, which is about double what those with experience spend.

Thanks for those estimates! I know these are just rough ballpark figures but at this early stage they are invaluable. I've heard before someone mention that the annual maintenance is approx. 10% value of the boat, so that seems reasonably close to your 12.5% for experienced people. I had not considered that it might be as much as 25% due to my inexperience but if I plan well I can bear that cost.

Originally Posted by BigNut

If you can post to this forum you probably are able to use the internet to locate training in diesel maintenance, weather, navigation, sailing, safety at sea, radio communications, fishing, and general boat maintenance.

Originally Posted by Joka

But in my own experience, it is perfectly possible to gain the experience and skills necessary. There are schools that offer excellent courses on sailing, but also technical courses on boat maintenance, engine mechanics, electrical, plumbing (yes, all those skills are rather useful on a boat!), and also first aid and safety at sea.

Thanks for mentioning those. Before reading some answers to my question, it did not occur to me that in addition to sailing/navigation/weather/safety training I might also get training in engine and boat maintenance, plumbing, etc.

Originally Posted by BigNut

You also might consider volunteering with an agency equivalent to the US Coast Guard to spend part of a Summer getting a pre-view of the types of things that happen to folks on and in the water.

Interesting idea but I certainly don't have that much time, unfortunately.

Originally Posted by Tom and Maje

Someone, or both of you, is going to have to learn how to fix stuff.

That will definitely be me. She often struggles even with normal, perfectly functioning appliances. This is less than ideal since her job offers more time flexibility.

Originally Posted by Buzzman

You said you 'work remotely'. Does this mean you require full-time online capability, or could you get by just uploading stuff once a day or every other day? If the former, then canal boat it is, as you need to be near wifi or broadband towers, and many, if not most, anchorages do not have this

I need to be online full time but don't require broadband. I only need few kb/s as long as the connection latency is low.

Originally Posted by Buzzman

Many, many canal boaters live and work aboard, so it is definitely do-able. (...) But most of the occupants work in the city, so you, anchored among them, would be mostly alone!

Funny that you mention that. I know a guy who used to live on a boat while working as a compliance officer in The City.

Originally Posted by Buzzman

And thousands of miles of canals on whihc to find peace and quiet. And any humans you see usually are walking, cycling or driving past, so gone and forgotten instantly.

I'm pretty certain that's not good enough for me. I could get the same standard of isolation with an RV.

Originally Posted by Buzzman

Also, be aware that it is possible to motor an English canal boat across the Channel and enter the European canals, which provides access all of Europe, to the Mediterranean coastal area, and the Baltic

Now that's appealing and something that I did not think was possible. Don't you need a separate license for each of those countries? Or sometimes even specific to a single canal? I would definitely have to move internationally and not stay in one country for tax reasons.

Originally Posted by Buzzman

I'd advise reviewing the canal boat lifestyle via YouTube first. "Cruising the Cut" is a very informative channel, as a first point of contact.

(...)

So, in terms of avoiding bad weather, and/or touring about and seeing lots of new places, a canal boat is a much safer and easier way to get about and live the 'away from humans' life you seek.

I must admit your description does sound tempting. Thanks for the channel recommendation, I will look it up and think carefully how much mobility it might afford me.

Originally Posted by Buzzman

While you could certainly get a decent-sized monohull for the approx. $200K you are able to spend, this doesn't buy much in the way of catamarans.

Just to clarify: 200k is what I'm prepared to lose on this experiment and never get back. I can spend considerably more on the boat, as long as it retains some of its value and I can sell it.

Originally Posted by Buzzman

Read everything by Nigel Calder, for example. If it's not in one of his books, google it.

Awesome, thanks a lot for the recommendation.

Originally Posted by Buzzman

Do a basic sailing course and go charter in a nice spot, like Croatia. I'd recommend doing a week on a monohull and a week on a cat in the same area, so you can feel the differences, both sailing and anchoring and mooring in marinas. See how the whole internet thing works, if it does.

That's what I was thinking to do: Do RYA Competent Crew on a cat, and then RYA Day Skipper on a mono (or first mono and then cat), and then bareboat more boats to narrow down what I like/need.

Originally Posted by Buzzman

Jason and Nikki Wynn (Gone with the Wynns on YouTube) switched from campervans (vanlife) to a sailing cat with zero experience. Look back at some of their early vids.

Awesome, thanks for that recommendation! We've been watching Zatara since we got that idea but these guys sound much more relevant to us.

Originally Posted by boatman61

If you want a Tidal RYA Ticket there's several good schools on the Algarve or Lisbon based.. Tidal is the better course, Med tickets are great for lakes..

Thanks, I only learned about the tidal vs. non-tidal RYA recently. Is the difference significant mostly just for my education, or does it affect where I can charter bareboat? Algarve and Lisbon sound interesting as I have some connection to both. Before, I only heard about UK and Gibraltar as locations offering Tidal RYA.

[stacyanna21]

Not a bad plan. Karen and I did a 10 year circumnavigation back in the day. Fast forward 30 years. We now live on 3 boats and a modest 29’ class C RV. One boat is presently in Holland another in Montenegro and the other is in Georgia. We alternate between the 4 as season and mood dictates. Of course, Covid has dictated some recent moves. Right now we are in a rest area off I75 for the night in Georgia headed to our Hunter 450 on Lake Lanier Georgia. We never plan very far in advance as me just turning 80 and Karen 78 definitely limits any long term planning. We have used our Hunter 42 for close to 10 years between Med in the 1st 2 years and the rest sans mast through the canals and rivers of France,Germany,Belgium,Denmark and Holland. We would like to continue doing the same for perhaps 5 more years. You or someone like you and your girlfriend might make good partners as we can only use one boat or our “Road Boat” one at a time. Leaving 3 unused. I’ve been thinking maybe selling the boats to one person with the option of our having use rights for 5 years. We own everything free and clear and are without debt and have a secure income. We’ve lived on and off boats since our 20’s. Making our first round trip ocean passage in our Columbia 36 between Alaska and Hawaii. We love company on our boats and have 4 ebikes on the 42 in Holland and 2 ebikes and 2 e scooters on our boat in Montenegro. Think on it. We are very flexible and my progeny don’t need the boats or the burden of selling them should we become incapacitated in some way. Our life style was allowed as I commercial fished on my own boats in Alaska for 45 seasons for 3 months a year making a good living. Now I’m retired and just continue working on our floating condos and the one with wheels.

[Freeeeedom]

I think I will keep using this thread as my blog to document how my understanding and plans change as I learn more and confront them with reality. This should serve me well as my decision journal - when I revisit this thread in the future I might spot mistakes in my thinking that I might be making in other areas as well. I think sharing my progress (and the point at which I give up, if I do) is also the right thing to do since the community has been so generous with information and their time.

One of the major issues I was worried about was Internet access. Looks like I should have no problem with that: within 5 nm, and in some areas even farther away, I should have a good 4G or 5G signal, especially if I install a booster antenna. Even if that's not enough (and I highly doubt that) there is BGAN and INMARSAT that are pricey but within my abilities. Apparently unlimited data plan costs 4-5k monthly and the speed is determined by the kind of terminal I can afford upfront - with the luxurious 20mbps available with a terminal priced at approx. 40k - as a one-time expense I could do that. Although, once again, I highly doubt it will be necessary. I might get a cheaper terminal and a much smaller plan as a backup in case all else fails. Although, to be frank, having a few SIM cards, a modem and a couple phones might be enough redundancy already.



I'm definitely leaning towards a catamaran. It might be silly to have an opinion already before getting onto any boat, and I definitely will want to try a monohull as well. In addition to the obvious advantages (more stable, less heel, more living space) there are two factors in favor of a cat that really speak to me:

• two engines and the redundancy that they bring - if there is a malfunction anywhere on the boat that I cannot or don't want to deal with, hopefully at least one engine will be still operational so that I can get into a dock or within a range of a sea tow.
• nice panoramic view from the salon. This might sounds like silly criteria to boaters but for both of us the view is extremely important and has enormous impact on our mood.

We've been binge-watching Gone With the Wynns (their sailing playlist) but now it seems like we have consumed enough theory and it's time to start looking for some practice. We are stuck ashore for the next 3-5 weeks while I tie up some errands and we decide whether we want to rent a semi-permanent apartment in my current location or permanently hop from AirBnB to AirBnB and live out of a suitcase. (Numerous attempts over the past few months to rent something and realising each time that the owner is a swindler is what fuelled my dislike of humanity enough to get the boat idea.) We will use that time to decide where we want to do the RYA Competent Crew. I'm thinking we will do that on a monohull without other students (i.e., we will pay extra to be the only students for the training), and after that and some time we will do RYA Day Skipper on a cat. Of all the convenient destinations, looks like Algarve is the warmest so we might go there. I've seen someone on this forum recommend learn2sail and they even offer semi-private courses, so they might be more comfortable with the idea of a fully private course. But of course I will have to shop around some more to decide.


One good thing came out of all that Gone With the Wynns watching - we decided that a composting toiled will allow us to simplify two problems: we will not have to worry about pumping out, and we can simplify the plumbing and thus lower the frequency of plumbing malfunctions.

[Freeeeedom]

A little status update.


We have just completed RYA Competent Crew on a monohull. The first day was rough for us but things got much better over time. Most importantly, after a couple nights on the hook in small gulfs we have no doubt about the next step: We definitely are going do continue with the plan and get RYA Day Skipper, probably pretty soon. After that we will charter a boat with a skipper/instructor for the first day or two, and do a bareboat for the remainder of the week. Our instructor said that's a sound plan.



I don't know yet whether I will decide to buy a boat. Even if I do, I don't know whether we will live aboard. But we are pretty certain now that if nothing else, a bareboat charter would be an amazing way to spend vacation.


We are staying in this coastal city for one more week and we will try to use this opportunity to see some ~40ft catamarans from the inside, so that we can do the RYA Day Skipper on a deliberately chosen cat and at the same time get a sense of what it might be like to live on one. The sailing school has already arranged for us to view a Lagoon 380 (4 cabins, 2 heads) but we were quite disappointed in that one: the saloon is quite small, the windows in the saloon actually don't offer that much visibility, especially when standing, and there doesn't seem to be enough space for us to live aboard comfortably (e.g., I have no idea where we could put a washing machine).


We are now also interested in Leopard 40 (probably the old version) and FP Lucia 40. Seawind 1160 looks very sexy but for our purposes it would be impractical - we need more of a condomaran and something that can protect us from colder weather since we are planning to stay in Europe. I'm starting to suspect that whatever I buy now, I will sell it after a couple years once I've figured out what we want and then I will buy something that really suits us. So for now I should stick to the tried-and-tested, popular models.

[Drek4]

Originally Posted by Freeeeedom

I have just realised that living on a boat might be the perfect lifestyle for me. I have enough cash to make the purchase today but I know nothing about boats, so first I have to test whether I would truly enjoy that and if so, what boat I should get. My first and most important question below is how to do that test. After that I write about my current lifestyle and my expectations of living aboard. Please roast that part as much as you can - whatever I'm missing, I would rather find out ASAP.

1. How to test that idea?

I was thinking the first step would be for me and my girlfriend to do some training to the point where we can sail (or drive a powerboat) alone, without hiring a skipper. Where should I do that training? What kind of training should that be? I was thinking of taking a couple weeks off to go to Croatia, charter a monohull for a week with an instructor and liveaboard, then charter a catamaran with an instructor.

Once we have enough training, we would charter boats for two weeks at a time, and try living on and working from them for that time. That would let us try different kinds of boats (sail or no sail? mono or cat?) and give us some idea what we want. Perhaps we should move somewhere (maybe Split, Croatia? I prefer to stay within the EU) for that entire period, so that we don't have to deal with air travel - I hate airplanes and all the other means of public transportation, since I hate being surrounded by people.

If that goes well, I would buy the boat at this stage and we would start gradually spending more and more time on it, while also equipping it with stuff that we think we need. Soon after that we would move in full-time.

2. Current lifestyle and expectations

I'm quite a misanthrope and often find other humans very annoying. I also grow tired of living in any place quite fast - every location I've tried living in appears to me to be an absolute sh..hole soon after I move in, and I've tried a lot of different kinds of places. Hence the appeal of living on a boat: If I want to go away from other humans, I could just find a spot to anchor where I'm alone and stay there a few days. If I want to resupply or socialise (I avoid humans most of the time but not all the time), I could pull into a marina. And when I inevitably start hating the country I'm in, I could just move to the next one along the coast.

So far I've been dealing with those idiosyncrasies of mine by frequently going abroad and living for a month or so in an AirBnB. That helps somewhat but is far from ideal: it still involves being around those pesky humans and it forces me to leave behind the comforts of my home that I have adjusted to my needs (my favourite coffee machine, my workspace). If I could instead move my home around, that would be much better. The additional appeal is that I would finally own my home and I could invest more into adjusting it. Until now, I've been only renting and never owned real estate - I cannot commit myself to any particular country or neighbourhood.

I definitely want to stay in or near Europe. We would probably cruise the Mediterranean although I have plenty of friends in London and on the Baltic Sea, so we might go up there in the summer. (Also, going to the North Sea and living in a Norwegian fjord sounds like a fairytale.)

My girlfriend and I are around 30 y.o. We both work remotely and need a reliable Internet connection and plenty of time to focus on work. The money I make is insanely good, even by the standards of the most expensive cities. Even if I lose my current job, there is a lot of demand for my skills. The income might drop to less than half of what it's now, but it would be still incredibly high.

When we start this adventure, I would pay people for all the necessary maintenance and servicing. Over time hopefully I could learn and pick up some of those responsibilities.

I ran this idea by my father who is an officer on cargo ships but without experience with small boats. He thinks I will hate it as soon as I try it. Some reasons he mentioned:
* Not enough space - he has a point since I tend to rent big places to live in. And until very recently I had been living alone, so sharing the small space with my girlfriend will be a challenge.
* Humidity, messiness
* Electricity - according to him, either I would have to stay in a marina, or run a generator which would be prohibitively expensive, or give up on some essential appliances and conveniences
* I will have to pull into a marina too often to get fresh water, throw away garbage and get rid of the wastewater. (But I think I can buy a watermaker for the fresh water and dump wastewater out in the sea?)
* Difficulty finding spots to anchor at
* Rapidly changing weather in the Mediterranean.

My own worry is that the boat will require so much work and maintenance that I won't have the time for my dayjob or to enjoy life. Although if that happens and the lifestyle appeals to me, I could probably get a part-time remote job (20 or so hours a week) and still make the ends meet. My hope is also that since I plan to sail/cruise only a bit, the workload will be lower than normal.

If living aboard gets somewhat tiring, I could take a month-long break and rent an AirBnB somewhere.

Summary

So, to reiterate, the most important question right now is: how do I test ASAP whether I want to pursue this lifestyle? Does the plan I outlined in the first section make sense? What training should I get and where to kick it off? The less important part is my expectations - please ruthlessly dispel anything that seems too naive. Big thanks in advance for any wisdom that you can share.

If the pay is so good and the presence of humans drives you psycho, get an island and a sailboat/power boat, you will not be the first to do this, a few anti socials have done this before, in the Med and close to Finland or Sweden, but I'm sure that there is a lot more that we don't know of in the Seychelles/Maldives and other parts of the world, this will solve your adequate room to feel comfortable option.
I can be anti social at some times, but I have learned to live and adapt to our world, anyways, when you have money you choose options, when you don't you adapt to situations.

[barkwright99]

Thanks for the updates.
Few people come back to let everyone know how they got on.

[OneBoatman]

Do keep in mind that living aboard a boat is not a cakewalk and I can best describe it as a luxury camping experience have done it for nearly 7 years. My sailing vessel has 3 doubles and a single, one head with a separate shower stall. Assuming your will be at a marina, at least in the beginning, choose wisely. It will test your relationship with your first mate. I set up a flat screen TV for each of us mainly because I like to watch sports and she not so much. If there a lot of liveaboards at the place you choose it is best if the showers at the marina are separated from the toilets and are kept clean. Check for decent laundry facilities and take a good look at any common areas to gauge the upkeep. I hauled my boat every season in the summer and did my bottom just as I do as a seasonal boater. If above the Mason Dixon line marinas won't haul you in the Spring because they are still busy trying to launch and clear their yards of vessels on the hard. If you are still working you must be sure they have good wi fi available and of course adequate parking as close to the docks as is reasonable since you be shopping at least once a week. Don't let your boat get so cluttered with crap that will add 1000's of lbs and only take away the precious space in your cabin. People with separate aft cabins like on a ketch often use it as a place to store. As I told my wife as far as accumulating stuff on the boat clothes are optional, but anything you bring aboard has to do what it was designed to do plus at least two other things and I will decide if can do those. We never paid extra for storage but our cars made look like vagabonds.

[goboatingnow]

We live on board for 9 months of the year but we are cruising around.

I carry more tools then I do at home and literally every day something needs to be repaired , often small stuff. Boat systems seem to break if used a lot.

Unless you have money or are prepared to live on an increasingly decrepit boat , you will need to fix this stuff yourself.