Living aboard - better than the trailer park?

[3rdcoastsurfer]

Greetings! I love sailing and have only been out a couple of times. I love the whole idea of life aboard. The sea is magic to me, like many surfers I'm sure. My wife is on-board with the adventure and minimalism of life on a sailboat but we're just new to it all. We're hoping to get some Sunfish time next month. For years I've daydreamed of the self-sufficiency of RV-living, but now I'm starting to think that living on a sailboat is the classy way to travel and live in the same vehicle, not to mention that the adventures could be much greater. The open ocean sounds much more appealing than the open road. I'm ready to get some more exposure to this great way of life! My ancestors are Danish Vikings after all, so I can feel it in my blood!

[lannen]

Do Both!

Our kids grew up and moved out. I work overseas and travel a lot. The house became too much for the Admiral to manage while I was gone, so away it went. We already shared ownership of the boat with the bank and lived part-time on her. (when I'm home anyhow)

When I'm away, or during hurricane season, we spend the rest of the time in the fifth wheel. It's got 4 slide outs and is amazingly comfortable. So, we split our time between the marina, the sea, and the highway. (less on the highway with the price of fuel, more on the sea with the price of wind) We have a full time slip in a marina and a full time slot in the RV park.

There have been numerous advantages to this lifestyle, a lack of stagnant house guests being one of them. We now always travel to them for holidays and get-togethers. Be it by the sea or the road, we always have everything with us and stay in the comfort of our own home, wet or wheeled.

So, if you have a choice, choose both!

(legal disclaimer)

We have have given fair notice to all our children that there will be nothing left upon our passing, as we are busy spending it all. They need to start their own retirement plans... :-)

[maxingout]

Living on board is whatever you make it. For marina-bound people, the marina is often nothing more than a floating trailer park. For a cruiser, living on board is a passport to a new life that can take you around the world.

One of the strange things about living on board for me is that when I live on board in places like the USA and Europe, I find the compromises of living on my sailboat limiting and sometimes irritating. But as soon as I head offshore for distant shores, living on board gives me a sense of freedom and adventure. Living on board in the USA is a maze of rules, regulations, and is expensive. Living on board offshore is a truely liberating experience. That's the way it works for me.

[SkiprJohn]

Aloha Surfer,
Welcome aboard!! Those Sunfish are lots of fun. Hard to liveaboard on one though. Cramped quarters. Hope you enjoy your new lifestyle when it comes.
Kind Regards,
JohnL

[jheldatksuedu]

Grant, thanks for the sign up on my guestbook, If you haven't tried windsurfing, you might find somebody that has a board. I plan to take one with me on my boat. Windsurfing and sailing have very little in common, there is almost nothing that you learn from one that helps much with the other, but it is definitely a fun way to sail fast. Sort of like the difference between a motorcycle and a car, they both travel with mechanical propulsion driving wheels with piston combustion engines on the road, but after that they are two completely different animals. For instance most people don't realize that you actually turn a motorcycle left to go right, that's at high speed, low speed, left to go left and at some unstable mid speed you don't have to do anything to weave all over the place. About the only thing that connects windsurfing with sailing is the wind rose of possible sailing directions, you can only tack into the wind. Windsurfing might make you a better sailor because if you really understand a windsurfer you realize that the forces are three dimensional instead of 2. You can steer a windsurfer by moving the wind force outboard of the center of resistance or forward and back. If a sailboat ever looses a rudder, all this can apply to sailboat also. You might be able to change the center of resistance or the center of effort to effectively steer a boat. Learning windsurfing is mostly about balance, you should have most of that already being a surfer. The sunfish a great place to start for learning about sailing larger boats. Jon

[imagine2frolic]

I don't think I would call living in a marina like living in a trailer park. It is more of a smorgasborg of life. There are some extremely well to do, working stiffs, and some boat bums too.

I myself am a mechanic, while we have retired doctors, engineers, principals, and people on welfare checks in the marina. Like any groups of people you can choose who to socialize with.

I used the marina to hide 6 months out of the year from hurricane season, and traveled the other 6. I am back to work now, but with plans on leaving in the near future...................

[19 and counting]

In so cal the cheapest way to live is onboard in a marina or a trailer park, which living aboard at a marina is basically what you are doing but closer to your neighbors. You are lucky if your next slip neighbor is NOT a liveaboard. Personally I hate living aboard unless we are traveling. It gets stagnant. I love people, but I love my space. However when you are at a marina you don't have to clean a shower, do yardwork, etc. It's a great way to do life easily, not so good with kids but I have friends who have done it then taken off sailing with the little ones completely at home aboard cause that is the only life they have ever known. However child socialization is important and so these little guys are now off the boat and the family is on land to help them equalize with society. We cruised extensively with our son until he was 5 then came ashore and plunked him in kindergarten. What a disaster, he absolutely hated "little kids"! Had no idea how to play with them or even exist with them. Very hard on the little guy.
I was in Hong Kong last year, Discovery Bay, kind of an ex-pat elite area where the liveaboards were on multimillion dollar yachts the size of tankers with dining room sets and all the furniture one would see in a regular house. They NEVER leave the dock. Well, that's one way to do it!

[Capt Phil]

Just returned from 10 days with my 4 grandchildren who have had limited time aboard. Both their fathers grew up aboard and tell stories to their kids of their time at sea, home schooling, friends they met in different anchorages, storms, different foods, etc. It was wonderful for me to hear them spin stories of their childhood (both wives were less than thrilled with the idea of living aboard) and brought back fond memories of our time together aboard. Unfortunately, they lost their mother about 4 years ago to cancer but they still recall her singing to them with her guitar to put them to sleep at night in some far away anchorage. Life is what you make it and I've never regretted for one minute bringing my kids up afloat and teaching them the ways of the sea. Listening to them share their experience with their kids re-affirms the choice we made. My advice? Go where your heart leads you... Phil

[oldragbaggers]

Originally Posted by lannen

Do Both!

Our kids grew up and moved out. I work overseas and travel a lot. The house became too much for the Admiral to manage while I was gone, so away it went. We already shared ownership of the boat with the bank and lived part-time on her. (when I'm home anyhow)

When I'm away, or during hurricane season, we spend the rest of the time in the fifth wheel. It's got 4 slide outs and is amazingly comfortable. So, we split our time between the marina, the sea, and the highway. (less on the highway with the price of fuel, more on the sea with the price of wind) We have a full time slip in a marina and a full time slot in the RV park.

There have been numerous advantages to this lifestyle, a lack of stagnant house guests being one of them. We now always travel to them for holidays and get-togethers. Be it by the sea or the road, we always have everything with us and stay in the comfort of our own home, wet or wheeled.

So, if you have a choice, choose both!

(legal disclaimer)

We have have given fair notice to all our children that there will be nothing left upon our passing, as we are busy spending it all. They need to start their own retirement plans... :-)

Sounds like the perfect life!!