Details for living aboard

E

El and Bill

New member
We have again been asked, "how do you manage living aboard a small boat for long periods of time?"

Folks dream about retiring and living aboard their C-Dory and wonder how to do it. We wrote up this essay to describe how we lived aboard, homeless, for many years.

http://cruisingamerica-halcyondays.com/details.htm

Certainly there are other ways or refinements and everyone does it their way, but these are some thoughts relayed on to you from a snowy day in the foothills.
 
Great write up we totally agree. Less stuff equals more freedom. Cash out and put assets to work. We are in Revelstoke BC after making a morning run from Golden. Being "free" to run a wet highway thru to Rogers Pass in snow. Kerri On has been full time home for the past 6 months and on into the foreseeable future. We have a bit of stuff stored and my house on the market. Folks ask "what about security?". A house has been marketed as what one needs to feel secure. Not neccesarily. We feel security is an inside job. Not outside stuff. When we're done dragging Kerri On thru snow and desert we'll do "something else". Part of the year in Hawaii or rent a condo or rent a yurt or buy a tiny house on a tiny property or ? Grab a chance and you won't be sorry for a might have been. Forgot who wrote it but its true. One thing we saw this year is many rv folks who waited way to long. Till the home or homes were paid off and the rv paid for etc. Their health does not allow them to truly enjoy their dreamed about travel plans. So many we saw could not walk a 1/4 mile into the desert or the lakeshore. Life is not a guaranteed deal. Grab it now!
Don't wait go soon. These boats make fine homes. Freedom is worth the occasional discomfort. George and Carolyn (at home aboard).
 
:( as I sit here looking out my office window, on lunch break, the sun just came out.

George your advice is good. 10 more years then hopefully go to part time :|

Cheers to all of you that are livin' the dream.

Very inspirational.

Stefan
 
My favorite subject of all. This has been my life's work (48yrs) to be a financially free nomad as early in my life as possible. We are finishing up our last and by far favorite job as parents - one in college and one three years from college. We are now financially free, just waiting for the last bird to leave the nest (hoping that time goes slow).

I never followed the Dave Ramsey no debt method, but listen to him daily - certainly helps keep life simple.

Few more years and a few garage sales and we are gone - somewhere...
 
"Life is short, and Art long,
opportunity fleeting, experience perilous, and decision difficult."
This is condensed form the opening lines of a medical text by Hippocrates C. 460-C.370 BC.

Marie and I started planing when we were first married over 35 years ago to undertake a significant voyage. We first built a 38 foot sailboat--which turned out to be too small and too wet for one of us, and moved on to a larger vessel--you have to do what make both haves of a couple happy.

I learned early i life that life was indeed short--and you had to sieze the opportunity when it came along. For us this was taking a 4 year 41,000 mile voyage. Yes, we had friends who sailed around the world in boats smaller than C Dory 22, but that was not for us. We did live off the local economy and very in-expensively. We did this at my age 46. We came back at age 50, and worked for 6 more years before retiring in 1992. At that time we redid another sailboat which we purchased cheaply. At age 65, I was lucky to still be alive (only due to modern medicine--having had one heart attack, a bypass and a number of angioplasties--which were not available a generation ago.

You have to shape you plans with what works for your family, and everyone is comfortable with.
 
You and Marie have made great life choices for the two of you, and have been fortunate. Good illustration of how each of us (couples or solo) plan and carefully choose our path and hope good luck will favor our choice.

So fortunate to have had the medical advances to give us these extra years - you with your heart problems and angioplasties and for me, a stroke and angios (had another angio last week).

Yes, for those contemplating a boating retirement, plan well for your individual needs and "seize the opportunity." And good luck to you.
 
Sitting on a Lake Powell beach with a group of brats ,I marveled at how different yet similar we all were. I came to the conclusion that all of the people sitting with me understood simplicity. Not one odd look at my laundry being dragged behind the boat! No questions about how we can spend a month puttering around the lake.
We are long distance hikers as well. People always ask "how can you live out of a backpack for months on end?" My only explanation is this: we love to pare down our lives to the absolute minimum. There is no better way to make a 22 footer seem like the Queen Mary than live in a 20 square foot tent! We have enjoyed meeting many C-brats these past five years and I hope to meet you both someday. Keith and Donna Newlin
 
knewlin":2ahfkxc2 said:
Sitting on a Lake Powell beach with a group of brats ,I marveled at how different yet similar we all were. I came to the conclusion that all of the people sitting with me understood simplicity. Not one odd look at my laundry being dragged behind the boat! No questions about how we can spend a month puttering around the lake.
Click to expand...

I enjoyed reading your post. It is nice to share the company of others who "get" your lifestyle, isn't it? Especially if you're people who live a bit "outside the conventional box," and so may often find yourselves in the company of others who aren't on a wavelength. It's fun to share commonality when you find it.
 
Stan - still thinking of heading north up the ICW this year? Peggy may want to chat with El about this cruise, and living aboard in general. Let us know.
 
I think of travelling north up the ICW all the time. I have a son-in-law in NJ who doesn't believe it can be done. I so want to prove to him it can be. This summer I may only have enough time to trailer the boat, put in at a Marina in Cape May and surprise my daughter and son-in-law.
 
Stan -
The ICW can be traveled all the way to NYC, and through Long Island Sound as access, one can continue all the way to Maine and Canada (although more exposed to the open sea beyond NYCity. We like turning up the Hudson and into the Erie Canal from NYC -- one can do The Loop along that route and end up back in Florida traveling down interior rivers.
We have done that trip a number of times, and really enjoyed it. Take lots of time, so best done after retirement (unless you want to do it in segments).
Your son-in-law is not correct. Barges run from FL to NJ along the ICW, and with good planning, so can your C-Dory -- many on this site will attest to the beauty of the trip.
If you want to dream about FL to NJ (and beyond! just ask for experiences folks on this site have had along this route.
 
I am going to have to disagree with Bill. Formally the Atlantic Coast ICW runs from mile zero at Norfok VA, to Mile 1089.0 at Miami, Fl. You can continue in mostly protected water down to Key West, FL. On the North end, you then enter the Chesapeake Bay, then the Chesapeake Delaware canal, down the Delaware Bay. The New Jersey Waterway can be entered from the Delaware Bay at North Cape May--Higbee Beach. There are several entrances to the Atlantic ocean--and even boats with 5 foot draft (on rare occasion, with the right tides have made it to Manasquan Inlet in New Jersey. I have looked carefully, at both my paper charts, Navionics charts, Skipper Bob's books, and the Northern Waterway Guide. There is no inland waterway between Manasquan Inlet and Sandy Hook which would allow access to New York Harbor. I have sailed the entire Atlantic ICW, the West Coast ICW, and the Gulf Coast ICW--including from Maine to New York Harbor (inside Long Island)--and Sandy Hook. However with 7' draft and 65 foot air clearance, I could not venture into the New Jersey canals or ICW. You have to go outside for the 25 miles from Manasquan Inlet to Sandy Hook, to get to New york. After Long Island Sound, there are mostly open stretches, with the exception of the Cape Cod Canal.
 
My experience was going around Cape May, with an incoming tide and an outgoing wind of 35 to 40 knots. That specific day the rollers were about 6 feet at Cape May, and I lost the bottom in the surf as I rounded the Cape, North bound. The chart showed 15 feet, but I lost bottom in the breakers.
There were several May Day calls from small boats as I worked my way to the North West and the Delaware opening of the Chesapeake Delaware Canal. The waves got smaller as we neared the Canal, about 50 miles from Cape May. Not a day for C Dory 22s.

As for taking the 17 mile route across Delaware Bay to Lewes Del, and then following the waterway thru Rehobath Bay, on down to Cape Charles and entering the Chesapeake Bay at Latimer Shoals, and across to Norfolk? I don't know. I have traveled most of this area in a 17 foot out powered boat. It was very shoal in some parts, and not sure a C Dory could make it--perhaps at the highest of tides. We had to pole in some places. Some areas are labeled 1 & 1.5' on the charts currently. The time I was there was many years ago, and perhaps the waterway is better now. You would miss alot of the Chesapeake Bay, but there are some fantastic areas including Chincoteague Bay and the wilds south of that!
 
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