First timer, beginner

[SherriCody]

Hello all,
Thank you so much for having me here. It is great to be in here. The forum is really great. Perfect for both a beginner and experienced people.
My husband and I are in our early 50’s. We were waiting for until both of our children were off to college to finally take our big leap. Our younger son is also off to college now. We are planning to sell our house and move into our chb 45 which we bought recently from our savings.
We are planning to start shedding our stuff off to a personal self storage in Windsor is cheap, spacious, secured. We are planning to keep only the heirlooms and other important documents. Our friend did the same before moving to full time.
My husband and I have been dreaming of this day for a long time now. The best part of living on a boat is that the only thing you have to worry about is yourself. You don’t have a neighborhood to worry about or the household things that you need to take care of. No tension of burglary around your neighborhood.
The only time we will be coming back to land would be to meet our children or to celebrate their wedding.
Anyways, since this is our first time, I would like to get some suggestions on taking care of our stuff. How did you do it? What model is your boat? For a beginner like us where do you suggest should be our first visit?

 

[Miz Trom]

Hi SherriCody:

First, it is great to see another woman here on TF. Welcome aboard and congratulations on your new boat!

I would like to get some suggestions on taking care of our stuff. How did you do it?

There are some great threads in the liveaboard section on setting up a fixed address as a liveaboard, such as this one for U.S. persons:
http://www.trawlerforum.com/forums/s30/how-do-you-deal-address-29492.html

Hopefully some Canadians will pitch in here with some similar suggestions. Perhaps one of your children would let you utilize their address for mail, drivers license, voting, insurance, etc?

As far as taking care of your physical "stuff," it appears you have the storage situation under control.

What model is your boat?

Many folks here on TF list their boat model in the description under their name. Some choose to leave that field blank and keep the rest of us guessing. I hope you will fill in that field so that when we see your future posts we are not guessing! Personally, I cannot endorse the person who built our boat so I simply include a general description of our boat in that field.

For a beginner like us where do you suggest should be our first visit?

Where do YOU want to go? Have you done any shakedown cruises in your new boat? Many liveaboards travel south for the winter to warmer weather and then back up to your neck of the woods for summer, or to points in between.

Another great forum to look into, though it is a paid subscription in order to access the forums, is the AGLCA (the American Great Loop Cruising Association). Tons of information there on the waterways that will take you from Canada to Florida, plus great info on marinas, boatyards, fuel, etc.

How close are you to selling your dirt home and moving aboard? (Winter is approaching!) How much boating experience and engine maintenance experience do you have? What year is your boat? Most importantly, what anchors do you have aboard?


Warm Regards,
Pea Trombley

 

[menzies]

Personally I would never use a lock up to store anything valuable such as heirlooms and important documents. Theft, water damage, heat, cold, fire, etc. etc.

If a full time liveaboard the documents and heirlooms would be with me, at a family members, or in a bank lockup.

 

[Comodave]

Welcome aboard.

 

[Bacchus]

Welcome aboard TF
Not sure what your past boating hs been.
For a first cruise I'd suggest considering Georgian Bay...
do much to see there.
If you want to expand from there the Trent Severn to Lk Ont... either St Lawrence or Rideau to Chambley to Lk Champlain... then head S and go as far as you want ICW.

 

[BandB]

Wifey B: Methinks you are in the perfect spot to loop.

We looped like most in warm climates do and that meant having to clear the northern part from May to September. However, doing it upside down, you can some south and take a year or two years before you return to the Great Lakes by the Erie Canal.

And if you find you like a warm climate, then make your center of activity a warm place. Many do find that perfect "home" in the course of looping.

 

[Boat]

Hello all,
The only time we will be coming back to land would be to meet our children or to celebrate their wedding.

Hi. Like the way you think.

 

[menzies]

It will be interesting to see when Sherri posts again!

 

[SherriCody]

Hi SherriCody:

There are some great threads in the liveaboard section on setting up a fixed address as a liveaboard, such as this one for U.S. persons:
http://www.trawlerforum.com/forums/s30/how-do-you-deal-address-29492.html

Thank you so much for this. The thread is really helpful. The address thing never crossed my mind.

 

[South of Heaven]

It will be interesting to see when Sherri posts again!

She's back!

 

[Seevee]

Just a thought.....


You'll still have bills to pay perhaps not as many, but credit cards unless you go all cash. registration fees, taxes, etc.

Logistics are much easier in a dirt home, but often we make it more complicated in a dirt home because it's so easy to get to things, join things, create more projects, etc., etc. And if you don't sell the dirt home, you'll have all those home expenses plus the boat.

But on the boat you can develop that "out of sight, out of mind" concept and if you have someone to manage the dirt home, like I do, just forget about it. However, we are loopers and will not be full time live aboards, tempting as it is. Just too many things to give up, like the afternoon dip in the jacuzzi with a beer. (but a big enough boat you can have everything).

However, your journey sounds like a ton of fun and the best to you.

I can't comment much about full time, but for starters, you can't beat cruising parts in Canada as a first venture. But need to decide how far south you want to get for the winter. Most folks head for south Florida.

 

[jimfrens]

As to no risk of burglary on a boat, not true. I've read several books by 'loopers' and most have experienced some sort of breakin on their boats, especially when docked in major cities like Chicago. There's nothing like sleeping in your cabin and hearing someone walking on deck. So, I'd invest in a motion sensor and alarm if I were doing the loop.

 

[stubones99]

Motion sensor on a rocking boat?

So, I'd invest in a motion sensor and alarm if I were doing the loop.

Hmm, motion sensor on a boat? How is that gonna work?

I assume you're talking about a PIR (Passive Infra-Red) sensor. That works based on body heat, unless it is a dual or triple tech version that uses microwave as well as PIR. PIR only works based on temperature differentials, so if you have an outside temp in the 80's, then a body will look about like that, so as the body skin temp gets near the ambient temp, you have no difference and no sensitivity.

Better is to use VMD (video motion detection) which uses a video camera with some intelligence. It takes a few frames and averages the differences between them to trigger alerts. If someone flashes a flashlight (or car headlight) on your boat at night, chances are it will false alarm.

Best thing for a boat is a pressure sensor mat hooked to an alarm panel. These are mats that are weather sealed and put under a standard floor mat and when the alarm is armed and you step or stand on the mat, it triggers the alarm. There are some that are pet safe so a dog or pet won't trigger it but a larger footprint will. Put one inside each boarding gate, or along the walkway outside the helm door and cockpit doors and you're in business.

https://www.alarmsystemstore.com/collections/pressure-mats

Lots of other sources, find one that fits your needs.

 

[Shrew]

Personally I would never use a lock up to store anything valuable such as heirlooms and important documents. Theft, water damage, heat, cold, fire, etc. etc.

If a full time liveaboard the documents and heirlooms would be with me, at a family members, or in a bank lockup.

My next stop is full-time live aboard. When I can't do that anymore it'll either be a small condo, a nursing home or an urn. If I can't take it with me, I'm not keeping it. If nobody else wants it, then it is what it is.

The physical item doesn't retain the memory. The nostalgia is what we're holding onto. The item is inconsequential. I haven't looked at our wedding photos since we had them developed put into an album 22 years ago. I haven't looked at my high school yearbook since I was walking the halls asking people (people I don't remember and haven't seen) to sign it for me.

 

[FF]

"Best thing for a boat is a pressure sensor mat hooked to an alarm panel."

YES!!! hooked to a solenoid on an air horn can its hard to miss an alert.

ALL outside lights can be triggered at the same time.

Even if you are not there the noise will cause interest.

 

[stubones99]

"Best thing for a boat is a pressure sensor mat hooked to an alarm panel."

YES!!! hooked to a solenoid on an air horn can its hard to miss an alert.

ALL outside lights can be triggered at the same time.

Even if you are not there the noise will cause interest.

Just make it easy to shut off when you forget the system was armed!!!