How did you figure out how much time to spend on board?

[ranger58sb]

That's a very common subject around our house.

I have not as yet experienced it being routine...

i find this to be absolutely true in our case.

OT: Nice multi-quote post!

Relative to the original topic, we spent zero time/effort; we just started using the boats as often as we could... and that's just grown as it will, now that we have more time of our own.

IOW, we have no fixed schedule or plan, nor do we intend to develop anything like that.

-Chris

 

[Donna]

For me, if it's longer than 2 weeks, I have to leave the boat at a marina wherever I am and fly home. Job dictates the length of time I am able to stay aboard. If I could live aboard, I would.

 

[Codger2]

OT: Nice multi-quote post! -Chris

Thanks for teaching how to do that, Chris!

 

[MurrayM]

As sea kayakers/photographers we found two months to be a good length for a trip. It generally takes two weeks for the cobwebs of civilization to fall away, after which your eyes really begin to open up and you become more aware of the subtler things going on around you.

Our retirement plan, so far, is to explore BC's north coast during all four seasons. We'll probably keep to the two month at a time schedule (making shorter jaunts during winter between storm systems) then return to Kitimat to do town things, see family, process negatives, edit digital photo's, mow the lawn, etc...

Plans are to begin learning photogravure as well, so I'll have lots of experimentation/learning to do at home, and will hopefully be sending gravures out to collectors and/or galleries on a regular basis.

Fresh water isn't an issue...we just fill water jugs at creeks. We'll get a watermaker when age makes hopping around on slippery rocks with heavy water jugs a safety issue.

 

[BandB]

With retirement quickly approaching I would like to cruise more long distances, and my wife is talking about it as well, but time will tell where the hobby/lifestyle goes. She says "I don't want to live on the boat" but I have no idea how much time will be too much. I don't think either of us do, we'll just have to figure that out along the way.

Wifey B: You won't know until you try. How can you know what is too long until you hit too long?

 

[DHeckrotte]

While I've been retired for several years, Sue retired this past December so that we could begin longer cruising on the trawler. First cruise longer than the two week-ers we've been doing since 1995 is 'planned' for this summer: Three months overall including about 45 motoring days - a mini-loop to include the Erie C, the Rideau C, Ottawa R, a bit of the St Lawrence R, the Richelieu, Lake Champlain, the NY Canal, and the two necessary tails to get us to and from Rock Hall.

We have considerable anchors in Philly: offspring and grand kids relatively nearby, connections to the community, a nice old house that I've done lots to since 1995 and that's pretty much finally done the way we had planned and like, Flying Dutchman sailboats in the barn, Sue's heirloom vegetable and flower gardens, a couple libraries chock-a-block with books, a project list for the basement woodworking shop, lots of stickered rough-sawn wood - red and white oak, ash, walnut, and beech, a 1920 6'-4 Knabe grand piano with a freshly restored Ampico reproducer and around 850 Ampico recordings.

The boat is too small.

 

[JDCAVE]

I didn't read the title of this thread carefully when I first replied. It really kind of evolved. We didn't plan to spend as much money or buy a boat as large and as capable as we ultimately did. I started looking at CHB 34's, but Pam nixed that vessel in a hurry as being "insufficient for her needs". Then we started looking at Europa style boats: Initially 38's, then 40's and 42's. All the while I had to convince myself that I could "handle" a larger vessel. We did a couple of bare-boat charters. Then we considered pilothouses as options, ultimately settling on our current make and model. And of course "the right boat", "our boat", became available.

So...we had to justify the size and cost of a boat that was clearly beyond what we had planned for. It came down to agreeing that we would use this boat. There would be no turning back once we did that. And the places we wanted to go, would take time to visit properly, over several years. Perhaps 10-15 years. And we decided to take 3-4 months per year. This will be a 4 month year. Buying the boat we chose means we could extend our original goals for travel and provide all the comforts of home.

After 2, 3 or 4 months at sea, we are ready to go back to our home on land, knowing that we will return to our ocean home next year.

Jim

 

[Andy G]

Wifey B: We talk all the time about choosing boats, but what about choosing lifestyles.


Interesting, this concept of choice.

Take Wifey B (only because she initiated the thread) she may not have had much to do with boats growing up.Then all of a sudden she meets Mr Band B, who knows how, they fall in love. They buy a place near water,so it is natural to have a boat. One boat leads to another etc & here you are.I doubt she would be on this forum had Mr Band B been a rancher in the mid west.She may have learnt to fly and may be, in a parallel universe, posting on an aviation forum about her twin engine Cessna.

My point is how much of someones present situation came through a deliberate choice & how much through a succession of events that had unforeseen consequences.We all have that thought occasionally,' I wonder what would have happened if'....... You may say it is a waste of time to ponder what may have been, but those same twists of fate still operate, and maybe today you will indeed do something seemingly trivial that will have profound outcome on your life, for better or worse. The gods are fickle. So don't be too quick to assume you control your own destiny.Not sure which one to post
or

 

[ksanders]

Wifey B: You won't know until you try. How can you know what is too long until you hit too long?

Exactly! For us it's all about options.

Long term cruising has a "romantic" appeal to many. I think that's the dream of allot of large cruiser buyers. The challenge is that they don't know if they really like it until they try it.

 

[BandB]

Wifey B: We talk all the time about choosing boats, but what about choosing lifestyles.


Interesting, this concept of choice.

Take Wifey B (only because she initiated the thread) she may not have had much to do with boats growing up.Then all of a sudden she meets Mr Band B, who knows how, they fall in love. They buy a place near water,so it is natural to have a boat. One boat leads to another etc & here you are.I doubt she would be on this forum had Mr Band B been a rancher in the mid west.She may have learnt to fly and may be, in a parallel universe, posting on an aviation forum about her twin engine Cessna.

My point is how much of someones present situation came through a deliberate choice & how much through a succession of events that had unforeseen consequences.We all have that thought occasionally,' I wonder what would have happened if'....... You may say it is a waste of time to ponder what may have been, but those same twists of fate still operate, and maybe today you will indeed do something seemingly trivial that will have profound outcome on your life, for better or worse. The gods are fickle. So don't be too quick to assume you control your own destiny.Not sure which one to post
or

Wifey B: Combination of choice and circumstances. We consider meeting an absolute against all odds amazing incredible unbelievable miracle. Now, from that first second, then we chose and we chose outside our norms, outside what we'd ever done.

As to boats, either of us could have never owned one. We have a girlfriend who now owns a boat that she never would have owned had she not met us.

We also recognize the role of luck in our lives, knowing we've been incredibly lucky. We see too many people who think their success is their superiority in some way and the lack of success of others is all their failure. We recognize all the luck. We see people all the time who are more deserving than we are and just haven't been as lucky or fortunate.

 

[catalinajack]

Easy,

Sold the house
Sold the cars
Told the kids they can't come home

Pretty much did the same. Moved aboard full-time last August. We do not at all miss having a dirt house and this having lived in a 5,200 sf house. Incredibly liberating! Our plan is to cruise for 5 - 7 years and then decide whether we want to live on dirt again. I think, though, as long as we are able to get on and off the boat safely, we'll stay aboard. Right now neither of us has any physical limitations but we are both in our late sixties and time is not on our side in this regard.

 

[BandB]

Pretty much did the same. Moved aboard full-time last August. We do not at all miss having a dirt house and this having lived in a 5,200 sf house. Incredibly liberating! Our plan is to cruise for 5 - 7 years and then decide whether we want to live on dirt again. I think, though, as long as we are able to get on and off the boat safely, we'll stay aboard. Right now neither of us has any physical limitations but we are both in our late sixties and time is not on our side in this regard.

One thing I've noticed and this may or may not apply to you is that many take living on the boat as a step toward changing their home anyway, whether permanent or temporary. They may have 5200 sq ft in a cold climate with a lot of upkeep and even if not moving on a boat, would be considering 2000 sq ft in a warmer year round climate. The house they own and/or the location are no longer ideal for them anyway. So they head out on the boat, but no regrets on the house as even when they can't any longer do the boat, that wasn't the right house for them. This is especially true if one leaves the boat due to physical limitations.

I know many discover where they ultimately want to live while living on their boat.