30 years living aboard full time....

[Capt. Joe]

..... but, as of this year, we start living ashore in winters.
...
If you asked me, I would not have done it any different. Whether in the Caribbean or icebound on the Great Lakes, life could not be better than aboard a boat. I think we are more healthy because of it.
After some fifteen years in the south, the change of seasons up in Ontario Canada was much welcomed by both myself and my wife. A wood stove crackling inside and a nasty cold wind blows across the frozen bay. Deer, wolves, coyotes, river otters, wild turkeys all around us.
...
Had a good run, but getting too old to shovel snow and the price of electricity makes it not so feasible to stay onboard for the winters in Ontario anymore.
Soon the boat will be icebound (they can't haul us out where we are located) and we will be in our apartment only a few minutes away, overlooking the rushing waters of Big Bob Channel where it never freezes (I need that), right at Lock 32 of the Trent Severn Waterway.
...
We have had webcams uploading from the boat since 2003, they will keep working. At our summer dock for now, but soon will be looking over the icy waters of Pigeon Lake.
Direct link to webcams page: CruisingDog WebCam
...

 

[boathealer]

Wow. Just wow.
Aspirations........

 

[Irish Rambler]

Lovely pictures.
In my humble opinion swallows aren't stupid, turn the key and keep going South till the butter melts and you'll be grand !

 

[The Other Gary]

Hey Joe, congrats on 30 years. I am in my 16th year, all of them wintering aboard on lake Ontario.

 

[Capt. Joe]

We did a few years at Bluffers Park, it was great, but not the city up the hill....

 

[Capt. Joe]

Lovely pictures.
In my humble opinion swallows aren't stupid, turn the key and keep going South till the butter melts and you'll be grand !

Thanks for the kind words re the pics.
BUT, in my humble opinion, paradise is where you make it.
I get tired of people saying the same as you did. We were there for years down south, 3 hurricanes, one was Andrew in the Berry Islands, lived through it, ate lobster every day, lived on oysters & beer, my wife was a divemaster, I was a 100 Ton USCG Master and when it's all the same day in day out, even it gets old if you are a person who needs changes. Besides, we did it when we were young. As we get older, neither of us handles the heat very well.
We are very happy to be out of the US and in Canada anyway.....

 

[BandB]

Thanks for the kind words re the pics.
BUT, in my humble opinion, paradise is where you make it.
I get tired of people saying the same as you did. We were there for years down south, 3 hurricanes, one was Andrew in the Berry Islands, lived through it, ate lobster every day, lived on oysters & beer, my wife was a divemaster, I was a 100 Ton USCG Master and when it's all the same day in day out, even it gets old if you are a person who needs changes. Besides, we did it when we were young. As we get older, neither of us handles the heat very well.
We are very happy to be out of the US and in Canada anyway.....

Wifey B: That's the thing. Just do what makes you happy and if that changes, then change what you're doing. It's not as complicated as people make it. I see retired people saying "it's too hot here or too cold here" and yet they stay right there and complain all the time.

What makes each of us happy is different. Also, I believe certain things will make me happy when I get older, but no one really knows until they're there. When's the right time to stop living aboard year round, whenever you think it is. No rules. We've had discussions here when we'd stop boating. No one knows. Do you really know what you'll do for lunch tomorrow? Much less years from now.

 

[Capt. Joe]

Absolutely. We all are different but I always have been a bit of a gypsy. Rather live on the edge but not too far out....

 

[The Other Gary]

We did a few years at Bluffers Park, it was great, but not the city up the hill....

I don't like Bluffers at all, it is all manufactured landfill. I am at Frenchmans Bay with lots of natural areas and wildlife. By the way the floatplane you videoed last summer up on Pidgeon Lake just landed in here and will be up on the beach at a friend's place for the winter.

 

[Lou_tribal]

Thanks for the kind words re the pics.

BUT, in my humble opinion, paradise is where you make it.

I get tired of people saying the same as you did. We were there for years down south, 3 hurricanes, one was Andrew in the Berry Islands, lived through it, ate lobster every day, lived on oysters & beer, my wife was a divemaster, I was a 100 Ton USCG Master and when it's all the same day in day out, even it gets old if you are a person who needs changes. Besides, we did it when we were young. As we get older, neither of us handles the heat very well.

We are very happy to be out of the US and in Canada anyway.....

I hear you !

L

 

[Capt. Joe]

Wow, small world is it not!

 

[Lou_tribal]

I don't like Bluffers at all, it is all manufactured landfill. I am at Frenchmans Bay with lots of natural areas and wildlife. By the way the floatplane you videoed last summer up on Pidgeon Lake just landed in here and will be up on the beach at a friend's place for the winter.

I need to visit this one with such a name

L

 

[The Other Gary]

I need to visit this one with such a name

L

And you will be welcome Lou, as the dockmaster of www.fairportyachtclub.ca I can give you a free slip for 3 days.

 

[Fletcher500]

I bet you had some fantastic adventures over the past 30 years.


The second pic, where she is in the slip solo covered in snow is very cool.

 

[dhmeissner]

Congrats Capt. Joe to you and you’re bride. Wonderful post!

 

[Moonfish]

BUT, in my humble opinion, paradise is where you make it.

Agreed! My friend Eric Stone wrote one of my all-time favorite lyrics (from our Latitudes & Attitudes TV show theme song):

Paradise is not a place, it's a state of mind...

My wife, daughter and I are only in our 6th year of living aboard. Inasmuch as your 30 years afloat is impressive, that you were able to do it in so many interesting places is even more so!

 

[Moonfish]

We even made that line into a t-shirt!

 

[Capt. Joe]

Listened a lot to Eric Stone and met him a few times back in the nineties in Marathon, he used to play at Burdines then, before he bought Dockside.....

 

[Capt. Joe]

I bet you had some fantastic adventures over the past 30 years.

Here is one of our bigger adventures, in the eye of Hurricane Andrew from 1992. (The boat's hull was white then. We decided to go for gray during the refit in Nassau Bahamas; it allowed us to buy cheaper fuel and dockage where the commercial boats tied up):
Surviving Hurricane Andrew
...
That's us at the end of the dock.

 

[BandB]

Listened a lot to Eric Stone and met him a few times back in the nineties in Marathon, he used to play at Burdines then, before he bought Dockside.....

Wifey B: Never seen or heard him in person, but listening online, I'd say about him:

He's very pleasant to listen to. He really sounds a lot like Jimmy Buffett. I'd classify them both as balladeers and I mean that in a very complimentary way. Light entertainment. You understand all the words. It's laid back, good listening music.

Now, going to have to make a point to see and hear him in person.

 

[Moonfish]

Capt. Joe - Is the Wittholz 40 the boat you've been on the entire 30 years?

 

[Capt. Joe]

He has been labelled a "JB Wannabe", of course. The music is "Trop Rock" and was the child of Buffett. In the last 20 years a lot of good artists have evolved with it.

 

[Capt. Joe]

Affirmative

 

[healhustler]

Fantastic post. I’ll never be able to say 30 years, but only God knows. I’m also pretty fed up with the heat, but my German Admiral loves it, so....
Best wishes for continuing the paradise state of mind!