We’ve lived on our boat(s) for 6-9 months/yr for the last 12. Over that time have made the following observations.
There’s a bunch of people who have started with a dream of a cruising life and then it became a nightmare. Their source of income disappeared or never really existed. They fell into the hole of substance abuse, or their personal relationships fell apart. So many reasons for a downward spiral. But they’re left depressed without a vision of how to reintegrate into society and stuck in the cycle of it’s expensive to be poor.
In upper Woburn bay in Grenada there was such a collection of lost souls. Most came from European countries. One individual who hadn’t moved in years had a brain tumor. The cruising community brought him to his doctor appointments and dropped food and water on his boat. When he died they towed his boat to another bay to be hauled and disposed. Another was a young French family with three kids under ten. They were on a small home made steel boat they sailed across the pond. Not being able to find work the boat was deteriorating rapidly. They were given baby sitting and a ride for the parents to Martinique to organize government assistance and repatriation. Can offer similar examples for Antigua, PR, St. Vincent. But can’t think of this ever occurring in the U.S. other than one example in Newport RI. A gentleman who owned a few mooring there was going blind. In the past he went back and forth to FL with the seasons. His progressive blindness made him unsafe. Could no longer sail. Local cruisers attended to his needs and collected his mooring fees.
So instead of holding your noise and averting your eyes might be worthwhile to politely obtain the backstory. Unlike elsewhere often there’s laws about allowing intervention if the situation is unsanitary or a risk to the resident or others. Not infrequently a random act of kindness can be life altering. In medicine they say don’t just treat the symptoms. Treat the disease or the symptoms will never clear.
Unfortunately regardless of where you go you take your problems with you. Particularly true for substance abuse and mental illness. Unfortunately it’s unlikely the local group of fellow cruisers or marinas have the resources to deal with these issues. However governmental agencies proport to have them. This is another possible avenue to pursue.
What we face isn’t the Busted Flat with Meyer living next store but all too often people resistant to changing their behavior in deference to the needs and concerns of others. Some are just egocentric ********, some are just too impaired or overwhelmed to be concerned about others. However there’s strength in numbers. Talk with the other boaters in your immediate vicinity. Arrive at a plan supported by the group. It’s possible confronting the individual, authorities that be and applying peer pressure may help resolve the problem.
