Tired of living on dry land? Exhausted from being cooped up in your house or apartment for the past year? You may be craving a new adventure or simply a change of environment. If you’re looking for one of the healthiest places to live in, have you considered becoming a liveaboarder?
Liveaboarders are people who choose to spend more time living aboard ships. There are a few circumstances that could make such a lifestyle more appealing than remaining on land. For example, when rent in San Francisco skyrocketed, some people chose to live in their yachts and boats. Or you could simply want to stretch your sea legs and experience the great outdoors in a new and more dynamic way.
However, as appealing as living on a boat is, becoming a liveboarder is much more complicated than you think. Moving your entire life unto a yacht means more than switching to men’s Dockers shoes and learning how to cast a fishing hook.
Before you head to the marina and cast off, here are 6 things you should know if you want to live on a boat.
Table of Contents
Marina Limits
If you have a boat or a yacht, you probably keep it docked at a marina. These safe harbors protect your vessel from rough weather and human interference. However, they’re also prestigious locales in pricey neighborhoods. They often impose a lot of limits on how long people can stay in their boats while its moored in the marina. This means you’ll have to sail out and anchor for the night outside its safe confines unless you want to face steep fines and censures.
Can Be Just as Expensive
Speaking of fines, if you’re thinking of escaping to sea to run away from high costs of living, liveaboarding may disappoint you. Living in a boat can be just as expensive as living on land, sometimes more so.
Here are just some costs associated with living on a boat for a long time.
- Slip fees, which are the price for mooring in a marina, can cost hundreds of dollars a month or even a week.
- Fuel costs for motorized ships depends on how far you take out the ships.
- Maintenance fees such as pumping out waste tanks, putting in water and general repairs.
- Insurance for you and your boat, especially if you plan on sailing to international waters.
All these costs can add up and make it just as, if not more, expensive than living in an apartment.
Confined Spaces
If you want to live on a boat because you’re tired of staying inside an apartment, you may be in for a disappointment. Unless you have a super yacht or even a mega yacht, you’re going to discover that boats are even more crammed than most small apartments. Unless you can handle living in a small and often moving space, you probably shouldn’t move to a boat.
Rough Weather
The sea is capricious and unless your boat is moored in a marina that allows you to stay aboard indefinitely, you’re going to have to brave the open water sooner or later. This is when living on a boat can become a matter of life and death. Unless you have a lot of experience sailing in adverse weather conditions, you should be very careful when sailing and anchoring in open water.
Supplies are Finite
When you run out of supplies at home, you can probably pop down to the nearest grocery or a corner bodega to buy some more. Unless you’re moored in a marina or a convenient port, you’re going to need to keep careful track of the supplies aboard your boat. If you think forgetting to pack enough snacks in while on a road trip is bad, imagine the same situation but you’re surrounded by miles of sea water. If you do plan on living on a boat, take care to pack enough supplies to last you for a week, maybe more just to be on the safe side.
It’s Not for Beginners
Not matter what type of boat you have, whether it’s a sailboat or a motorized yacht, traveling and living on the sea is not for amateurs. Unless you have months of sailing experience or plan on taking someone who has with you aboard your yacht, you’ll find live boarding to be enormously difficult and potentially life threatening. Aside form rough weather, which can endanger your life, you’ll need to do repairs, maintain the ship and find great spots for anchorage. All of these skills need time to develop and no beginner can master them without a guide.
Living on a boat full time can sound like an attractive alternative to staying in the same boring plot of land all the time. But it’s a monstrously complicated process to accomplish. However, if done correctly, you can enjoy an adventurous life on the water.
