Sailboat life update

Living on the sailboat has been a significant improvement in the quality of my life. I love being on the water, especially in the quiet times late at night or very early in the morning.

Money is still extremely tight. I managed to get the diesel serviced and repaired - new fuel pump and rebuilt starter. No air conditioning which means on three-digit days I come home after dark. The galley is rudimentary: mini-frig and mini- microwave plus electric kettle.

Storage space is an everyday challenge.

Need to fix a couple cabin leaks before winter.

All in all still seems like a good move.

Thanks for the update, I sure wish I could live on the water. Told my wife the other day that's the only reason I'd give up our house / where we live now... is to live on water! Either in a boat, or on a house on the lake.

I`m glad you are getting along, and able to do some upgrades, progress feels good I`m sure. We understand the bloody heat... been upper 90s for a couple weeks, and we don't have AC either but one room.

If you need anything shipped down that you can't find local you be sure to lemme know.

What major, and minor things do you want to do next to the boat or purchase to have on board?

-Todd

Fix a pesky diesel leak by replacing the gas tank with one larger and with a fuel guage, plus a new fuel line from the tank to the engine.

Hoping to add AC.

Yikes, no stove? Must be tough to cook. You have my sympathy and admiration.

Where's it docked again... I figured on the ocean you wouldn't need AC?

Any pics of her?

The boat is docked near Stockton, about 40 miles south of Sacramento.

dweste,

I envy you. I was trying for this approach a few years back. Find a nice live aboard and basically live in it for a few years. The mortages down here are nuts and housing is nuts. I could get a good deal on a yatch in Flordia, sail it down, and register it Caymanian. If a storm is coming, fill up with a tonne of provisions, and sail due south as fast as it can go.

But dreams like that die when you hook up with a woman who gets sea sick swimming in the ocean with no waves!

One day she promised me that I will own my own boat... i'm waiting for that day.

Kris

btw: A/C is important off shore when there's no wind. Try being stuck out in the carib ocean, no movement for a few days and just drifting. Running a generator or the engine for a few hours for the A/C alone is welcome relief. Some people have solar panels hooked up to their freezers and/or A/C units and while the freezer is using the juice the A/C unit isn't and then reverse it. Not sure how its hooked up but have a buddy who has that arrangement on his 43' cat with enough solar panels covering the whole back deck (its his canopy!).

Kris, I am trying to get things set up so you can envy them!

Right now the sailboat living is more like van camping. My goal is a sound coastal cruiser with an experienced skipper (me).

That said, getting up at night and looking at the stars and moon, or watching the sunrise, well, it is pretty darn nice.

The wife told me no to living on a houseboat

I love the water, was brought up on the water.. before I was born and during.. I`m half fish pretty much.

Ocean I`m not too familiar with... but I'd like to live ON a lake in a boat, or on a lake in a house.. either one is my ultimate goal someday.

Problem is I also want to remain living away from a big town so that means private lake, and $$

Is there anyway you can post pics? If you need a camera let me know I probably have an old one here someplace.

Of what would you like pictures?

Dunno?

The boat sitting?
Everyday life on the boat, how things are working out?
How you do storage?
Cooking?
Your neighbors?
Etc



I have to live through you for this experience!

Any visiting sea lions ?

ya`know anything

I'm already at the envy stage! It was my dream to live aboard any way I could. Love taking a boat out after work, tie up to a buoy and just relax. Get up early, make it back to the slip and head on to work. That was my surefire way to mellow out after a very fustrating day of work.

We have a similar dream - get the kids through university then set off on an extended cruise on a big catamaran....

Good luck with getting your boat sorted. Envy here too!

Why a sailboat?

When I began seriously thinking about survival topics the idea of self-sufficiency in an emergency became central. I worked my way through putting together a personal first-aid kit ("PFK"), a personal survival kit ("PSK"), and a bug out bag ("BOB"). I added a bit more gear and supplies for a vehicle survival kit (I don't know if there is an acronym for this one!).

Then I started looking around for someplace to get out of town in an emergency. I found a survival retreat location about 40 miles away and began planning survival caches along the route in case I had to get there on foot and a larger cache at the site.

Somewhere in the process I realized I was probably going to experience a business failure and lose my house to foreclosure and that I did not have the money to finish and equip the survival retreat. Necessity being the mother of invention, I did a major re-think.

Since I was in the single-digits I sailed small boats, paddled canoes, etcetera. Fishing is my number one passion, and I love seeing what's around the next point. I live in the San Joaquin -Sacramento Delta about 90 water miles from the Golden Gate Bridge in San Franciso Bay and the Pacific Ocean. Put that together with survival off the grid and a sailboat became the obvious choice for me.

Dweste, can anybody give me the differences in ownership and operating costs for sail and power boats?

I have a suspicion the cost of either boat tends to balance out but I don't know. So how much of the savings in fuel by sailing is lost to the cost of maintaining the sails and rigging?

I like the idea of onboard living but I am thinking I would just pick up a diesel instead of a sailer.

Sail versus power?

There are some online discussions of this but the topic is fairly complex and seems to turn on the assumptions that go into the examples. The sailboat I chose has a small diesel engine and most sailboats of liveabord size have some kind of engine.

In an emergency which is likely to be available to you: wind or fuel? If resources are being commandered, hoarded, or fought over, which is more likely to be available?

My choice is go with the combination.

If you are thinking about cruising, the cost per mile advantage shifts pretty dramatically to sail.

My two cents:

I've noticed in the years of boating/sailing/yatching/just whatever with boats that with sail, you'll forever be spending time doing something to the vessel. With power, you'll forever be spending money on it!

Anything fun, or worth using for travel cost money.

Todd_w... there's some truth to that ;-)

Shoe's aren't too bad though Hehe