Homesteading on the Ocean

[Wave_Rider]

Has anyone given any thought to Seasteading - that is, homesteading on the ocean?

There are lots of books on the subject. Growing your own food on your boat, harvesting the ocean's plants for food, and catching your own food like fish and crabs and such.

Has anyone ever done anything like that? And if so, what tips can you offer?

[belizesailor]

Book on the subject: https://g.co/kgs/gS7wjH

[GordMay]

Greetings and welcome aboard the CF, Wave Rider.

[pesarsten]

The Chinese government has a great system in the south China sea, build an island and call it ......

[Lepke]

Commercial fishing, I traded fish to local farmers for land food stuff. Unless you have a really big boat you won't grow enough to stay alive. Hydroponics are your best bet, but also need a lot of fresh water. I once grew 300 lbs. of potatoes in a 4'x8' hydroponic plot (on land). And as Seasteading implies, you can't stay in one spot because of weather changes. You have to have some income to replace things that break or wear out.

[UNCIVILIZED]

There are multiple useful posts on the subject if you use the Google custom search feature, along with the key words uncivilized, & seasteading. I did exactly that here, but am not sure if it'll give you the same results that it did for me https://cse.google.com/cse?siteurl=w...ing&gsc.page=1

[valhalla360]

Can you define your idea of seasteading a bit more?

Will you be a legal resident and living within the boundaries of a country?
- If yes, you are basically just another anchored out liveaboard but with a survivalist mentality. Understand the local rules and play by them or expect to be pushed out by the authorities.
- If no, finding a secure place to settle gets tough because there aren't a lot of good anchorages that aren't claimed by some country and if on the open sea, you are exposed to every storm that comes by.

Ultimately, it's tough to build/grow/fabricate everything needed for life and maintenance of you and the boat in the small confines available.

[Wave_Rider]

Originally Posted by valhalla360

Can you define your idea of seasteading a bit more?

Will you be a legal resident and living within the boundaries of a country?
- If yes, you are basically just another anchored out liveaboard but with a survivalist mentality. Understand the local rules and play by them or expect to be pushed out by the authorities.
- If no, finding a secure place to settle gets tough because there aren't a lot of good anchorages that aren't claimed by some country and if on the open sea, you are exposed to every storm that comes by.

Ultimately, it's tough to build/grow/fabricate everything needed for life and maintenance of you and the boat in the small confines available.

Seasteading is basically like homesteading, but it's on a boat, whether it be a sailboat or some other kind of boat.

You basically turn your boat into self-sustaining home. You grow your own food, provide your own energy, and basically live off the grid as much as possible.

Of course, some things you have to come to land for. But you mostly live at anchor off shore.

[Mike OReilly]

Many cruisers live in various levels of "seasteading." We are pretty much electrically independent. Water can be collected (but I wish for a watermaker) and manage our own effluent. We fish on occasion. Haven't harvested other stuff, but like the idea. We grow sprouts and herbs. We only go to a dock when we must. And many others do better than us.

I don't think you could grow enough food on a boat to sustain a crew. Hunting and gathering is likely possible in certain areas, but you'd need a pretty large, and likely immobile, boat to produce enough food onboard.

[Wave_Rider]

Originally Posted by Mike OReilly

Many cruisers live in various levels of "seasteading." We are pretty much electrically independent. Water can be collected (but I wish for a watermaker) and manage our own effluent. We fish on occasion. Haven't harvested other stuff, but like the idea. We grow sprouts and herbs. We only go to a dock when we must. And many others do better than us.

I don't think you could grow enough food on a boat to sustain a crew. Hunting and gathering is likely possible in certain areas, but you'd need a pretty large, and likely immobile, boat to produce enough food onboard.

Yeah. I'm looking into buying my own sailboat to live on. I plan to have both solar panel and wind turbine for electricity; everything is going to be as manual or at least as non-dependent on electricity as possible - using mounted l.e.d. lights, etc.;

There's lots of home-growing kits for herbs and vegetables; there's tons of books about homesteading, it's just a matter of adapting it to living on the ocean;

I'm not the "doomsday prepper" type, but there are good lessons you can get from books on prepping - lots of survival tips that could come in handy.

[Wave_Rider]

And apart from occasionally chartering or something, it's mostly gonna be just me on the boat.

[belizesailor]

Originally Posted by Wave_Rider

Seasteading is basically like homesteading, but it's on a boat, whether it be a sailboat or some other kind of boat.

You basically turn your boat into self-sustaining home. You grow your own food, provide your own energy, and basically live off the grid as much as possible.

Of course, some things you have to come to land for. But you mostly live at anchor off shore.

Aside from growing their own food, this sounds a lot like what most cruisers do.

Note that once you are out of developed countries, locally produced food is inexpensive...so the financial incentive for producing your own is minimal. I could see maybe growing some sprouts or herbs to supplement provisions, but buying staple products (flour, rice, beans, chicken, fish, veggies...) is relatively inexpensive at least here in the W Carib/Central America. And, growing enough food to completely feed yourself would require a lot more space than available on most cruising boats.

Provisioning locally also adds to the experience by visiting local markets, eating local foods, and interacting with locals...who are always very pleased to explain their local fare.

During cruising season we often spend weeks or months mostly at anchor and almost totally self sufficient except for provisions and fuel. We produce/collect our own water (water maker + catchment), produce our own electricity (solar/engines...with good sun may only start engines once a week to get full SOC), catch fish, etc.

Its also not uncommon in some venues for the locals to come to you to sell produce. And, catching a nice big fish can feed a cruising couple for weeks. We gave a lot of the King Mack below away and still had King Mack often for at least two weeks.

[valhalla360]

Originally Posted by Wave_Rider

Seasteading is basically like homesteading, but it's on a boat, whether it be a sailboat or some other kind of boat.

You basically turn your boat into self-sustaining home. You grow your own food, provide your own energy, and basically live off the grid as much as possible.

Of course, some things you have to come to land for. But you mostly live at anchor off shore.

Already had a generic definition. I was looking for details of what you are proposing.

Pretty much every liveaboard "seasteads" to a degree. So where are you going to do this and to what extreme?
- At the very low end, you live on a boat in a marina and go out fishing occasionally, maybe do some maintenance yourself and grow some herbs.
- At the extreme end, you float on the open ocean (can't really anchor offshore) for years at a time growing or harvesting your food while jury rigging things to keep the boat afloat and surviving (think the cheesy movie "water world").
- or more likely something in between.

Big issue with this subject is the guys asking usually want to check out from society and that runs you into problems as all the viable locations are owned and controlled by someone and they have rules and regulations. Basically if you are talking about setting up along the coast, the good spots are largely taken, hence why water front property is so expensive.

If you are just talking about living aboard and cruising where you fish and maybe beach comb for edibles...if you are judicious and don't make a pest of yourself toward the nearby property owners, you can certainly do it.

If you are planning to get an old 50'x100' barge, build a hut on it and grow a garden while anchored in the same popular anchroage for years...expect the locals to eventually chase you off if you become a nuisance. (search the florida anchoring threads for more back and forth than you want to read)

[valhalla360]

Originally Posted by Wave_Rider

And apart from occasionally chartering or something, it's mostly gonna be just me on the boat.

Are you a licensed captain? At least in the states chartering is out without it and in other countries you need a work permit which often aren't available since they want to reserve jobs for the locals.

[Wave_Rider]

I'm not a licensed captain yet, but when I buy my own sailboat, I plan to get my captains license. I know I can't operate a charter without a license, not legally anyway.

I plan to anchor off shore and fish majority of the time, occasionally coming to land for provisions and fuel.

I plan to sail all over the world, from the east coast and the Caribbean to places like the Mediterranean Sea and the Pacific islands.