Our baby steps...

[Allan S]

The wife ad I are taking our first steps to living aboard. On a Coronado 25 no less. We sail on Lake Ontario and took 11 days off from work to try this. Terrible weather so far with strong winds and extremely heavy rains at times. We got beat up Friday and limped back to our marina. We definitely were out of our skill levels there.

So far, we have found these negative aspects:

-Chemical toilet, enough said
-mouldy bread, pinch off the mould and have at her
-5' 6" headroom, neck massages from the Missus (The massage is not negative Dear)
-3 persistant deck leaks
-Mattresses, need better mattresses

the positive aspects are:

-Time with my wife
-The quality of life onboard this smelly old boat cannot be quantified
-Very little technological pollution ie: cars planes traffic etc
-Very little stress, I mean very little.
-Expenses have been cut down for some odd reason, we allotted $65 per day in individual envelopes and have been getting by with $40 a day. Not bad if I do say so myself.


All in all we would not give this time back for anything. We are on track for our new life in 8 years. Albeit, we have to hone our sailing skills a hundredfold and be up on self sufficiency when it comes to boat maintenace but that what this old smelly boat is all about.

I'll be honing my hull repair work this winter, (mostly self inflicted...lol)

We are understanding more in what we need in a boat, for our needs that is and are shooting for that. Any comments or tips would be greatly appreciated....Allan
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[imagine2frolic]

NOT NAMED YET! lolololol'

Even though you limped back to the marina. You are now a much wiser couple. It can be a steep, or not so steep learning curve. Rome wasn't built in a day, and your skill will not come overnight.........BEST WISHES in your new chapter of your lives....

[Ex-Calif]

Originally Posted by Allan S

-5' 6" headroom, neck massages from the Missus (The massage is not negative Dear)

<snip>

Any comments or tips would be greatly appreciated....Allan

My advice is don't get a boat with taller headroom

[Eleven]

Well done. First storm and survived. Learnt alot about when to start, when to abort, and when to pray because you got the first two wrong.
What else do you need to know? Caution is the biggest part of being a cruiser.
Week / ending puts too much pressure on starting the trip or making for home port.
I've got a few more months but nothing I've read here has put me off at all. Good advice, cautious planning and a bit of practice and remembering everything I've read here will get us through.

[vveerrgg]

Way to go Allan, I'm also on Lake Ontario and thinking of doing a similar experiment except on a catamaran. I don't have any advice... but I'm definitely curious to learn more too.

Right now I'm trying to figure out monthly expenses for keeping a boat near downtown Toronto at any of the many sailing clubs. If you happen to find out any information in that direction please definitely update the thread or PM me.

[swabbmob]

You've got the right attitude! Which is 98% of the whole deal. You might check out the Liveaboard Forum for another source of info.