The True Cost of Life Aboard? (not in $ ;) )

[bobconnie]

We raised our 4 kids on a boat. They all have there own lives . All still come to vist when they can, and sail with us ! Our son is a first mate on a boat in Alaska, one of our daughters is a RN as her mother Connie is, one of our daughters has a boat of her own! They sure seem to have no bad feelings over there strange up bringing! They still talk about the places they were at, and the things they have seen, the strange food they tryed! I realy believe they are better for there years at sea! just our 2 cents

[rebel heart]

Originally Posted by o_q

Kids are ANCHORS!

Tell that to my kids. Youngest is six months old, born in a foreign country, and has over thirty days of underway sea time. My oldest was in a gale at four months.

[hellosailor]

barnakiel-
Janis Joplin said it more eloquently: "Freedom means nothing left to lose."

nw, I think you miss Raku's point entirely. If you are in your 30's and on some type of career path, not just working McD's or some other throw-away job, you probably get one or two weeks of vacation per year--no more. Even if you can afford to fly out to visit the folks, you can't fly out very often. You've got two weeks vacation. If you are lucky you spend one with a significant other, or friends, or whatever. Which leaves one week, once per year, to see the folks. Once.

Folks who get more time off, usually have spent a number of years on the same job, which is rare enough these days, or are in a very rare few industries and treasured employers.

But folks who don't want to be away from their families, can't become vagrant travelers. Only five generations ago, most folks had never been more than 25 miles from their birthplace, or home, in their lives.

[JazzyO]

Originally Posted by hellosailor

barnakiel-
Janis Joplin said it more eloquently: "Freedom means nothing left to lose."

A bit pedantic, I'm sorry, but it was Johnny Cash and Charlie Williams who wrote the song, and the quote is "Freedom is just another word for nothing left to lose". Wonderful line.


Onno

[Coops]

Originally Posted by JazzyO

A bit pedantic, I'm sorry, but it was Johnny Cash and Charlie Williams who wrote the song, and the quote is "Freedom is just another word for nothing left to lose". Wonderful line.


Onno

Bit more pedantic. Don't know where you got the info from but Me and Bobby Mcgee was written by Kris Kristoffersen and Fred Foster. The words are "Freedom's just another word for nuthin' left to lose"

Coops.

[goboatingnow]

i dont see the problem, if you want to see the kids, YOU fly home.

dave

[Teknav]

Just remember to keep good communications with the family, as you'll need them someday. Sooner or later, as we get older, the boat will not be the final resting place/home.

Mauritz
Live your life to the max...

[Group9]

Grandmother missing the grand kids is what brought us home from our cruise.

It's all about balance, I guess. We'll go back cruising again, but I doubt it will ever be for more than six months or so.

[JPA Cate]

Originally Posted by farmall.dude

Thought the title would intrigue enough people to get a decent number of looks at this post. This isn't about money. So, stop rolling your eyes and mumbling "Not another one" to yourself!
I'm a long way away from realizing our dream of cruising off into our retirement (10-15 years). So far, I've read tons of posts and blogs about what it costs to live aboard and cruise the islands. I've read posts about the weather and posts about many other issues that deal with daily life on a sailboat. The one thing I haven't found is an answer to the one big question we have about this lifestyle... How do you keep from getting Homesick? We'd both love to sail away to the islands for a couple years or so, but neither of us can imagine being away from our Grandkids for months at a time (maybe more). We thought about taking them with us, but their parents would object I'm sure! (Maybe not, since they'll be teenagers by then !)
How do you folks deal with not seeing your family? How often do you get to see them? How do you do it? I doubt my kids will be able to afford to fly down every couple months (time and money wise), and likewise we likely couldn't afford to fly back that often. What places do generally have the best flights back to the US? What about safe places to leave the boat for a couple weeks? I imagine it doesn't take criminals too long to figure out a boat is vacant.
All these questions... I bet you veterans hate us dreamers, don't you! LOL!

Okay, I'll give this one a go, but I want to first refer the OP back to Dulcesueno's answer: that no matter how much input we give you, you are the only ones who can make the decisions. Furthermore unless you are quite wealthy, some answers will be quite outside your means--and there is no reason to believe prices/costs will diminish.

Homesick? Nope, never felt that. As stated above, my boat's my home. Regrets, yes, because I am not close with any of my grandchildren, and valued friendships don't survive absences as long as mine. However, all decisions have consequences, some predictable, and some unforeseen. And cruising, we have had some remarkable experiences that could have happened no other way.

So I would ask you and your good lady to consider the value to you of what you anticipate about cruising? Will you enjoy and take pride in taking care of yourselves, or become frustrated when you find yourselves spending hours waiting for repairs to be made? Waiting for repairmen doesn't go away just because you sell up your property, unless you are able to maintain the systems on your boat, or have enough wealth to go entertain yourselves and pay for the repairs, too.

As grandkids move towards adulthood, and from middle school on, they are faced with the challenge of becoming competent adults in a world which is changing faster than ours was, when we were that age. If you have created and maintained close relationships from their beginnings, you may be able to stay "friends" with them, but they are still outward bound. Don't kid yourselves about it. We bought a bigger boat so the grandkids could come see us (on our nickel). This happened twice. There are 11 grandkids.

There are zero "free" flights. Costs may be less here and there, but you'll be deceiving yourselves if you think it will be cheap to go see them. In addition, you can wind up being a burden on them because they have to give up what they'd rather do to spend time with you. Try to remember how you both were when you were 15-19 yrs. old.

IMO, a core issue is how independent both of you are, because if you need a stable, land based support system, you will not be a happy cruiser.

Some people require what seem luxuries to me. Did you know going places by sailboat is joking referred to by some of us as the world's most expensive way to travel fourth class? The modern propensity for requiring daily showers and frozen foods makes boats lots more complicated: watermakers (with attendant maintenance) bit electricity users; freezers, more electricity needed than just fridges; often leads to gensets (another motor to maintain), larger battery banks, bigger boats, and so on. You might take a look at the cruising under $500/mo thread to see what others live without, and then figure out where on the spectrum of spending you will fit, and what you and your good lady think are "necessities." Here's an example. My boat has no hot water supplied to the galley. All the hot water we've required for the past 25 yrs.' cruising has been heated on the stove, with the exception of the "new" boat, which has a demand heater for shower water only. This has not been an inconvenience to me; others might find it quite difficult. YMMV somehow takes this full circle back to what Dulcesuenos wrote: only you can decide.

I hope this is some help.

[Cheechako]

Easy, fly home during the hurricane season, or hot season etc. In the 2-3 months you're home you might spend more quality time with your Grandkids than if you lived 5 miles away! Also, get them to come to some nice and easy place in paradise... like the Bahamas. My G'kids still talk about the two adventures we had there today, they wil always remember that type of thing more than the time you took them for pizza....

[hellosailor]

Anybody who claims to remember exactly what who said in the '60's, must have been a narc. <VBG>

KIDDING THERE! Please don't take offense. But memory gaps from the 60's....

[Svdestiny]

Originally Posted by hellosailor

Anybody who claims to remember exactly what who said in the '60's, must have been a narc. <VBG>

KIDDING THERE! Please don't take offense. But memory gaps from the 60's....

ROFLMAO !!!!

[In Training]

Have to agree with the people who say teenagers and adult children get busy. We have one in Texas, one in Colorado and we are in Indiana (only two stayed in Indiana and for the life of me, I can't figure out why they're still here).

What you have when grandchildren are 2 to 13 is gone when they get older. Not to say they still don't like or love you, but they are getting ready to start their adventure or well on their way. Guarantee you they won't be thinking about you much of the time.

But if you have wrapped your world up in grandchildren instead of your husband, it could be a difficult transition -- but when grandchildren get older you will have to make the transition anyway. Might as well make in the islands.

[Hudson Force]

Among some families with a tradition of cruising and livingaboard there is no adaptation or adjustment to be made; although, it is easier for us because most of our family is on our typical cruising route. We usually stay in North Florida from Thanksgiving to New Year's Day visiting family. Our adult children and grandchild are living there. We will also likely have our nephew who lives aboard at a nearby slip and Nancie's brother who is a former liveaboard will be near. We also have family fly to us and meet us at ports away from Florida. All families do tend to spread out and have comittments to others and their work. I don't think there is a special difference for cruisers.

[Dulcesuenos]

Originally Posted by Rakuflames

By "on your own," did they mean to never expect to see you again? I AM living for myself when I want to see my daughters. They are part of me, an amazing thing that I never could have predicted before I had them. I have TONS of sympathy for grown children and parents who can't get together often. It's a terrible loss; I know.

And, no matter how independent and completely grown up your children are, there will be times when they will need you. I think to put someone down for recognizing that they will miss their kids ... that's just cruel, I think.

First off I never put anyone down, simply asked questions that there is no right ir wrong answer and that only the OP can answer.
To answer your question though, I see my parents whenever I can,
They were good parents and prepared me to be independent not dependent. They have always been there for me emotionally and vice versa. I have spent 2 nights in their home since leaving at 18 , 23 years ago. And that was because they missed us and we were in town. I still talk to them weekly etc and they are visiting us for Thanksgiving. Today if you were to tell your kid your out at 18 no ifs ands or butts youd be chastised and ridiculed and called a bad parent.
Times have changed....