Observations on Cruiser Lifestyles

Soon we will hit our second anniversary of living aboard. The first 6 months or so of that time was spent buying and outfitting our current boat; selling our old boat and adjusting from our old dirt-dwelling life to one afloat.

Since we left the dock in December of 2014 we have covered nearly 10,000 nm traveling up and down the US East Coast from Key West to Maine; around Florida; and the Bahamas. We have met hundreds of folks everywhere we’ve been. Some we chat with briefly, some we share happy hour and some have become close friends. 

Seems there are liveaboards, there are cruisers and then like us there are liveaboard cruisers.

Liveaboards are simply people who live on a boat instead of in a house. Some actually take their house out for a sail occasionally but you can usually spot the boat of a liveaboard by the botanical garden growing on the hull. Occasionally most will have a diver come through and clean the hull and replace the zincs. There are many liveaboards in South Florida as you would expect but we also found a large liveaboard community in Boston. Having lived near Boston for years I find it hard to imagine being on a boat in brutal cold and walking down the dock in heavy snow. But those we spoke with loved it.

We’ve found many different kinds of cruisers. Many cruisers are seasonal and have a “back home” where they have a house and/or job. Some of them cruise and work remotely from their boat while they’re cruising in the “season” and travel back home when needed. We know lots of cruisers that leave their boats on the hard somewhere in the south in the summer and then travel home to spend the warmer months back in their old lives. Many of the Canadians in the Bahamas do this leaving their boats in Florida from April or May until October or November.

There are also cruisers who are on a sabbatical from their normal lives for a defined period maybe as short as 6 months or as long as 5 years and then intend or are required to return to the spot on the merry-go-round from which they left. Some of these cruisers have spouses still fully engaged who join them for brief periods until they have to return. We know one couple who farm and leave after harvest and return when it’s time to plant.

When we started cruising we thought we would find lots of liveaboard cruisers but we have generally not found many without a “back home” who live on their boats 24/7/365 while cruising to somewhere. Of those who do there are 2 different kinds. The first are like us who are retired and methodically trying to see and enjoy new places and experiences. The second tend to be younger and go someplace and then get jobs for a while and then move on to someplace else.   

 When we meet folks one of their usual first questions is “Where are you from?” and we usually answer that that is a difficult question. Since we have no “back home” we usually respond that right now we are from “here” wherever “here” happens to be. Of course we then explain that we live on our boat and our boat happens to be “here” right now. That usually evokes lots of questions and a long discussion about how we do things.

Being a liveaboard cruiser also changes our perspective of doing things. When we look at charts or plan passages everything is on the line. Our boat isn’t just a recreational vehicle it is our house that we can’t drop off someplace for repair while we tend to other things.  When something is wrong we must fix it and to prevent things from going wrong at the wrong time requires lots of maintenance. We often joke that we traded one job for another because the work on a boat is ongoing. Hauling our boat while frequently necessary for routine work like bottom painting, prop repairs, or other repair work presents challenges you don’t have when you simply visit your boat. When our boat is on the hard we have no refrigeration, mechanical ventilation or working plumbing because they all require being in water. Everything we take on or off is carried up and down a ladder and you are at the mercy of any worker coming to work on the boat not knowing what time or even what day they will come to work on your boat. Seasonal cruisers plan to have work done themselves or by a yard during their offseason while they are living at home.

After 2 years there are still a few small improvements we need to make before we finally head off and we plan to make them this year. But maintenance is ongoing and education about the systems and operations will always require new skills and knowledge.

These 2 years have gone by so quickly and we have learned a lot. The best thing though has been the many new and wonderful people we’ve met and become friends with and while we meet new friends we always look forward to hearing from our old friends as we go along the way.