Cruising life style basics Cruising Corner Forums

 ThankYou for the compliment, Scott.  Thinking back to the late 70’s early 80’s when l was deciding on a lifestyle change,call it the “40 year itch”, it was difficult for me to find answers to some basic questions.  So here goes........

The Boat

Loved the DE38–Why—It has a lot of reserve buoyancy in bow and stern along with the high freeboard, gives you a dry boat in rough seas.  This also added to the weight carrying ability.  Having a fiberglass boat also cuts down on time spent on maintenance.  Of course what you consider as necessary safety maintenance is an open discussion.   The addage “Keep it simple stupid “ will change your life style.  The balance you make between making life safe and enjoyable and time spent on maintenance and cost , make every boat personal and interesting.  Remember, my thoughts are geared for a long time commitment to the cruising life style.  

The Crew

The life style is full of highs and lows, and not the more even keel life of living on shore.  There is alot of mental and physical strain on the lady of the boat, which is the glue that holds this lifestyle together.  In some respects she is living in the 40’s with food preparation, food storage, entertainment, laundry, cleaning, health issues(mostly infections) , and boat destination decisions.  I cannot comment too much on raising children on a cruising boat, but would like to say that most children we met were 12 yr olds that acted like 25 yr olds in knowledge and maturity.  We attribute this to the parents and responsibility that is passed on due to this lifestyle.  Pam and I often wonder what happened to these kids when they reached there 40’s.  The captain is the dictator of this little country. I always tried to explain my decisions and get as much input as possible from everyone.  The final decision, good or bad was mine, and I would have to live wth it.  Looking back at those decisions, I would have to say it is much better having a lot of LUCK.  For the most part, we did keep a happy, healthy boat over those 22 years. There were some hard times, but the scales were definitely tipped on the positive side.

Finances

In the 1984 to 2006 time period, we lived on 12 to 15K per year.  This was for everything.  We have met boats that lived on 7K and others that needed 30K per year.  A lot depends on how and where you cruise and  the size of your boat.  You must remember that we had no insurance,bank loans, cars, and did do all the maintenance ourselves.  Entertainment was with other yachties as well as traveling to the various tourist sites.  Meeting “locals”would give you good tips on how and where to go.  Most of the fun was meeting and getting involved with people from other countries.  That for us, is what cruising was all about. Seeing the seights was enjoyable, but probably get more info from watching the TV.  Almost like watching a football game on TV verses going to the stadium.  

Cheers,

JIM