Unexpected issues for a new live aboard?

The budget sounds on target for something in the 50' range. As I won't own a boat I'll give you some of the biggies others have encountered starting with 1) forgetting to turn off the dockside water when leaving the boat. High pressure from the dock pops an interior line or coupling and it's straight to the bottom, and maybe a water bill from the marina. 2) tying the lines too tight to allow for the tide drop. 3) putting a fender in place where it blocks your a/c outflow. 4) dead batteries, 5) bugs and rats, 6) limited hot water, 7) neighbors banging into you, 8) lonliness. Mid-week or off season marinas are pretty quiet, especially at night, 9) the clang of sailboat rigging, 10) boredom (Try to budget at least one trip a month so you don't become a dock queen), 11) lack of storage space and the expense of buying in small quantities. 12) having your neighbors hear your fights and you theirs.
Since you'll be staying in the southwest we won't go into the real fun surprises that come with cold weather.
On the up side there is nothing like waking up to sunrise on the water or having dinner with the sunset and going to sleep to the gentle rocking, having an otter stop to rest on your swim platform and fishing for dinner out your back door. You're right to look on it as an adventure for a couple of years. It's a lot like apartment living; just a little more inconvenient (laundromats, going for the mail, parking, etc.). Just don't become a dock rat (forget to shave or shower, wearing your clothes that extra day, your evening beer comes at 11AM. That's advice for he and she.) Good luck.

Ed, Where did you get the idea he would be staying in the SW he said in the opening post that he was looking at the SE US.

Right you are. South East. Still warm though.

Did you have a look here;
http://www.yachtforums.com/forums/general-yachting-discussion/9684-living-yacht.html

I'm not sure if loneliness is a big factor, as you can opt to become the "mayor" of the marina if you like (usually the most social person around).
I think you really need to consider if you'll be taking your home on the road. Folks who live aboard and don't move the vessel may setup home with more items that are not secured down. But if you will be tossing the lines and cruising, then don't fill the boat with extras (i.e. vases, knick-knacks, top-heavy items, etc). Otherwise you'll be spending a lot of time securing them before a trip and bringing them out to reset your home. Many large yachts that have beautiful china, glasware, art, etc have to pack them away for long trips.
Oh yeah, if you are a pack-rat on land, it won't work on a boat. Consider a storage facility for those items you don't want to or can't bring along.
Enjoy your new phase of life.

PS I have two just starting college, and can't afford to follow the boating dream just yet, so I'll live vicariously through yours.

Whether you choose the SE, Gulf or Bahamas is really a matter of personal choice although I see the Bahamas as more a place to cruise to than live in. I'd recommend taking 2 or 3 weeks for a 'drive through' starting say in Charleston, work your way south through Florida's east coast then up the west coast. Look for that feeling of 'this is my sort of place'. Finish off your trip by going back to that or those places for a few days, check the marinas and the area more in depth.

To quote the Mchamburlar man: "Location, location, location."
After 21 years in this business I've found that most boaters prefer to cruise alone although the few I've found who cruise with other boats tend to have more fun.
I don't necessarily recommend becoming 'the mayor' in a marina. That post tends to get filled by someone who drinks and parties to much for his own good (See: dock rat).
To me the ideal live-aboard life is wonderlust. Spending from 1 to 3 months in a location and moving on, seeing the sights and meeting the people. Then, after a few years, picking one of those spots that I really enjoyed, trading the big boat for a smaller one and settling down there.

I also have aspirations to "live aboard" for a while. I equate it in many ways to RV living, in fact I have been considering that as well. To me the essence of living on a boat is the exploring the world at your pace. I am on the west coast and I could spend years just going from Cabo to Alaska. On the east coast perhaps a boat capable of doing the great loop of America.

One thing I want to do is either retain a small homestead somewhere or have a small shop/storage building. I expect at some point you want to come ashore and if you lose the foothold of property ownership it is much harder to start over. I myself have quite a bit of machinery that I don't intend to sell and several large items I just can't part with.

If you want to move to a particular location and stay there living on a boat, I would think about buying a small condo or house and a day boat. You would have the best of both worlds, anything shy of 70~80' is going to seem small and storage challenged for full time living. IMHO.

Steve

I think a flexible time frame of say a year to three or five is likely a good idea. Yes you may fall in love with cruising and decide to stay on a while longer if so great. However we can't foretell something like a medical issue or just a desire to be near family and old friends. Making a total commitment to a lifestyle that is at this point is merely a dream is a big leap of faith; having a fall back position relieves a lot of stress and, gives you the option to say its not for me or my significant other. Everyone is different, you may love it and your SO may hate it.

Living in a confined space with somebody 24-7 is a real challenge even if you have the best of relations, everyone needs their own space.

The one other big unknown or unanswered is living away from the mainstream population is logistics. How do you provision and get around in port? You can carry bikes or scooters but they limit your cargo carrying and are not fun in the rain or cold weather. On a boat you are more limited, I know several people with RV's that either tow a car or carry one on the truck, mostly Smart Cars. This is one of my biggest conundrums about a boat. Yes you can hire a taxi, rent a car or, ride a bus but, if you make land fall in a small town late on a weekend it is not so easy to get around without your own ride. This is perhaps the one thing that I rarely see mentioned regarding living aboard an traveling. If you live aboard in a marina you have a car in the parking lot, it is rather hard to tow the car behind the boat.

With all that said, having a once in a lifetime experience like seeing the sights from your boat are, IMHO priceless.

Steve

No car is a BIG inconvenience, but that is the situation unless you can have one follow you. At that point though you're in big yacht territory (crew). Taxi and bike are how you get around. That's not as bad as it sounds though when you consider you'll probably only need the car a few days each month. Also, many marinas will have a courtesy car available for transients so they can go reprovision.

We have lived aboard for over eight years and won't consider another life style. I do recommend you plan carefully and take into account the fact of limited space aboard. If one thing comes on board something else has to go off, only way to keep your sanity.

We go out at least once a month all year round, winter mostly to empty the tank. But while doing that we will take a run for a hour or two up the bay. I see a lot of dock queens that aren't liveaboards. I have been at this marine for three years, still work, and there are four boats at my dock alone that have never been out of their slips. I don't know why people buy a boat and don't use it. One of them brags his engines have less than 200 hours on them and the boat is over 20 years old. I'd be suspicious of anything like that when you are looking. Remember things can go bad from none use as well as abusive usage. I think none use of a boat is abuse.

You were warned about loneliness in the off months, I have never had a weekend when someone didn’t come down to their boat and stop by to say hello. I have lived in a townhouse on Capital Hill in DC that was lonelier than here at the marina, even if people were out they didn’t talk to you. Yes you will have a lack of privacy in some ways and in other ways you will balance that out.

There is nothing like getting up in the morning, getting your coffee and sitting on the deck watching the sun come up over the bay. I live out on the boat so I can see the bay and have the wave motion, which is another thing you want to consider wave motion. I know people that live in coves with no wave motion because they don’t like it, then why live on a boat.

You have to be ready to watch the weather with an eagle eye. The approach of a hurricane or even a tropical storm becomes a major matter of concern for you and you have major decision to make. Since you can’t ride out a hurricane at the dock you have to decide to pull the boat or find a good hurricane hole to ride it out. If you decide to try the ride it out method do your homework to find out how to tie the boat and where a good location is close to you. Plan accordingly you don’t want to wind up trapped by closed bridges because you waited to long and they locked the bridges down to evacuate people. I’ve ridden out many tropical storms but don’t think I’d try a hurricane unless given no choice. I can replace the boat but not me or any member of my family.

You’ll want a boat with plenty of living space, we are on a 48-foot boat but have a living salon, a dining salon, galley, two staterooms, and two heads. We have a stackable washer and dryer aboard; apartment size but it handles all our laundry. If you are married I’d definitely recommend you look for something you can have laundry facilities, our old boat didn’t and the admiral was never happy about that.

There are numerous things to consider and I’d recommend you visit some of the liveaboard sites to get some more insight.

It is not the lifestyle for most people but for those of us with a few screws loose internally it is wonderful. I’d recommend it to anyone, for the RV ideal we have friends that do that and they are very happy. Of course with their popouts and everything they have as much room as some apartments.

If you want you can send me a private message and I’ll be glad to answer your questions.

Pascal, any time you want to match logs for days actually spent working on the water or managing marinas let me know. Anybody who has been in this business for more than a few years has seen every one of those 12 points. In fact, I believe hat4349 referenced 4 or 5 of those situations himself. So I think your bell may need a new clanger.

Pascal, you may have missed the 3rd sentence of this thread:

1) some people don't like the taste of tank water. I know that in So. Florida you need to drink bottled, but other places we actually drink tap. 2) In your area there is barely a 3' tide swing, but some place around here we have 10' and further north up to 18'. Tying too tight is an easy mistake to make, especially in your first years. I could go down the list, such as I've seen bigger rats at a pair of prominent Ft. Lauderdale marinas than I ever saw in the so. Bronx, but you get the drift. btyson was looking to learn from what we've seen and done. Personally, I'm still searching for perfection and it seems a long way off. Glad you made it though.

Hate to say it but does the OP want to go cruising or just want a floating RV?

How much are they willing to get about? The SW is quite a large area and with just a little more effort you're into Central America and Mexico, fantastic
cruising.

Again, floating RV or a bit of ambition?