"Wayne.B" wrote in message
...
On Sat, 8 May 2010 11:40:32 -0700 (PDT), Frogwatch
wrote:

A couple days ago when I was in Stuart moving my boat, I talked to two
couples who were into long term live-aboard and kinda envied em. Then
I drove back to Tallahassee. When I drove down my very shady winding
street with fresh water ponds and huge oak trees with lots of Spanish
Moss, the contrast hit me between this and the open hot sun exposed to
the wind and salt water of being a live aboard cruiser. I grabbed a
tall glass of ice water and went out onto my screen porch and sat in
the swing watching the fireflies that night listening to the owls
talkin to each other and decided I'll never be a live-aboard cruiser.
I s'pose all of my cruising will be short hops cuz coming home is just
so dang nice. Ligustrum and Magnolia is blooming and their scent is
so thick you can almost taste it in the air. Soon it'll be the
gardenias blooming and then Crepe Myrtle and Kudzu, gawd it's nice. I
guess my ancient age of 54 has caused me to slow down and
smell .....all the plants here and decide I like living on land.

Live aboard cruising comes in a lot of different flavors and styles so
if you like cruising you need to find a mode that suits you. We've
met a lot of liveaboard cruisers this winter as we've gone through the
Caribbean, everything from a couple who circumnavigated in a 35 ft
sloop, to a couple that live full time on a 48 ft Kady Krogen trawler.
And then there's us, the part time liveaboard cruisers. We've met a
bunch of them also, some who leave their boats in the islands and fly
back and forth, and some who take off for 6 month to 2 years and then
return home for a while. What ever floats your boat so to speak,
there is no right and wrong way. We met our first set of liveaboards
about 10 years ago. They had a mid 40s ketch on which they spent
their winters in the Turks and Caicos, and summers in New England. We
talked to them at some length about the liveaboard life style, and one
of their more interesting comments was that the happiest couples
seemed to be the ones that still had a home ashore somewhere. I had
never thought about that as being desirable but can now see the logic
to it, and my wife wouldn't have it any other way.

What ever you do though, keep moving. Once you stop you're not a
liveaboard cruiser anymore, just a liveaboard, and that's another
whole kettle of fish.

Currently in Cane Garden Bay, Tortola BVI




And you are the arbiter of the length of the stop? Is stopping for a night
not cruising any longer? A week? Month? Year?

I maintain that you are not a live aboard cruiser if you go live in a house
you own from time to time. You are more properly called a part-time cruiser.

But, that's another whole kettle of fish - you 'transients' who don't live
the cruising life but pretend to.


Wilbur Hubbard