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Thinking of becoming a live aboard
Alice and I are thinking about buying a boat to live on. We live in an
apartment now in Boston, which is being sold. We would have to be out next Sept. We would like to live on a boat for a winter to check it out before we buy one. We are not talking about this winter but next. Currently we own a 25 ft powerboat which we use a lot. Any ideas how we might get the experience of living aboard in the cold winter before we buy about? |
Thinking of becoming a live aboard
richard wrote:
Alice and I are thinking about buying a boat to live on. We live in an apartment now in Boston, which is being sold. We would have to be out next Sept. We would like to live on a boat for a winter to check it out before we buy one. We are not talking about this winter but next. Currently we own a 25 ft powerboat which we use a lot. Any ideas how we might get the experience of living aboard in the cold winter before we buy about? http://www.sexton.com/liveaboard.html Don't forget to put your sheets & pillow in the freezer all day, then pull them out when you go to bed. Helps achieve that realistic chill. A big part of why people live on boats is so they can head south for the winter! Fresh Breezes- Doug King |
Thinking of becoming a live aboard
Over my 45 years of boating (sail and power) I have tried living aboard in
various climates and the dampness has always been a problem for myself and my belongings. I now live in the Pac. NW with a very damp climate and have found that good insulation is very important to comfortable winter accommodations. Just the first winter aboard my present boat, I found that the insulation and cabin heat was still not enough to keep the damp out of my books, clothing, bedding, food in cardboard boxes, etc. from molding. Last winter I added a dehumidifier and I'm amazed at the difference it has made. The uninsulated surface no long sweat driplets of water. It is still important to have heat since the dehumidifier doesn't do well at low cabin temp (50 deg.). The humidifier will remove about a gallon of water a day if I'm constantly in and out of the boat all day. However, if I close boat for a week or so, the humidity stablizes and the 2 gallon tank is only half full when I open the boat again. Admittedly, this dehumidifier is like having another person in the cabin, but I have found a place for in the cabin and now find it a welcome addition. If I were to return to living aboard at anchor/mooring, I think the lack of shore power and the dehumidifier would be missed most. Cabin heat can always be supplied buy my faithful diesel galley stove but the humidity quickly returns once the temp. drops and you open the hatch for a couple minutes. Bottom line, don't move your book collection aboard until you are sure you have the humidity under control. -- My experience and opinion, FWIW -- Steve s/v Good Intentions |
Thinking of becoming a live aboard
"richard" wrote
...... Any ideas how we might get the experience of living aboard in the cold winter before we buy about? One magazine had a series on it. Like "close up your bathroom and start using the one in the gas station on the corner. Limit yourself to two sets of clothing. Live out of a locker at the 'Y'. .....". g |
Thinking of becoming a live aboard
Another thought on the Live Aboard question.
While living aboard, amongst a Live Aboard community in San Diego, I noted that the "newbie" live aboard tried to retain too much of their land based belonging and life style. All seemed to end up with a rented storage unit larger than their boat. I even knew of one fellow who finally gave up the "life on a mooring" in the first winter and sneaked in and lived in his storage unit, where it was warmer and drier. As the years go by and the Live Aboard becomes more seasoned and realistic, they would dispose of many or most of their stored stash of gear and clothing. Partially because the cost of a storage unit in SD could easily cover about 1/4 the cost of moving into a marina slip from the moorings/anchorage. A few die hards, retained there shore ties and 'stuff' and over a few year time had spent much more on storage fees than the 'stuff' was worth.. What I recommend to the newbie, is to store their gear in a low cost storage or rent a friends garage for a max of one year. At the end of that time, make the choice. If your going to continue living aboard, then get rid of all but the personal family items (pictures, etc.). If you have antiques, sell or 'loan' them to a family/friend for safe keeping. Bottom line, avoid the extra monthly expense and realize early on that much of this 'stuff' can be replaced if and when you move ashore again. The fact that you insist on retaining the lawn mower means you are not fully committed to the Live Aboard life and will never settle for the sights and sounds and pleasures of life on the water. -- My experience and opinion, FWIW -- Steve s/v Good Intentions "richard" wrote in message ups.com... Alice and I are thinking about buying a boat to live on. We live in an apartment now in Boston, which is being sold. We would have to be out next Sept. We would like to live on a boat for a winter to check it out before we buy one. We are not talking about this winter but next. Currently we own a 25 ft powerboat which we use a lot. Any ideas how we might get the experience of living aboard in the cold winter before we buy about? |
Thinking of becoming a live aboard
Vito wrote:
"richard" wrote ...... Any ideas how we might get the experience of living aboard in the cold winter before we buy about? One magazine had a series on it. Like "close up your bathroom and start using the one in the gas station on the corner. Limit yourself to two sets of clothing. Live out of a locker at the 'Y'. .....". g Rent one. You could double as the watchman at the marina, on the water or on the hard, get some practice earning a little while living aboard. If you want, you could unplug it and pretend you are on an anchor, out of gas. You would be able to go to your house for a weekend off and a decent shower, or you could rent out your house to defray expenses. They should be glad to have someone there to keep an eye on things. I would anyway, after having my boat vandalized and destroyed by arsonists in the boatyard in 1995, where I paid storage fees. The mast fell on 3 other boats. I wonder if the insurance company reclaimed any of the settlement from the yard? It took almost a year to settle, at $14,300 on an $18,000 policy, after I spent $7500 upgrading it. Parizeau was the insurance company, may they go bankrupt. Terry K |
Thinking of becoming a live aboard
I would suggest you take a drive over to Charlestown and visit Constitution
Marina and Ship Yard Quarters. I had lived aboard one year at Constitution. Ask those aboard and get a first hand look. Maybe you could trade a weekend with some folks. Nothing like a hot soaking bath in the winter... stu "richard" wrote in message ups.com... Alice and I are thinking about buying a boat to live on. We live in an apartment now in Boston, which is being sold. We would have to be out next Sept. We would like to live on a boat for a winter to check it out before we buy one. We are not talking about this winter but next. Currently we own a 25 ft powerboat which we use a lot. Any ideas how we might get the experience of living aboard in the cold winter before we buy about? |
Thinking of becoming a live aboard
Richard,
Tell me I misread this, please! We live in an apartment now in Boston, which is being sold. We would have to be out next Sept. We would like to live on a boat for a winter to check it out before we buy one. We are not talking about this winter but next. You have never tried living aboard a boat yet on the first attempt you want to do is during the winter in Boston? This winter, turn off all your heat and move into your bedroom, open the windows. And that's just the begining of your misery |
Thinking of becoming a live aboard
"Capri" wrote in message ups.com... Richard, Tell me I misread this, please! We live in an apartment now in Boston, which is being sold. We would have to be out next Sept. We would like to live on a boat for a winter to check it out before we buy one. We are not talking about this winter but next. You have never tried living aboard a boat yet on the first attempt you want to do is during the winter in Boston? This winter, turn off all your heat and move into your bedroom, open the windows. And that's just the begining of your misery How does this relate to living aboard? All the boats I have lived aboard have had heat. |
Thinking of becoming a live aboard
On 26 Oct 2005 19:25:56 -0700, "richard"
wrote: Alice and I are thinking about buying a boat to live on. We live in an apartment now in Boston, which is being sold. We would have to be out next Sept. We would like to live on a boat for a winter to check it out before we buy one. We are not talking about this winter but next. Currently we own a 25 ft powerboat which we use a lot. Any ideas how we might get the experience of living aboard in the cold winter before we buy about? In another group Larry W4CSC has been continuously imprving his "Liveaboard Simulator". I take it he won't mind my posting it here too. But seriously, the mrs and I live aboard a 50 ft sloop. We're preparing for a nice trip starting 2007. For living in winter in the Netherlands where 5 degrees F. is common we installed a hot water operated central heater, a powerful ventilation-unit to deal with condensation, double windows and a Kasco de-icer. btw, we adapted this philosophy of "enough assets" and we love it. We will not return to a normal house as long as our health permits us.... Luck, Len S/v Present ----------------credits to Larry W4CSC---------------------- The Liveaboard Simulator -.......(c; Just for fun, park your cars in the lot of the convenience store at least 2 blocks from your house. (Make believe the sidewalk is a floating dock between your car and the house. Move yourself and your family (If applicable) into 2 bedrooms and 1 bathroom. Measure the DECK space INSIDE your boat. Make sure the occupied house has no more space, or closet space, or drawer space. Boats don't have room for "beds", as such. Fold your Sealy Posturepedic up against a wall, it won't fit on a boat. Go to a hobby fabric store and buy a foam pad 5' 10" long and 4' wide AND NO MORE THAN 3" THICK. Cut it into a triangle so the little end is only 12" wide. This simulates the foam pad in the V-berth up in the pointy bow of the sailboat. Bring in the kitchen table from the kitchen you're not allowed to use. Put the pad UNDER the table, on the floor, so you can simulate the 3' of headroom over the pad. Block off both long sides of the pad, and the pointy end so you have to climb aboard the V-berth from the wide end where your pillows will be. The hull blocks off the sides of a V-berth and you have to climb up over the end of it through a narrow opening (hatch to main cabin) on a boat. You'll climb over your mate's head to go to the potty in the night. No fun for either party. Test her mettle and resolve by getting up this way right after you go to bed at night. There are lots of things to do on a boat and you'll forget at least one of them, thinking about it laying in bed, like "Did I remember to tie off the dingy better?" or "Is that spring line (at the dock) or anchor line (anchored out) as tight as it should be?" Boaters who don't worry about things like this laying in bed are soon aground or on fire or the laughing stock of an anchorage.... You need to find out how much climbing over her she will tolerate BEFORE you're stuck with a big boat and big marina bills and she refuses to sleep aboard it any more..... Bring a coleman stove into the bathroom and set it next to the bathroom sink. Your boat's sink is smaller, but we'll let you use the bathroom sink, anyways. Do all your cooking in the bathroom, WITHOUT using the bathroom power vent. If you have a boat vent, it'll be a useless 12v one that doesn't draw near the air your bathroom power vent draws to take away cooking odors. Leave the hall door open to simulate the open hatch. Take all the screens off your 2 bedroom's windows. Leave the windows open to let in the bugs that will invade your boat at dusk, and the flies attracted to the cooking. Borrow a 25 gallon drum mounted on a trailer. Flush your toilets into the drums. Trailer the drums to the convenience store to dump them when they get full. Turn off your sewer, you won't have one. This will simulate going to the "pump out station" every time the tiny drum is full. 25 gallons is actually LARGER than most holding tanks. They're more like 15 gallons on small sailboats under 40' because they were added to the boat after the law changed requiring them and there was no place to put it or a bigger one. They fill up really fast if you liveaboard! Unless your boat is large enough to have a big "head" with full bath, make believe your showers/bathtubs don't work. Make a deal with someone next door to the convenience store to use THEIR bathroom for bathing at the OTHER end of the DOCK. (Marina rest room) If you use this rest room to potty, while you're there, make believe it has no paper towels or toilet paper. Bring your own. Bring your own soap and anything else you'd like to use there, too. If your boat HAS a shower in its little head, we'll let you use the shower end of the bathtub, but only as much tub as the boat has FREE shower space for standing to shower. As the boat's shower drains into a little pan in the bilge, be sure to leave the soapy shower water in the bottom of the tub for a few days before draining it. Boat shower sumps always smell like spent soap growing exotic living organisms science hasn't actually discovered or named, yet. Make sure your simulated V-berth is less than 3' from this soapy water for sleeping. The shower sump is under the passageway to the V-berth next to your pillows. Run you whole house through a 20 amp breaker to simulate available dock power at the marina. If you're thinking of anchoring out, turn off the main breaker and "make do" with a boat battery and flashlights. Don't forget you have to heat your house on this 20A supply and try to keep the water from freezing in winter. Turn off the water main valve in front of your house. Run a hose from your neighbor's lawn spigot over to your lawn spigot and get all your water from there. Try to keep the hose from freezing all winter. As your boat won't have a laundry, disconnect yours. Go to a boat supply place, like West Marine, and buy you a dock cart. Haul ALL your supplies, laundry, garbage, etc. between the car at the convenience store and house in this cart. Once a week, haul your outboard motor to the car, leave it a day then haul it back to the house, in the cart, to simulate "boat problems" that require "boat parts" to be removed/replaced on your "dock". If ANYTHING ever comes out of that cart between the convenience store and the house, put it in your garage and forget about it. (Simulates losing it over the side of the dock, where it sank in 23' of water and was dragged off by the current.) Each morning, about 5AM, have someone you don't know run a weedeater back and forth under your bedroom windows to simulate the fishermen leaving the marina to go fishing. Have him slam trunk lids, doors, blow car horns and bang some heavy pans together from 4AM to 5AM before lighting off the weedeater. (Simulates loading boats with booze and fishing gear and gas cans.) Once a week, have him bang the running weedeater into your bedroom wall to simulate the idiot who drove his boat into the one you're sleeping in because he was half asleep leaving the dock. Put a rope over a big hook in the ceiling over your coffee table "bed". Hook one end of the rope to the coffee table siderail and the other end out where he can pull on it. As soon as he shuts off the weedeater, have him pull hard 9 times on the rope to tilt your bed at least 30 degrees. (Simulates the wakes of the fishermen blasting off trying to beat each other to the fishing.) Anytime there is a storm in your area, have someone constantly pull on the rope. It's rough riding storms in the marina! If your boat is a sailboat, install a big wire from the top of the tallest tree to your electrical ground in the house to simulate mast lightning strikes in the marina, or to give you the thought of potential lightning strikes. Each time you "go out", or think of going boating away from your marina, disconnect the neighbor's water hose, your electric wires, all the umbilicals your new boat will use to make life more bearable in the marina. Use bottled drinking water for 2 days for everything. Get one of those 5 gallon jugs with the airpump on top from a bottled water company. This is your boat's "at sea" water system simulator. You'll learn to conserve water this way. Of course, not having the marina's AC power supply, you'll be lighting and all from a car battery, your only source of power. If you own or can borrow a generator, feel free to leave it running to provide AC power up to the limit of the generator. If you're thinking about a 30' sailboat, you won't have room for a generator so don't use it. Any extra family members must be sleeping on the settees in the main cabin or in the quarter berth under the cockpit....unless you intend to get a boat over 40-something feet with an aft cabin. Smaller boats have quarter berths. Cut a pad out of the same pad material that is no more than 2' wide by 6' long. Get a cardboard box from an appliance store that a SMALL refridgerator came in. Put the pad in the box, cut to fit, and make sure only one end of the box is open. The box can be no more than 2 feet above the pad. Quarter berths are really tight. Make them sleep in there, with little or no air circulation. That's what sleeping in a quarterberth is all about. Of course, to simulate sleeping anchored out for the weekend, no heat or air conditioning will be used and all windows will be open without screens so the bugs can get in. In the mornings, everybody gets up and goes out on the patio to enjoy the sunrise. Then, one person at a time goes back inside to dress, shave, clean themselves in the tiny cabin unless you're a family of nudists who don't mind looking at each other in the buff. You can't get dressed in the stinky little head with the door closed on a sailboat. Hell, there's barely room to bend over so you can sit on the commode. So, everyone will dress in the main cabin....one at a time. Boat tables are 2' x 4' and mounted next to the settee. There's no room for chairs in a boat. So, eat off a 2X4' space on that kitchen table you slept under while sitting on a couch (settee simulator). You can also go out with breakfast and sit on the patio (cockpit), if you like. Ok, breakfast is over. Crank up the lawnmower under the window for 2 hours. It's time to recharge the batteries from last night's usage and to freeze the coldplate in the boat's icebox which runs off a compressor on the engine. Get everybody to clean up your little hovel. Don't forget to make the beds from ONE END ONLY. You can't get to the other 3 sides of a boat bed pad. All hands go outside and washdown the first fiberglass UPS truck that passes by. That's about how big the deck is on your 35' sailboat that needs to have the ocean cleaned off it daily or it'll turn the white fiberglass all brown like the UPS truck. Now, doesn't the UPS truck look nice like your main deck? Ok, we're going to need some food, do the laundry, buy some boat parts that failed because the manufacturer's bean counters got cheap and used plastics and the wife wants to "eat out, I'm fed up with cooking on the Coleman stove" today. Let's make believe we're not at home, but in some exotic port like Ft Lauderdale, today....on our cruise to Key West......Before "going ashore", plan on buying all the food you'll want to eat that will: A - Fit into the Coleman Cooler on the floor B - You can cook on the Coleman stove without an oven or all those fancy kitchen tools you don't have on the boat C - And will last you for 10 days, in case the wind drops and it takes more time than we planned at sea. Plan meals carefully in a boat. We can't buy more than we can STORE, either! You haven't washed clothes since you left home and everything is dirty. Even if it's not, pretend it is for the boater-away-from-home simulator. Put all the clothes in your simulated boat in a huge dufflebag so we can take it to the LAUNDRY! Manny's Marina HAS a laundromat, but the hot water heater is busted (for the last 8 months) and Manny has "parts on order" for it.....saving Manny $$$$ on the electric bill! Don't forget to carry the big dufflebag with us on our "excursion". God that bag stinks, doesn't it?....PU! Of course, we came here by BOAT, so we don't have a car. Some nice marinas have a shuttle bus, but they're not a taxi. The shuttle bus will only go to West Marine or the tourist traps, so we'll be either taking the city bus, if there is one or taxi cabs or shopping at the marina store which has almost nothing to buy at enormous prices. Walk to the 7-11 store, where you have your car stored, but ignore the car. Make believe it isn't there. No one drove it to Ft Lauderdale for you. Use the payphone at the 7-11 and call a cab. Don't give the cab driver ANY instructions because in Ft Lauderdale you haven't the foggiest idea where West Marine is located or how to get there, unlike at home. We'll go to West Marine, first, because if we don't the "head" back on the boat won't be working for a week because little Suzy broke a valve in it trying to flush some paper towels. This is your MOST important project, today....that valve in the toilet!! After the cab drivers drives around for an hour looking for West Marine and asking his dispatcher how to get there. Don't forget to UNLOAD your stuff from the cab, including the dirty clothes in the dufflebag then go into West Marine and give the clerk a $100 bill, simulating the cost of toilet parts. Lexus parts are cheaper than toilet parts at West Marine. See for yourself! The valve she broke, the seals that will have to be replaced on the way into the valve will come to $100 easy. Tell the clerk you're using my liveaboard simulator and to take his girlfriend out to dinner on your $100 greenback. If you DO buy the boat, this'll come in handy when you DO need boat parts because he'll remember you for the great time his girlfriend gave him on your $100 tip. Hard-to-find boat parts will arrive in DAYS, not months like the rest of us. It's just a good political move while in simulation mode. Call another cab from West Marine's phone, saving 50c on payphone charges. Load the cab with all your stuff, toilet parts, DIRTY CLOTHES then tell the cabbie to take you to the laundromat so we can wash the stinky clothes in the trunk. The luxury marina's laundry in Ft Lauderdale has a broken hot water heater. They're working on it, the girl at the store counter, said, yesterday. Mentioning the $12/ft you paid to park the boat at their dock won't get the laundry working before we leave for Key West. Do your laundry in the laundromat the cabbie found for you. Just because noone speaks English in this neighborhood, don't worry. You'll be fine this time of day near noon. Call another cab to take us out of here to a supermarket. When you get there, resist the temptation to "load up" because your boat has limited storage and very limited refridgeration space (remember? Coleman Cooler). Buy from the list we made early this morning. Another package of cookies is OK. Leave one of the kids guarding the pile of clean laundry just inside the supermarket's front door....We learned our lesson and DIDN'T forget and leave it in the cab, again! Call another cab to take us back to the marina, loaded up with clean clothes and food and all-important boat parts. Isn't Ft Lauderdale beautiful from a cab? It's too late to go exploring, today. Maybe tomorrow.... Don't forget to tell the cab to go to the 7-11 (marina parking lot)....not your front door....cabs don't float well. Ok, haul all the stuff in the dock cart from the 7-11 store the two blocks to the "boat" bedroom. Wait 20 minutes before starting out for the house. This simulates waiting for someone to bring back a marina-owned dock cart from down the docks.....They always leave them outside their boats, until the marina "crew" get fed up with newbies like us asking why there aren't any carts and go down the docks to retrieve them. Put all the stuff away, food and clothes, in the tiny drawer space provided. Have a beer on the patio (cockpit) and watch the sunset. THIS is living! Now, disassemble the toilet in your bathroom, take out the wax ring under it and put it back. Reassemble the toilet. This completes the simulation of putting the new valve in the "head" on the boat. Uh, uh, NO POWERVENT! GET YOUR HAND OFF THAT SWITCH! The whole "boat" smells like the inside of the holding tank for hours after fixing the toilet in a real boat, too! Spray some Lysol if you got it.... After getting up, tomorrow morning, from your "V-Berth", take the whole family out to breakfast by WALKING to the nearest restaurant, then take a cab to any local park or attraction you like. We're off today to see the sights of Ft Lauderdale.....before heading out to sea, again, to Key West. Take a cab back home after dinner out and go to bed, exhausted, on your little foam pad under the table..... Get up this morning and disconnect all hoses, electrical wires, etc. Get ready for "sea". Crank up the lawn mower under the open bedroom window for 4 hours while we motor out to find some wind. ONE responsible adult MUST be sitting on the hot patio all day, in shifts, "on watch" looking out for other boats, ships, etc. If you have a riding lawn mower, let the person "on watch" drive it around the yard all day to simulate driving the boat down the ICW in heavy traffic. About 2PM, turn off the engine and just have them sit on the mower "steering" it on the patio. We're under sail, now. Every hour or so, take everyone out in the yard with a big rope and have a tug-of-war to simulate the work involved with setting sail, changing sail, trimming sail. Make sure everyone gets all sweaty in the heat. Sailors working on sailboats are always all sweaty or we're not going anywhere fast! Do this all day, today, all night, tonight, all day, tomorrow, all night tomorrow night and all day the following day until 5PM when you "arrive" at the next port you're going to. Make sure noone in the family leaves the confines of the little bedroom or the patio during our "trip". Make sure everyone conserves water, battery power, etc., things you'll want to conserve while being at sea on a trip somewhere. Everyone can go up to the 7-11 for an icecream as soon as we get the "boat" docked on day 3, the first time anyone has left the confines of the bedroom/patio in 3 days. Question - Was anyone suicidal during our simulated voyage? Keep an eye out for anyone with a problem being cooped up with other family members. If anyone is attacked, any major fights break out, any threats to throw the captain to the fish.....forget all about boats and buy a motorhome, instead. Anyone got any more "liveaboard simulator" ideas he can use?? Larry...Gotta go dump the holding tanks, back in a bit. God that stinks, don't it?....(c; |
Thinking of becoming a live aboard
richard wrote:
Alice and I are thinking about buying a boat to live on. We live in an apartment now in Boston, which is being sold. We would have to be out next Sept. We would like to live on a boat for a winter to check it out before we buy one. We are not talking about this winter but next. Currently we own a 25 ft powerboat which we use a lot. Any ideas how we might get the experience of living aboard in the cold winter before we buy about? Hi again, Richard! My boat and trailer is on the back yard. You are welcome to come and try camping on it for New Years or March, whenever, if you want. Be prepared for -20 or so! My boat would need a layer of insulation on the inside, and you could staple eurothane "pool planks" up on battens over pink glass wool covered in vapour barrier, inside your own boat, if you want. Glue won't set in -20. I would suggest a firelog heater about the size of smoke pipe, properly set up, if you want "dinghy independance" as at anchor without hydro. Insulation is the key. If you can hack long stays on a 25 footer, moving up to a 30' should be a breeze! a camper van tow vehicle might work out good for you, too. You could spend winter holidays in Phoenix! A converted old Lobster boat is a possibility. A friend of mine had one. Beautiful and cheap! His 5 hp generator doubled as a centrifugal bilge pump, via the pto. He needed a good pump after spring launch. Chinese junks used a "stick in the mud" system to anchor in shallows. Four such vertical anchor spars, one winched down at each corner or slinging point, would enable beaching at seasonal high tide for overwinter drying anchoring in near shore flats. You could truss up the rig with diagonal rope rigging. You might need mud boots to get ashore. As you will be in salt water, near Boston, you shouldn't need air bubbler de-icing. I will send floating dock pictures seperately. Such docks could form the basis for a cheap floating house. All you would need is an accommodating public beachfront parking spot, perhaps a little out of town? Say "hi" to the beautiful Alice for me! Terry K |
Thinking of becoming a live aboard
Len wrote in
: In another group Larry W4CSC has been continuously imprving his "Liveaboard Simulator". I take it he won't mind my posting it here too. I'm flattered....(c; -- Larry |
Thinking of becoming a live aboard
On Fri, 28 Oct 2005 21:51:01 -0400, Larry wrote:
Len wrote in : In another group Larry W4CSC has been continuously imprving his "Liveaboard Simulator". I take it he won't mind my posting it here too. I'm flattered....(c; You may very well feel that way... IMO it combines being funny with various moments of sheer recognition... You might consider adding the typical moments offshore, like getting out of bed at 03.00 going out in your pyama's and being hosed down with the garden hose by your partner who's yelling "we need to set a reef"... Len S/v Present |
Thinking of becoming a live aboard
Thanks everyone for your responses. You have been great. Doug, I am
still laughing about the sheets in the freezer. Steve, good to know about the humidity and storage. Terry, I would love to get a situation where I was a night watchman at a marina for a winter. Stu, Alice and I did check out Constitution Marina last winter and will do so again, thanks.Are you there? Which boat? Alice was wondering if it is the one with the bueatiful wood inside. Capri-I can only say I choose Boston because that is where we live and work. Len, thanks for Larry's article and Larry, as always-great stuff! Terry-I will say Hi to the bueatiful Alice and we loved your pix. |
Thinking of becoming a live aboard
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Thinking of becoming a live aboard
Len wrote:
On Fri, 28 Oct 2005 21:51:01 -0400, Larry wrote: Len wrote in m: In another group Larry W4CSC has been continuously imprving his "Liveaboard Simulator". I take it he won't mind my posting it here too. I'm flattered....(c; You may very well feel that way... IMO it combines being funny with various moments of sheer recognition... You might consider adding the typical moments offshore, like getting out of bed at 03.00 going out in your pyama's and being hosed down with the garden hose by your partner who's yelling "we need to set a reef"... and they hose you off with salt water, don't forget what that's like when it dries. The problem though with Larry's simulator is that it leaves off all the good parts of living on a boat. -- Stephen ------- For any proposition there is always some sufficiently narrow interpretation of its terms, such that it turns out true, and some sufficiently wide interpretation such that it turns out false...concept stretching will refute *any* statement, and will leave no true statement whatsoever. -- Imre Lakatos |
Thinking of becoming a live aboard
On Mon, 31 Oct 2005 13:03:56 -0800, Stephen Trapani
wrote: You might consider adding the typical moments offshore, like getting out of bed at 03.00 going out in your pyama's and being hosed down with the garden hose by your partner who's yelling "we need to set a reef"... and they hose you off with salt water, don't forget what that's like when it dries. The problem though with Larry's simulator is that it leaves off all the good parts of living on a boat. Yes, I see your point. But as I read it it's an insurance policy against the hazard of making decisions being blinded by love for boats.... For us (the mrs and me) the best part of living aboard is the freedom. We can take our pick of harbours or anchorages to choose from. When a particular place doesn't suit us, we simple go elsewhere... And also another type of freedom: No garden, no home-improvement, no stuffing up garages and attics with the useless crap that is sold in bundles nowadays, no car, just two folding bikes. We altered slowly into a less consuming lyfestyle and in retrospect that is the major asset. What do you regard as the good parts? Regards, Len. |
Thinking of becoming a live aboard
Len wrote:
On Mon, 31 Oct 2005 13:03:56 -0800, Stephen Trapani wrote: You might consider adding the typical moments offshore, like getting out of bed at 03.00 going out in your pyama's and being hosed down with the garden hose by your partner who's yelling "we need to set a reef"... and they hose you off with salt water, don't forget what that's like when it dries. The problem though with Larry's simulator is that it leaves off all the good parts of living on a boat. Yes, I see your point. But as I read it it's an insurance policy against the hazard of making decisions being blinded by love for boats.... For us (the mrs and me) the best part of living aboard is the freedom. We can take our pick of harbours or anchorages to choose from. When a particular place doesn't suit us, we simple go elsewhere... And also another type of freedom: No garden, no home-improvement, no stuffing up garages and attics with the useless crap that is sold in bundles nowadays, no car, just two folding bikes. We altered slowly into a less consuming lyfestyle and in retrospect that is the major asset. What do you regard as the good parts? Well, for one, lots to do with the mobility as you said, especially if one is in an area like I am, Puget Sound, where there are tons of marinas and anchorages to explore, and the whole waterway sheltered, and the sense of adventure and exploration that goes with it, without as much of the high speed and high risk associated with highway travel. The boating culture and increased opportunity to meet people is a biggie. There's something about boating that encourages camraderie and leads people to be friendly, like when they have both traveled from a distance and find themselves sharing the same piece of adventure. Also there's a healthy chunk of the "live it up" mentality among boaters, which is loads of fun if one doesn't overdo it. Another feature of boating to love is harder to describe. It has to do with the smell of the water, the feel of floating instead of being stuck to the ground, the forces of nature have you, but they don't, you partner with them for your ends. But not just that, it's always ancient and brand new, a part of your history and future and the same time, deeply familiar yet always strange. -- Stephen ------- For any proposition there is always some sufficiently narrow interpretation of its terms, such that it turns out true, and some sufficiently wide interpretation such that it turns out false...concept stretching will refute *any* statement, and will leave no true statement whatsoever. -- Imre Lakatos |
Thinking of becoming a live aboard
On Tue, 01 Nov 2005 10:24:23 +0100, Len wrote:
On Mon, 31 Oct 2005 13:03:56 -0800, Stephen Trapani wrote: You might consider adding the typical moments offshore, like getting out of bed at 03.00 going out in your pyama's and being hosed down with the garden hose by your partner who's yelling "we need to set a reef"... and they hose you off with salt water, don't forget what that's like when it dries. The problem though with Larry's simulator is that it leaves off all the good parts of living on a boat. Yes, I see your point. But as I read it it's an insurance policy against the hazard of making decisions being blinded by love for boats.... For us (the mrs and me) the best part of living aboard is the freedom. We can take our pick of harbours or anchorages to choose from. When a particular place doesn't suit us, we simple go elsewhere... And also another type of freedom: No garden, no home-improvement, no stuffing up garages and attics with the useless crap that is sold in bundles nowadays, no car, just two folding bikes. We altered slowly into a less consuming lyfestyle and in retrospect that is the major asset. What do you regard as the good parts? Regards, Len. Where are you docked currently, Len? -- John H. On the 'PocoLoco' out of Deale, MD |
Thinking of becoming a live aboard
Another feature of boating to love is harder to describe. It has to do with the smell of the water, the feel of floating instead of being stuck to the ground, the forces of nature have you, but they don't, you partner with them for your ends. But not just that, it's always ancient and brand new, a part of your history and future and the same time, deeply familiar yet always strange. Stephen http://www.sleepingwithoars.com/ |
Thinking of becoming a live aboard
On Tue, 01 Nov 2005 14:05:07 -0500, John H.
wrote: Where are you docked currently, Len? Not in Gouda :) Nore Stolwijk...:) Magnificent cheese though... :) Till next year we'll be welded to the pier for a refit. It's on freshwater: the IJsselmeer, Gouwzee. We have spent some time now in Monnickendam but we'll be "moving to" Enkhuizen. We'll both be taking marine comm courses there at the marine uni. Regards, Len. |
Thinking of becoming a live aboard
On Tue, 01 Nov 2005 09:13:35 -0800, Stephen Trapani
wrote: The boating culture and increased opportunity to meet people is a biggie. There's something about boating that encourages camraderie and leads people to be friendly, like when they have both traveled from a distance and find themselves sharing the same piece of adventure. Also there's a healthy chunk of the "live it up" mentality among boaters, which is loads of fun if one doesn't overdo it. I couldn't agree more. In our present harbour we've met a lot of likeminded people. Also quite a few of mostly guys come up for a chat when I'm working outside. A popular subject is "how did you get your wife to agree" ... In my case my wife is a daugther of a commercial freight captain. Together with his wife he travelled on the rivers to Germany, Belgium etc. In fact it was her idea to switch from house to boat. When I mention this I once again feel how lucky I am... Another feature of boating to love is harder to describe. It has to do with the smell of the water, the feel of floating instead of being stuck to the ground, the forces of nature have you, but they don't, you partner with them for your ends. But not just that, it's always ancient and brand new, a part of your history and future and the same time, deeply familiar yet always strange. Another "bulls eye" and put to words beautifully. The moments we cherish most are calm nights at sea with or close to new moon, looking at bright stars and increase feel for relativity, awaking in an anchorage, scanning the place in the early morningmist, following birds with binoculars,etc. A close encounter with a whale when underway would be impressive too I'm sure. I guess it has to do with (re-)connecting with nature. Len S/v Present |
Thinking of becoming a live aboard
On Wed, 02 Nov 2005 09:23:40 +0100, Len wrote:
On Tue, 01 Nov 2005 14:05:07 -0500, John H. wrote: Where are you docked currently, Len? Not in Gouda :) Nore Stolwijk...:) Magnificent cheese though... :) Till next year we'll be welded to the pier for a refit. It's on freshwater: the IJsselmeer, Gouwzee. We have spent some time now in Monnickendam but we'll be "moving to" Enkhuizen. We'll both be taking marine comm courses there at the marine uni. Regards, Len. Wow. Definitely in the north part of the Netherlands. Good luck in your courses. -- John H. On the 'PocoLoco' out of Deale, MD |
Thinking of becoming a live aboard
Len wrote in
: You might consider adding the typical moments offshore, like getting out of bed at 03.00 going out in your pyama's and being hosed down with the garden hose by your partner who's yelling "we need to set a reef"... Len S/v Present Done, with credit, thanks! More suggestions or omissions cheerfully added...(c; Larry ---------------------------------------------------------------------- The Liveaboard Simulator -.......(c; Just for fun, park your cars in the lot of the convenience store at least 2 blocks from your house. (Make believe the sidewalk is a floating dock between your car and the house. Move yourself and your family (If applicable) into 2 bedrooms and 1 bathroom. Measure the DECK space INSIDE your boat. Make sure the occupied house has no more space, or closet space, or drawer space. Bring a coleman stove into the bathroom and set it next to the bathroom sink. Your boat's sink is smaller, but we'll let you use the bathroom sink, anyways. Do all your cooking in the bathroom, WITHOUT using the bathroom power vent. If you have a boat vent, it'll be a useless 12v one that doesn't draw near the air your bathroom power vent draws to take away cooking odors. Leave the hall door open to simulate the open hatch. Take all the screens off your 2 bedroom's windows. Leave the windows open to let in the bugs that will invade your boat at dusk, and the flies attracted to the cooking. Speaking of the garbage from the cooking, on a boat there's no room for that big garbage can in your garage and the little sink, just like the one in the bathroom, has no garbage disposal to get rid of the stinky stuff cooking generates. If you dump it overboard you'll soon find out how serious all those tree huggers up and down the dock take keeping the water clean. They'll have the EPA down your throat in a matter of hours. So, we need to use that little knee-high plastic trashcan in the bathroom to store all our garbage on our simulated yacht. As boats don't come with any kind of trashcan storage, be sure to leave it against the doorframe of the bathroom where you can trip over it all the time. Any trashcan in a boat is always where you can trip over it and knock it over spilling its stinky mess onto the "deck" to clean up. Put a plastic bag into it to dump the mess into. We're not totally uncivilized in yachting, you know. When you can't stand its smell any more, there are two things we'll do with the full trashbags. If we are docked at a marina, we'll add the trashbags to our daily trek to the 7-11 with the dock cart to put it in their dumpster (marina dumpster). Drop by the nearest biker bar and ask them for a big 32-gallon trashbag full of nearly-empty beer and wine bottles. Put these in your big trashcan in the garage and pull it out onto your front lawn by your sidewalk. This is to simulate the "normal" state of any marina's fancy little dock trash bins which are always full like this because of the constant partying up and down the dock, especially on weekends. Dock hands have a very hard time keeping up with emptying them. Because of this fact, you will haul all your smelly trashbags up the "dock" to the 7-11's big dumpster on your treks to the marina (7-11) parking lot...if we're "in port". Only store the untoted trashbags in two places....next to your little bed under the kitchen table...or next to your chair in your "cockpit" out on the patio. If we are on a "cruise" or anchored out, we store the smelly mess bags in the dingy trailed out behind the stern, so hook up your little lawn trailer to the back of the "helm" riding lawn mower someone is going to sit on "at sea" out on the patio. We'll transfer all this garbage to the marina (7-11) dumpster in the dock cart when we "return from sea" to any port. For some reason, the first items off the dingy at the dingy dock is always the garbage...(d^:) Borrow a couple of 55 gallon drums mounted on a trailer. Flush your toilets into the drums. Trailer the drums to the convenience store to dump them when they get full. Turn off your sewer, you won't have one. Unless your boat is large enough to have a big "head" with full bath, make believe your showers/bathtubs don't work. Make a deal with someone next door to the convenience store to use THEIR bathroom for bathing at the OTHER end of the DOCK. (Marina rest room) If you use this rest room to potty, while you're there, make believe it has no paper towels or toilet paper. Bring your own. Bring your own soap and anything else you'd like to use there, too. Run you whole house through a 20 amp breaker to simulate available dock power at the marina. If you're thinking of anchoring out, turn off the main breaker and "make do" with a boat battery and flashlights. Don't forget you have to heat your house on this 20A supply and try to keep the water from freezing. Turn off the water main valve in front of your house. Run a hose from your neighbor's lawn spigot over to your lawn spigot and get all your water from there. Try to keep the hose from freezing all winter. As your boat won't have a laundry, disconnect yours. Go to a boat supply place, like West Marine, and buy you a dock cart. Haul ALL your supplies, laundry, garbage, etc. between the car at the convenience store and house in this cart. Once a week, haul your outboard motor to the car, leave it a day then haul it back to the house, in the cart, to simulate "boat problems" that require "boat parts" to be removed/replaced on your "dock". If ANYTHING ever comes out of that cart between the convenience store and the house, put it in your garage and forget about it. (Simulates losing it over the side of the dock, where it sank in 23' of water and was dragged off by the current.) Each morning, about 5AM, have someone you don't know run a weedeater back and forth under your bedroom windows to simulate the fishermen leaving the marina to go fishing. Have him slam trunk lids, doors, blow car horns and bang some heavy pans together from 4AM to 5AM before lighting off the weedeater. (Simulates loading aluminum boats with booze and fishing gear and gas cans.) Once a week, have him bang the running weedeater into your bedroom wall to simulate the idiot who drove his boat into the one you're sleeping in because he was half asleep leaving the dock. Put a rope over a big hook in the ceiling over your bed. Hook one end of the rope to the bed siderail and the other end out where he can pull on it. As soon as he shuts off the weedeater, have him pull hard 9 times on the rope to tilt your bed at least 30 degrees. (Simulates the wakes of the fishermen blasting off trying to beat each other to the fishing.) Anytime there is a storm in your area, have someone constantly pull on the rope. It's rough riding storms in the marina! If your boat is a sailboat, install a big wire from the top of the tallest tree to your electrical ground in the house so you can worry about the lightning hitting your mast. If your marina has big sport fishing boats with huge diesels, substitute your neighbor's unmuffled Harley-Davidson hog for the weedeater and have him light off an old oil stove for 20 minutes while its running under your open bedroom window to simulate that "diesel smell" the big boats generate as they idle them for half an hour, for no apparent reason, before they shove off. Each time you "go out", or think of going boating away from your marina, disconnect the neighbor's water hose, your electric wires, all the umbilicals your new boat will use to make life more bearable in the marina. Use bottled drinking water for 2 days for everything. Get one of those 5 gallon jugs with the airpump on top from a bottled water company. This is your boat's "at sea" water system simulator. You'll learn to conserve water this way. Of course, not having the marina's AC power supply, you'll be lighting and all from a car battery, your only source of power. If you own or can borrow a generator, feel free to leave it running to provide AC power up to the limit of the generator. If you're thinking about a 30' sailboat, you won't have room for a generator so don't use it. Boats don't have room for "beds", as such. Fold your Sealy Posturepedic up against a wall, it won't fit on a boat. Go to a hobby fabric store and buy a foam pad 5' 10" long and 4' wide AND NO MORE THAN 3" THICK. Cut it into a triangle so the little end is only 12" wide. This simulates the foam pad in the V-berth up in the pointy bow of the sailboat. Bring in the kitchen table from the kitchen you're not allowed to use. Put the pad UNDER the table, on the floor, so you can simulate the 3' of headroom over the pad. Block off both long sides of the pad, and the pointy end so you have to climb aboard the V-berth from the wide end where your pillows will be. The hull blocks off the sides of a V-berth and you have to climb up over the end of it through a narrow opening (hatch to main cabin) on a boat. You'll climb over your mate's head to go to the potty in the night. No fun for either party. Test her mettle and resolve by getting up this way right after you go to bed at night. There are lots of things to do on a boat and you'll forget at least one of them, thinking about it laying in bed, like "Did I remember to tie off the dingy better?" or "Is that spring line (at the dock) or anchor line (anchored out) as tight as it should be?" Boaters who don't worry about things like this laying in bed are soon aground or on fire or the laughing stock of an anchorage.... You need to find out how much climbing over her she will tolerate BEFORE you're stuck with a big boat and big marina bills and she refuses to sleep aboard it any more..... Any extra family members must be sleeping on the settees in the main cabin or in the quarter berth under the cockpit....unless you intend to get a boat over 40-something feet with an aft cabin. Smaller boats have quarter berths. Cut a pad out of the same pad material that is no more than 2' wide by 6' long. Get a cardboard box from an appliance store that a SMALL refridgerator came in. Put the pad in the box, cut to fit, and make sure only one end of the box is open. The box can be no more than 2 feet above the pad. Quarter berths are really tight. Make them sleep in there, with little or no air circulation. That's what sleeping in a quarterberth is all about. Of course, to simulate sleeping anchored out for the weekend, no heat or air conditioning will be used and all windows will be open without screens so the bugs can get in. In the mornings, everybody gets up and goes out on the patio to enjoy the sunrise. Then, one person at a time goes back inside to dress, shave, clean themselves in the tiny cabin unless you're a family of nudists who don't mind looking at each other in the buff. You can't get dressed in the stinky little head with the door closed on a sailboat. Hell, there's barely room to bend over so you can sit on the commode. So, everyone will dress in the main cabin....one at a time. Boat tables are 2' x 4' and mounted next to the settee. There's no room for chairs in a boat. So, eat off a 2X4' space on that kitchen table you slept under while sitting on a couch (settee simulator). You can also go out with breakfast and sit on the patio (cockpit), if you like. Ok, breakfast is over. Crank up the lawnmower under the window for 2 hours. It's time to recharge the batteries from last night's usage and to freeze the coldplate in the boat's icebox which runs off a compressor on the engine. Get everybody to clean up your little hovel. Don't forget to make the beds from ONE END ONLY. You can't get to the other 3 sides of a boat bed pad. All hands go outside and washdown the first fiberglass UPS truck that passes by. That's about how big the deck is on your 35' sailboat that needs to have the ocean cleaned off it daily or it'll turn the white fiberglass all brown like the UPS truck. Now, doesn't the UPS truck look nice like your main deck? Ok, we're going to need some food, do the laundry, buy some boat parts that failed because the manufacturer's bean counters got cheap and used plastics and the wife wants to "eat out, I'm fed up with cooking on the Coleman stove" today. Let's make believe we're not at home, but in some exotic port like Ft Lauderdale, today....on our cruise to Key West......Before "going ashore", plan on buying all the food you'll want to eat that will: A - Fit into the Coleman Cooler on the floor B - You can cook on the Coleman stove without an oven or all those fancy kitchen tools you don't have on the boat C - And will last you for 10 days, in case the wind drops and it takes more time than we planned at sea. Plan meals carefully in a boat. We can't buy more than we can STORE, either! Of course, we came here by BOAT, so we don't have a car. Some nice marinas have a shuttle bus, but they're not a taxi. The shuttle bus will only go to West Marine or the tourist traps, so we'll be either taking the city bus, if there is one or taxi cabs or shopping at the marina store which has almost nothing to buy at enormous prices. Walk to the 7-11 store, where you have your car stored, but ignore the car. Make believe it isn't there. No one drove it to Ft Lauderdale for you. Use the payphone at the 7-11 and call a cab. Don't give the cab driver ANY instructions because in Ft Lauderdale you haven't the foggiest idea where West Marine is located or how to get there, unlike at home. We'll go to West Marine, first, because if we don't the "head" back on the boat won't be working for a week because little Suzy broke a valve in it trying to flush some paper towels. This is your MOST important project, today....that valve in the toilet!! After the cab drivers drives around for an hour looking for West Marine and asking his dispatcher how to get there, go into West Marine and give the clerk a $100 bill, simulating the cost of toilet parts. Lexus parts are cheaper than toilet parts at West Marine. See for yourself! The valve she broke, the seals that will have to be replaced on the way into the valve will come to $100 easy. Tell the clerk you're using my liveaboard simulator and to take his girlfriend out to dinner on your $100 greenback. If you DO buy the boat, this'll come in handy when you DO need boat parts because he'll remember you for the great time his girlfriend gave him on your $100 tip. Hard-to-find boat parts will arrive in DAYS, not months like the rest of us. It's just a good political move while in simulation mode. Call another cab from West Marine's phone, saving 50c on payphone charges. Tell the cabbie to take you to the laundromat so we can wash the stinky clothes in the trunk. The luxury marina's laundry in Ft Lauderdale has a broken hot water heater. They're working on it, the girl at the store counter, said, yesterday. Mentioning the $12/ft you paid to park the boat at their dock won't get the laundry working before we leave for Key West. Do your laundry in the laundromat the cabbie found for you. Just because noone speaks English in this neighborhood, don't worry. You'll be fine this time of day near noon. Call another cab to take us out of here to a supermarket. When you get there, resist the temptation to "load up" because your boat has limited storage and very limited refridgeration space. Buy from the list we made early this morning. Another package of cookies is OK. Leave one of the kids guarding the pile of clean laundry just inside the supermarket's front door....We learned our lesson and DIDN'T forget and leave it in the cab, again! Call another cab to take us back to the marina, loaded up with clean clothes and food and all-important boat parts. Isn't Ft Lauderdale beautiful from a cab? It's too late to go exploring, today. Maybe tomorrow.... Don't forget to tell the cab to go to the 7-11 (marina parking lot)....not your front door. Ok, haul all the stuff in the dock cart from the 7-11 store the two blocks to the "boat" bedroom. Wait 20 minutes before starting out for the house. This simulates waiting for someone to bring back a marina-owned dock cart from down the docks..... Put all the stuff away, food and clothes, in the tiny drawer space provided. Have a beer on the patio (cockpit) and watch the sunset. THIS is living! Now, disassemble the toilet in your bathroom, take out the wax ring under it and put it back. Reassemble the toilet. This completes the simulation of putting the new valve in the "head" on the boat. No, no, no. Don't turn that ceiling fan on to pull the smell out. Boats don't have big exhaust blowers in the head, you know....(c; Just leave the windows open during dinner. It'll blow away soon. After getting up, tomorrow morning, from your "V-Berth", take the whole family out to breakfast by WALKING to the nearest restaurant, then take a cab to any local park or attraction you like. We're off today to see the sights of Ft Lauderdale.....before heading out to sea, again, to Key West. Take a cab back home after dinner out and go to bed, exhausted, on your little foam pad under the table..... Get up this morning and disconnect all hoses, electrical wires, etc. Get ready for "sea". Crank up the lawn mower under the open bedroom window for 4 hours while we motor out to find some wind. ONE responsible adult MUST be sitting on the hot patio all day, in shifts, "on watch" looking out for other boats, ships, etc. If you have a riding lawn mower, let the person "on watch" drive it around the yard all day to simulate driving the boat down the ICW in heavy traffic. About 2PM, turn off the engine and just have them sit on the mower "steering" it on the patio. We're under sail, now. Every hour or so, take everyone out in the yard with a big rope and have a tug-of-war to simulate the work involved with setting sail, changing sail, trimming sail. Make sure everyone gets all sweaty in the heat. Sailors working on sailboats are always all sweaty or we're not going anywhere fast! Let's simulate some offshore conditions, just in case you actually do sail past the end of the face dock at your local marina, someday. Have the midwatch on the lawn mower, whenever it rains or the wind blows hard at your house, while "at sea" on your simulator, come in and wake everyone up by yelling and screaming in panic. Everyone must jump out of bed and put on anything resembling a safety harness as quickly as they can. (If you don't have anything, each sailor strap on an old bra backwards with the "floatation pods" in the back.) The person "on watch" picks up the garden hose from the neighbors you use "in port" and hoses everyone coming out onto the patio down with the cold hose water while screaming, "WE NEED TO SET A REEF, DON'T WE?", (meaning YOU need to set a reef much later than you should have but you were asleep). While continuing to hose down the other members of the family at 0300 in their PJs, everyone goes out in the darkened back yard and has a tug of war, simulating the awful forces on the sheets and any other lines in a gale. If a fire hose is available, turn it loose full force to knock everyone down during the tug of war every 8 seconds as the swell comes crashing over the foredeck. Everyone go back to bed by 0400 that can sleep all wet on their pitiful little foam pads under the coffee table. You're too pooped and sore, now, to worry about what's wet and what's not. It's all wet after the big swell washed over the main hatch someone forgot to close. (idea by Len, S/V Present, with thanks - Editor) Do this all day, today, all night, tonight, all day, tomorrow, all night tomorrow night and all day the following day until 5PM when you "arrive" at the next port you're going to. Make sure noone in the family leaves the confines of the little bedroom or the patio during out "trip". Make sure everyone conserves water, battery power, etc., things you'll want to conserve while being at sea on a trip somewhere. Everyone can go up to the 7-11 for an icecream as soon as we get the "boat" docked on day 3, the first time anyone has left the confines of the bedroom/patio in 3 days. Question - Was anyone suicidal during our simulated voyage? Keep an eye out for anyone with a problem being cooped up with other family members. If anyone is attacked, any major fights break out, any threats to throw the captain to the fish.....forget all about boats and buy a motorhome, instead. Anyone got any more "liveaboard simulator" ideas he can use?? Larry...Gotta go dump the holding tanks, back in a bit. |
Thinking of becoming a live aboard
Len wrote in
: A close encounter with a whale when underway would be impressive too I'm sure. I guess it has to do with (re-)connecting with nature. I was alone on the midwatch of S/V "Claire's Navie", an Endeavour 35 about 100 miles off the Georgia coast, on a pitch black night with the moon set. Somewhere around 3AM "something surfaced", making an awful rushing noise out there in the pitch dark off my starboard beam. I swear I heard it also "breathe" through its blowhole. The rushing stopped as quickly as it started and the sounds of the 4-5' quartering seas returned to normal. I couldn't tell if the "something" made any of the waves that hit the hull or not in the pitch dark. It must have been your whale. I didn't hear any screws turning. I had no trouble remaining awake way past my watch relief, who got hit DIRECTLY in his stomach from port by a huge flying fish that stunk up the cockpit something awful before we could heave it overboard. He woke right up for the rest of his watch, too!....(c; It's much more fun thinking about these panic attacks than laying back there, slightly drunk, in a quiet cove I think... -- Larry |
Thinking of becoming a live aboard
Gogarty wrote in news:lZadnVwvxN1f1vveRVn-
: Could you post your latest version again? Done with a new section whos idea came from Len, S/V Present in The Netherlands....(c; I'm honored to be in your newsletter... -- Larry To find out about me, go to www.qrz.com and put W4CSC into the ham radio callsign search engine.... ------------------------------------------------------------------------- The Liveaboard Simulator -.......(c; Just for fun, park your cars in the lot of the convenience store at least 2 blocks from your house. (Make believe the sidewalk is a floating dock between your car and the house. Move yourself and your family (If applicable) into 2 bedrooms and 1 bathroom. Measure the DECK space INSIDE your boat. Make sure the occupied house has no more space, or closet space, or drawer space. Bring a coleman stove into the bathroom and set it next to the bathroom sink. Your boat's sink is smaller, but we'll let you use the bathroom sink, anyways. Do all your cooking in the bathroom, WITHOUT using the bathroom power vent. If you have a boat vent, it'll be a useless 12v one that doesn't draw near the air your bathroom power vent draws to take away cooking odors. Leave the hall door open to simulate the open hatch. Take all the screens off your 2 bedroom's windows. Leave the windows open to let in the bugs that will invade your boat at dusk, and the flies attracted to the cooking. Speaking of the garbage from the cooking, on a boat there's no room for that big garbage can in your garage and the little sink, just like the one in the bathroom, has no garbage disposal to get rid of the stinky stuff cooking generates. If you dump it overboard you'll soon find out how serious all those tree huggers up and down the dock take keeping the water clean. They'll have the EPA down your throat in a matter of hours. So, we need to use that little knee-high plastic trashcan in the bathroom to store all our garbage on our simulated yacht. As boats don't come with any kind of trashcan storage, be sure to leave it against the doorframe of the bathroom where you can trip over it all the time. Any trashcan in a boat is always where you can trip over it and knock it over spilling its stinky mess onto the "deck" to clean up. Put a plastic bag into it to dump the mess into. We're not totally uncivilized in yachting, you know. When you can't stand its smell any more, there are two things we'll do with the full trashbags. If we are docked at a marina, we'll add the trashbags to our daily trek to the 7-11 with the dock cart to put it in their dumpster (marina dumpster). Drop by the nearest biker bar and ask them for a big 32-gallon trashbag full of nearly-empty beer and wine bottles. Put these in your big trashcan in the garage and pull it out onto your front lawn by your sidewalk. This is to simulate the "normal" state of any marina's fancy little dock trash bins which are always full like this because of the constant partying up and down the dock, especially on weekends. Dock hands have a very hard time keeping up with emptying them. Because of this fact, you will haul all your smelly trashbags up the "dock" to the 7-11's big dumpster on your treks to the marina (7-11) parking lot...if we're "in port". Only store the untoted trashbags in two places....next to your little bed under the kitchen table...or next to your chair in your "cockpit" out on the patio. If we are on a "cruise" or anchored out, we store the smelly mess bags in the dingy trailed out behind the stern, so hook up your little lawn trailer to the back of the "helm" riding lawn mower someone is going to sit on "at sea" out on the patio. We'll transfer all this garbage to the marina (7-11) dumpster in the dock cart when we "return from sea" to any port. For some reason, the first items off the dingy at the dingy dock is always the garbage...(d^:) Borrow a couple of 55 gallon drums mounted on a trailer. Flush your toilets into the drums. Trailer the drums to the convenience store to dump them when they get full. Turn off your sewer, you won't have one. Unless your boat is large enough to have a big "head" with full bath, make believe your showers/bathtubs don't work. Make a deal with someone next door to the convenience store to use THEIR bathroom for bathing at the OTHER end of the DOCK. (Marina rest room) If you use this rest room to potty, while you're there, make believe it has no paper towels or toilet paper. Bring your own. Bring your own soap and anything else you'd like to use there, too. Run you whole house through a 20 amp breaker to simulate available dock power at the marina. If you're thinking of anchoring out, turn off the main breaker and "make do" with a boat battery and flashlights. Don't forget you have to heat your house on this 20A supply and try to keep the water from freezing. Turn off the water main valve in front of your house. Run a hose from your neighbor's lawn spigot over to your lawn spigot and get all your water from there. Try to keep the hose from freezing all winter. As your boat won't have a laundry, disconnect yours. Go to a boat supply place, like West Marine, and buy you a dock cart. Haul ALL your supplies, laundry, garbage, etc. between the car at the convenience store and house in this cart. Once a week, haul your outboard motor to the car, leave it a day then haul it back to the house, in the cart, to simulate "boat problems" that require "boat parts" to be removed/replaced on your "dock". If ANYTHING ever comes out of that cart between the convenience store and the house, put it in your garage and forget about it. (Simulates losing it over the side of the dock, where it sank in 23' of water and was dragged off by the current.) Each morning, about 5AM, have someone you don't know run a weedeater back and forth under your bedroom windows to simulate the fishermen leaving the marina to go fishing. Have him slam trunk lids, doors, blow car horns and bang some heavy pans together from 4AM to 5AM before lighting off the weedeater. (Simulates loading aluminum boats with booze and fishing gear and gas cans.) Once a week, have him bang the running weedeater into your bedroom wall to simulate the idiot who drove his boat into the one you're sleeping in because he was half asleep leaving the dock. Put a rope over a big hook in the ceiling over your bed. Hook one end of the rope to the bed siderail and the other end out where he can pull on it. As soon as he shuts off the weedeater, have him pull hard 9 times on the rope to tilt your bed at least 30 degrees. (Simulates the wakes of the fishermen blasting off trying to beat each other to the fishing.) Anytime there is a storm in your area, have someone constantly pull on the rope. It's rough riding storms in the marina! If your boat is a sailboat, install a big wire from the top of the tallest tree to your electrical ground in the house so you can worry about the lightning hitting your mast. If your marina has big sport fishing boats with huge diesels, substitute your neighbor's unmuffled Harley-Davidson hog for the weedeater and have him light off an old oil stove for 20 minutes while its running under your open bedroom window to simulate that "diesel smell" the big boats generate as they idle them for half an hour, for no apparent reason, before they shove off. Each time you "go out", or think of going boating away from your marina, disconnect the neighbor's water hose, your electric wires, all the umbilicals your new boat will use to make life more bearable in the marina. Use bottled drinking water for 2 days for everything. Get one of those 5 gallon jugs with the airpump on top from a bottled water company. This is your boat's "at sea" water system simulator. You'll learn to conserve water this way. Of course, not having the marina's AC power supply, you'll be lighting and all from a car battery, your only source of power. If you own or can borrow a generator, feel free to leave it running to provide AC power up to the limit of the generator. If you're thinking about a 30' sailboat, you won't have room for a generator so don't use it. Boats don't have room for "beds", as such. Fold your Sealy Posturepedic up against a wall, it won't fit on a boat. Go to a hobby fabric store and buy a foam pad 5' 10" long and 4' wide AND NO MORE THAN 3" THICK. Cut it into a triangle so the little end is only 12" wide. This simulates the foam pad in the V-berth up in the pointy bow of the sailboat. Bring in the kitchen table from the kitchen you're not allowed to use. Put the pad UNDER the table, on the floor, so you can simulate the 3' of headroom over the pad. Block off both long sides of the pad, and the pointy end so you have to climb aboard the V-berth from the wide end where your pillows will be. The hull blocks off the sides of a V-berth and you have to climb up over the end of it through a narrow opening (hatch to main cabin) on a boat. You'll climb over your mate's head to go to the potty in the night. No fun for either party. Test her mettle and resolve by getting up this way right after you go to bed at night. There are lots of things to do on a boat and you'll forget at least one of them, thinking about it laying in bed, like "Did I remember to tie off the dingy better?" or "Is that spring line (at the dock) or anchor line (anchored out) as tight as it should be?" Boaters who don't worry about things like this laying in bed are soon aground or on fire or the laughing stock of an anchorage.... You need to find out how much climbing over her she will tolerate BEFORE you're stuck with a big boat and big marina bills and she refuses to sleep aboard it any more..... Any extra family members must be sleeping on the settees in the main cabin or in the quarter berth under the cockpit....unless you intend to get a boat over 40-something feet with an aft cabin. Smaller boats have quarter berths. Cut a pad out of the same pad material that is no more than 2' wide by 6' long. Get a cardboard box from an appliance store that a SMALL refridgerator came in. Put the pad in the box, cut to fit, and make sure only one end of the box is open. The box can be no more than 2 feet above the pad. Quarter berths are really tight. Make them sleep in there, with little or no air circulation. That's what sleeping in a quarterberth is all about. Of course, to simulate sleeping anchored out for the weekend, no heat or air conditioning will be used and all windows will be open without screens so the bugs can get in. In the mornings, everybody gets up and goes out on the patio to enjoy the sunrise. Then, one person at a time goes back inside to dress, shave, clean themselves in the tiny cabin unless you're a family of nudists who don't mind looking at each other in the buff. You can't get dressed in the stinky little head with the door closed on a sailboat. Hell, there's barely room to bend over so you can sit on the commode. So, everyone will dress in the main cabin....one at a time. Boat tables are 2' x 4' and mounted next to the settee. There's no room for chairs in a boat. So, eat off a 2X4' space on that kitchen table you slept under while sitting on a couch (settee simulator). You can also go out with breakfast and sit on the patio (cockpit), if you like. Ok, breakfast is over. Crank up the lawnmower under the window for 2 hours. It's time to recharge the batteries from last night's usage and to freeze the coldplate in the boat's icebox which runs off a compressor on the engine. Get everybody to clean up your little hovel. Don't forget to make the beds from ONE END ONLY. You can't get to the other 3 sides of a boat bed pad. All hands go outside and washdown the first fiberglass UPS truck that passes by. That's about how big the deck is on your 35' sailboat that needs to have the ocean cleaned off it daily or it'll turn the white fiberglass all brown like the UPS truck. Now, doesn't the UPS truck look nice like your main deck? Ok, we're going to need some food, do the laundry, buy some boat parts that failed because the manufacturer's bean counters got cheap and used plastics and the wife wants to "eat out, I'm fed up with cooking on the Coleman stove" today. Let's make believe we're not at home, but in some exotic port like Ft Lauderdale, today....on our cruise to Key West......Before "going ashore", plan on buying all the food you'll want to eat that will: A - Fit into the Coleman Cooler on the floor B - You can cook on the Coleman stove without an oven or all those fancy kitchen tools you don't have on the boat C - And will last you for 10 days, in case the wind drops and it takes more time than we planned at sea. Plan meals carefully in a boat. We can't buy more than we can STORE, either! Of course, we came here by BOAT, so we don't have a car. Some nice marinas have a shuttle bus, but they're not a taxi. The shuttle bus will only go to West Marine or the tourist traps, so we'll be either taking the city bus, if there is one or taxi cabs or shopping at the marina store which has almost nothing to buy at enormous prices. Walk to the 7-11 store, where you have your car stored, but ignore the car. Make believe it isn't there. No one drove it to Ft Lauderdale for you. Use the payphone at the 7-11 and call a cab. Don't give the cab driver ANY instructions because in Ft Lauderdale you haven't the foggiest idea where West Marine is located or how to get there, unlike at home. We'll go to West Marine, first, because if we don't the "head" back on the boat won't be working for a week because little Suzy broke a valve in it trying to flush some paper towels. This is your MOST important project, today....that valve in the toilet!! After the cab drivers drives around for an hour looking for West Marine and asking his dispatcher how to get there, go into West Marine and give the clerk a $100 bill, simulating the cost of toilet parts. Lexus parts are cheaper than toilet parts at West Marine. See for yourself! The valve she broke, the seals that will have to be replaced on the way into the valve will come to $100 easy. Tell the clerk you're using my liveaboard simulator and to take his girlfriend out to dinner on your $100 greenback. If you DO buy the boat, this'll come in handy when you DO need boat parts because he'll remember you for the great time his girlfriend gave him on your $100 tip. Hard-to-find boat parts will arrive in DAYS, not months like the rest of us. It's just a good political move while in simulation mode. Call another cab from West Marine's phone, saving 50c on payphone charges. Tell the cabbie to take you to the laundromat so we can wash the stinky clothes in the trunk. The luxury marina's laundry in Ft Lauderdale has a broken hot water heater. They're working on it, the girl at the store counter, said, yesterday. Mentioning the $12/ft you paid to park the boat at their dock won't get the laundry working before we leave for Key West. Do your laundry in the laundromat the cabbie found for you. Just because noone speaks English in this neighborhood, don't worry. You'll be fine this time of day near noon. Call another cab to take us out of here to a supermarket. When you get there, resist the temptation to "load up" because your boat has limited storage and very limited refridgeration space. Buy from the list we made early this morning. Another package of cookies is OK. Leave one of the kids guarding the pile of clean laundry just inside the supermarket's front door....We learned our lesson and DIDN'T forget and leave it in the cab, again! Call another cab to take us back to the marina, loaded up with clean clothes and food and all-important boat parts. Isn't Ft Lauderdale beautiful from a cab? It's too late to go exploring, today. Maybe tomorrow.... Don't forget to tell the cab to go to the 7-11 (marina parking lot)....not your front door. Ok, haul all the stuff in the dock cart from the 7-11 store the two blocks to the "boat" bedroom. Wait 20 minutes before starting out for the house. This simulates waiting for someone to bring back a marina-owned dock cart from down the docks..... Put all the stuff away, food and clothes, in the tiny drawer space provided. Have a beer on the patio (cockpit) and watch the sunset. THIS is living! Now, disassemble the toilet in your bathroom, take out the wax ring under it and put it back. Reassemble the toilet. This completes the simulation of putting the new valve in the "head" on the boat. No, no, no. Don't turn that ceiling fan on to pull the smell out. Boats don't have big exhaust blowers in the head, you know....(c; Just leave the windows open during dinner. It'll blow away soon. After getting up, tomorrow morning, from your "V-Berth", take the whole family out to breakfast by WALKING to the nearest restaurant, then take a cab to any local park or attraction you like. We're off today to see the sights of Ft Lauderdale.....before heading out to sea, again, to Key West. Take a cab back home after dinner out and go to bed, exhausted, on your little foam pad under the table..... Get up this morning and disconnect all hoses, electrical wires, etc. Get ready for "sea". Crank up the lawn mower under the open bedroom window for 4 hours while we motor out to find some wind. ONE responsible adult MUST be sitting on the hot patio all day, in shifts, "on watch" looking out for other boats, ships, etc. If you have a riding lawn mower, let the person "on watch" drive it around the yard all day to simulate driving the boat down the ICW in heavy traffic. About 2PM, turn off the engine and just have them sit on the mower "steering" it on the patio. We're under sail, now. Every hour or so, take everyone out in the yard with a big rope and have a tug-of-war to simulate the work involved with setting sail, changing sail, trimming sail. Make sure everyone gets all sweaty in the heat. Sailors working on sailboats are always all sweaty or we're not going anywhere fast! Let's simulate some offshore conditions, just in case you actually do sail past the end of the face dock at your local marina, someday. Have the midwatch on the lawn mower, whenever it rains or the wind blows hard at your house, while "at sea" on your simulator, come in and wake everyone up by yelling and screaming in panic. Everyone must jump out of bed and put on anything resembling a safety harness as quickly as they can. (If you don't have anything, each sailor strap on an old bra backwards with the "floatation pods" in the back.) The person "on watch" picks up the garden hose from the neighbors you use "in port" and hoses everyone coming out onto the patio down with the cold hose water while screaming, "WE NEED TO SET A REEF, DON'T WE?", (meaning YOU need to set a reef much later than you should have but you were asleep). While continuing to hose down the other members of the family at 0300 in their PJs, everyone goes out in the darkened back yard and has a tug of war, simulating the awful forces on the sheets and any other lines in a gale. If a fire hose is available, turn it loose full force to knock everyone down during the tug of war every 8 seconds as the swell comes crashing over the foredeck. Everyone go back to bed by 0400 that can sleep all wet on their pitiful little foam pads under the coffee table. You're too pooped and sore, now, to worry about what's wet and what's not. It's all wet after the big swell washed over the main hatch someone forgot to close. (idea by Len, S/V Present, with thanks - Editor) Do this all day, today, all night, tonight, all day, tomorrow, all night tomorrow night and all day the following day until 5PM when you "arrive" at the next port you're going to. Make sure noone in the family leaves the confines of the little bedroom or the patio during out "trip". Make sure everyone conserves water, battery power, etc., things you'll want to conserve while being at sea on a trip somewhere. Everyone can go up to the 7-11 for an icecream as soon as we get the "boat" docked on day 3, the first time anyone has left the confines of the bedroom/patio in 3 days. Question - Was anyone suicidal during our simulated voyage? Keep an eye out for anyone with a problem being cooped up with other family members. If anyone is attacked, any major fights break out, any threats to throw the captain to the fish.....forget all about boats and buy a motorhome, instead. Larry...Gotta go dump the holding tanks, back in a bit. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ |
Thinking of becoming a live aboard
On Wed, 02 Nov 2005 20:19:25 -0500, Larry wrote:
Len wrote in : A close encounter with a whale when underway would be impressive too I'm sure. I guess it has to do with (re-)connecting with nature. I was alone on the midwatch of S/V "Claire's Navie", an Endeavour 35 about 100 miles off the Georgia coast, on a pitch black night with the moon set. Somewhere around 3AM "something surfaced", making an awful rushing noise out there in the pitch dark off my starboard beam. I swear I heard it also "breathe" through its blowhole. The rushing stopped as quickly as it started and the sounds of the 4-5' quartering seas returned to normal. I couldn't tell if the "something" made any of the waves that hit the hull or not in the pitch dark. It must have been your whale. I didn't hear any screws turning. Magnificent experience... thanks for sharing. I'm searching for this photo I must still have somewhere. I got it from a dutch cruiser who now gives lectures with video presentation. During the day a whale came swimming next to the boat. This lasted long enough for the sailor to climb his maststeps with a camera. The photo shows the whale clearly turned about 45 degrees up with his left side. You definitely would say he/she was looking up to what was happening on deck or to that strange guy hanging in the mast. Regards, Len. |
Thinking of becoming a live aboard
Len wrote in
: Magnificent experience... thanks for sharing. I'm searching for this photo I must still have somewhere. I got it from a dutch cruiser who now gives lectures with video presentation. During the day a whale came swimming next to the boat. This lasted long enough for the sailor to climb his maststeps with a camera. The photo shows the whale clearly turned about 45 degrees up with his left side. You definitely would say he/she was looking up to what was happening on deck or to that strange guy hanging in the mast. Regards, Len. We had another great experience with bottlenosed dolphins about 30 miles offshore of Savannah, Georgia, I also remember. What show offs! This one happened aboard "Lionheart", an Amel Sharki ketch and my friend's current boat. One of the guys we sail with went up to the bow and leaned out over the bowspirit holding out his hand. We were only going about 4 knots. The dolphins must have been watching a video about Sea World's dolphins on TV down in Davey Jones' Locker. They kept leaping up to his hand....some even touching it by bumping into it. Then, this one smartassed little guy did FIVE perfect out-of-the-water rolls, one right after the other, right alongside the starboard side, from stern to bow swimming about twice our speed. He would have been the star of the Sea World show! They were perfect rolls with his belly sticking straight up just at the apogee of his out-of-the-water jump. I'd never seen a group of them being so friendly. Maybe they were escapees of some water circus show....(c; Both the 50 KHz and 200 KHz sonars were running. Maybe they heard some kind of mixing frequency that excited them into action...??? -- Larry |
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