We are novice cruisers. We haven’t done anything like this before. You can read and prepare as much as possible and nothing will prepare you completely for what is to come.  We had decided that we could not afford to keep a home and live on the boat full time.  We also did not want the hassle of being an absentee landlord.  The decision we made was to give our cruising life a 100% commitment.  

Preparation

Stuff - Begin getting rid of stuff as soon as you think you can. If you’re selling all your stuff you will need as much time as possible. We started getting rid of stuff two years prior to leaving and we still have stuff in storage, which is definitely not a good thing as that rent comes out of our budget every month. We gave lots of things away as selling was too slow. It is a liberating process not to have all these things around you.  There is very little that we really miss.

Boat - Read everything and prep your boat as best you can. What’s important to us may not be important to you. Make sure that you are comfortable with what you have. You need a dependable auxillary engine if you plan on getting anywhere. Pure sailing opportunities are few and far between. Ground tackle is important. It allows you to sleep at night. The rest is personal comforts. I don’t really want to get into what is the perfect boat. What is more important is that you get out there and enjoy yourself.

Energy Efficiency - Unless you have mega bucks, living the dream is not like living at home on land. You will need to become very frugal with every amp. Our boat has refrigeration with a freezer (ice is nice) and we use our computer quite a bit to stay in touch with our friends and family.  These two items use most of the electricity we produce.  We have no water generator or other large energy consuming appliances.  We try to run everything at 12 volts and very little through the inverter as it increases consumption ten fold. We use maybe 130 or so amps per day.  Our boat has 2 - 125 watt solar panels (fixed mount) and a 100 watt wind generator.  While moored in Marathon this winter we would produce almost everything we needed if the sky was clear and the wind was blowing at least 10-15 knots all day. The engine alternator supplies the remainder of our electrical needs. 

Safety - We are very cautious.  Weather is always a concern and do not travel if conditions threaten our comfort zone.  Communications are important and so we have a GPS enabled EPIRB, DSC enabled VHF radio, several handheld VHF radios, and back up GPS’s. We have a full medical kit for emergencies and a stocked ditch bag.

Some General Thoughts After the First Year

Stuff - Even though we got rid of a lot of stuff, we still took too much along.  I took too many boat related items that only added weight.  As long as you are coastal cruising in the U.S. you can pick up almost anything you need either online or your nearest port.  Even though we pared our clothes down to what we thought was the minimum it was still too much.  Many items have never made it out of the drawer.

We found that we should have kept title to at least one car, whether it was drivable or not. Rental car insurance is EXPENSIVE!  Your credit cards only provide loss coverage on the rental vehicle.  We bought back my junker pickup and insured it for liability which gives us liability coverage on rentals as well.  We now can rent with a little more piece of mind.

Your Status - You are a cruiser and therefor technically a transient.  Many places see you as only slightly higher (or less) than their homeless population.  I believe that most of the unwelcome feelings are the result of those in the boating community who exploit what is around them. They take water without permission, leave their trash wherever they feel like it and generally present a very negative appearance to the rest of the world.  Although we met a lot of very nice helpful people along the way, we also ran into a substantial amount of hostilities.  Try to leave a good impression everywhere.

Boat Preparations - Had we waited to leave port until all our projects were done, we would still be there.  The important items were done first.  The rest were left for later.  As it turns out, we were glad we waited as experience would redefine our needs and our list.  We decided to stay in the Keys where we could finish most everything in warmth and comfort.  Let your experience dictate what is important to you.

Schedules - Although we never had a set schedule, there were times that we pushed it to “be somewhere by such and such date”.  We have found living on “island time” gives us a much more relaxed outlook that carries over into almost all aspects of life.  

I wrote this on Christmas day in 2006 as we were well into preparations for this adventure.

It became apparent while watching Mary’s kids (although they are 26 and
29, they are still kids) opening presents and participating in the
verbal jousting that always goes on with siblings that this was the
last time we may be together for the holidays for a long time. Willie
had received a carving set from his brother and remarked about when
might he use such a thing. Right then I think it hit everyone (at
least us) that the torch was being passed. It was now their turn to
carve the turkey, bake the cookies and pass on the traditions of
holidays past. We will see how they do.

When we had the opportunity my dad and I would walk up and down the docks of various marinas, mostly in Florida, looking enviously at all the shining stainless and gleaming teak. “Someday … someday, we’ll have one of these” he would say and you could see the dream in his eyes. Well that day never came for him. It was always something “more important”. I vowed that would not happen to me.

This is all dedicated to my dad who missed his chance but watches me as I live it with him.