I have been a full-time liveaboard sailor but now I am a weekend liveaboard.  Our sailboat is a 1988 32 ft Irwin Citation sloop.  We keep our sailboat in a marina but when we retire we want to liveaboard swinging on a hook in a cove or in a bay in the Bahamas.  I like marina life and living on the docks also.  Some people, because of the many sailboat masts, call it "living in the sticks".   When you liveaboard and want a change of scenery or the weather doesn't suit you, you can move your boat to wherever you want to go. 

No Worries Art Print
Bansemer, Roger
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As a liveaboard (even if it is just for the weekend) calling a sailboat home is a lot of fun.  We have cable TV and an internet modem for our computer.   We keep our computer on the chart table and call it our office.  Our galley is equipped with a 3 burner propane stove and an oven.  Our bathroom has a sink, a toilet and a shower.  We have hot and cold running water also when we are at the dock.  All the comforts of a home on land except the sailboat floats.  A liveaboard lifestyle is unique to some people but a different style of normal to us.  Some people who live aboard don't own a car.  Some marinas supply one for trips to the grocery store or hardware store and others do not.  Renting a car is usually much cheaper than owning one if you spend most of your time on the waterways and are not in one place for very long.  

Boat people and liveaboards in general are great people.  At the dock where we keep our sailboat, some people have lived on their boats for 10 years or more. We have a bath house that liveaboards and people who keep their boats at the dock have access to.  The bathhouse has a washer and dryer and showers for times when you don’t want to shower on your boat.  The times when I have left a personal item in the bathhouse I have never worried because when I went back it was always there.  It seems liveaboards have something great in common and they trust each other.  They are helpful when there is a need to lend a hand or a tool.  They generally look out for each other and each others home on the water- their boat. 

Liveaboards take care of their boats like you would take care of your house.  We polish the stainless steel instead of washing the windows. We wash the deck instead of cut the grass.  We polish the hull and paint the bottom of the sailboat just like you would paint the outside of your house or maybe power wash your wood siding or deck.  We replace the sails instead of get a new roof.  Sometimes while doing chores in my back yard at the marina, remember my backyard has water in it, we can watch the dolphins play or feed on mullet fish.  Manatees also come and visit sometimes.  After the day is done we sit in the cockpit, sip a glass of wine, and watch the sunset.  Gently the sailboat rocks as the wind and sometimes the current moves the boat in the water. To us this is very relaxing.

Being a liveaboard on the weekends is like camping on the water.  We find a nice cove, drop a hook and spend the days relaxing, swimming, fishing, reading, and even doing some small maintenance chores.

An Underwater Shot of Florida Manatees Photographic Print
Skerry, Brian J.
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Polishing the stainless and waxing the deck while listening to some good Blues music makes for a good weekend for us.  Our 32ft sailboat has room to bring family or friends along once in awhile also.  We live close to our marina so stocking the boat during the week for the weekend ahead makes for an easy departure come early Saturday morning.  As any sailor knows, with a sailboat the adventure and weekend starts the moment you climb aboard.  No need to wait until we arrive somewhere.  Once on board, we are already there!

Living aboard our sailboat and sailing to beautiful destinations will always be our goal.  I liked living aboard my sailboat and I look forward to living on it full time and not having to go to work.  That is the main reason we no longer live-aboard full-time.  Travel, working and having to be at the job site means you have to have work clothes and play clothes which our 32ft sailboat just doesn’t have the storage for.  Now we look forward to weekends on our boat.  Our plans for vacations always include being on the sailboat as much as possible.  We lived aboard  full-time for 2 years and through 5 hurricanes and I wouldn’t have missed that opportunity and I can’t wait to do it again (minus the hurricanes).  :)

The header picture is Halifax Harbor Marina in Daytona Beach, Florida USA