Anyone here living on a boat?

It depends on where you work and where you can get a mooring permit. Search for mooring permits in the archives. Or you need to get an anchoring permit and move around a bit from here to there.

Treated like trailer trash? Only if you behave like it. Otherwise, there is a lot of water and boats are definitely an alternative to high rents. I may be wrong but in my social set boat living is not considered trailer trash.

Pamela

Thanks Pamela.
Yes living on a boat no matter how fancy she might or might not be is consider declass in much of the 50 states and local governments and land dwellers go out of their way to make you feel unwanted/undesirable. :S

That's interesting, Michael. I don't think it's necessarily the same anywhere the cost of living is exorbitantly high. I know people who live on boats in SoCal and San Francisco as well as here, and their experience was always very positive.

On St. John, the boaters are a big part of the Coral Bay community -- and yes, they run the gamut as far as their level of contribution to society and upkeep of their vessels, but nobody is treated poorly simply based on their being a liveaboard.

We lived aboard for 10 years, and everytime I told someone "back home", like at my class reunion, that I lived on a sailboat in the Caribbean, well.....you would think I was royalty or something. I found that people tended to think we were rich, which is soooooooooo not the case!!!

We were on St. Thomas most of the time. Better anchorages and more places to actually use the boat than on St. Croix. We had a variety of friends, but a lot of our friends were other live aboards. The only negative I ever remember was the owner of Molly Molones accusing those "boaties" of stealing the toilet paper out of the restaurant rest rooms. Funny thing, as you looked around the bar, at least 75% of the patrons were boaties, lining his pockets! BTY, it was not a boatie that copped the tp. It was one of the waitresses.

Another point, if you plan to do any down island sailing, you will encounter the perception that you are rich, and by some standards, you probably are, but for the most part, you will be greeted and treated very graciously.

The most comfortable option to live aboard on St. Croix is Green Cay Marina. Good facilities, amenities, security but it does come at a hefty price - and the bathrooms are nowhere near as nice as Nanny Cay (spectacular!). Green Cay is also pretty good from a storm standpoint. If your working full time it would be difficult to not reside at a marina. St. Croix Marine downtown is a bit rolly/exposed. Jones Maritime is a little better and I know several folks who live aboard there comfortably.

If your going with a mooring, an option would be to join the Sailing Club and stay out east. You get the benefit of the club facilities.

i lived on a boat in the keys, people there do not look down on you because of your choice. we were docked, not moored. personally i did not like living on a boat, but then we just stayed at the dock and didnt go anywhere because we had to work. dont let ignorance sway you.