Boat living

You might check the phone book; viphonebook.com

My mother in law lives on her sailboat, moored just off Water Island. I will e-mail her your addy and maybe she will reply.

If you get any info from Marty's mother in law through e-mail, please post the info here. It is my intent to live on my boat when I get there (I live on one now). I'll be motoring the boat down there out of Miami - what a journey - I can't wait!

Hi there - I am the General Manager of the Charteryacht League. Feel free to email me with any specific questions. Be sure to let me know which island group you are looking at. The situation on St. Croix is a bit different than the St. Thomas/St. John area. The following comments are geared towards the St. Thomas/St. John area.

I can offer a few beginning items. Marinas will offer "special" rates for monthly contracts. Living on dock is, however, expensive in more ways than dock space. You are paying a premium for electricity and water. The docks are hot and you will be running your A/C a lot. If you look at the front page of this website you will find contact information for marinas in the area. Ranging in terms of $$$$ Crown Bay Marina is the most expensive followed by American Yacht Harbor then Compass Point (Boaters Haven) and Independent Boat Yacht. There are also several small marinas - Vessup, Ruans, etc. which have live aboards and are on the less expensive side. Still - all the docks are hot and buggy most of the year!

You can live "at anchor" in any one location here in the virgins in any one location for seven days then move to another bay. Nice if you are just interested in "hanging around". Price is right as anchoring is free.

Mooring permits are not hard to obtain. First you find where you want to put your ground tackle. You get an exact GPS location on it and apply to the Dept. of Planning and Natural Resources. They will come out and inspect the site. If approved, the permit will cost you $5 per foot of boat per year. You purchase your ground tackle and have someone install it for you. DPNR will then come back out and inspect the site. The place is now your home. You cannot resell or give away the mooring site. If someone offers to sell you thier mooring. Be careful. DPNR is not stupid. They may overlook it or they might not depending on thier mood that day.

Again, let me know if you have any specific questions. Happy Holidays to all. Wishing you fair winds and safe seas.
Pamela.

Ya know, I have been preparing for a move to the V.I. for several years now, and my plan was always to buy a piece of property, live off my savings while mortgage free, and try to earn what I could doing whatever caught my fancy. After looking thru real estate magazines and the online MLM services and such, I've concluded that I might be much happier just buying a boat and moving around the entire caribbean area at will. Granted, I'm no sailor at the moment, but I do love the water and I do learn quickly. The one question that nags me the most right now though is, where do you go when there's a hurricane on the way?

Funny thing about boats...they move!! Haha! If a hurricane is approaching from the East (which most do), boaties/yachties will head down island. If it is approaching from the South, then going West towards Puerto Rico would be your best bet.

You might want to rent a boat for a month or two to see if it is for you or not. It takes a special kind of person to live in such tight quarters and have to continually work on your home. What I mean by that is, since your home is also in the ocean, and is transportation, too, there are many different factors contributing to the creation of problems, so you need to be a jack of all trades to keep it in tip top shape. Also remember the old sayings: "the two happiest days in a boat owners life...the day he buys it...and the day he sells it!" and "The definition of a boat? A hole in the water that you pour money into." Then you also want to figure out if you want to live at anchor, a mooring, or a marina. A marina is expensive, an anchor is not very reliable, and mooring/anchoring will require you to have a very reliable dinghy...which you will use to get to and from, to bring in groceries and gas/deisel and water (if your watermaker is not up to capacity). Now figure out if you want a sailboat or a powerboat. Sailing is much more economical, but requires you to be fit and to have a very good knowledge of the sea and sailing tactics. If you don't have those, you may want to take a class...not something that you should "learn as you go".

Also "Pamela" posted a day or two ago and she is the GMof the charter yacht league. You might want to use the search function to find her posts and e-mail her questions. I'm sure she knows bunches of info.

Jay,

Marty is right with regard to the suggestion that you try living on a boat before totally commiting to it financially and without a back up home. You might even be able to give it a trial run where you are now, before coming to the islands, if you have a large lake or a major river near you. I (and my cat) moved out of my four bedroom home and onto a boat a couple of years ago and have no regrets, but it's not for everyone. Convenience items that land dwellers can usually take for granted, such as a water supply or flushing a toilet without having to consider holding tank capacities and having to go pump out, seem to break down at the worst possible time. For example, the day my dockside water was shut off due to the freezing temperatures (I don't live in the islands yet) which meant I had to start using tank water instead, my water pump went out which required an immediate replacement/fix if I wanted to have water for basic necessities such as showering, brushing my teeth, and washing dishes. Living aboard is a labor of love; you'll either be extremely passionate about it (as I am) or it will eventually drive you insane. Assuming you'll acquire a boat that is large enough to live on, you'll also need to consider acquiring piloting/seamanship skills first. Wind can be your best friend or your worst nightmare and it doesn't take much for either with a large boat that has a lot of broadside surface for the wind to toy with. I dearly love every moment I am on my boat, even when it's only 16° outside! Living aboard has many bright sides too -- it's mobile. If you want to go raft up with friends for a weekend, you never have to pack to go anywhere - you just take your entire residence and everything you own with you. If you want to change your scenery, just fire up the engines, pull the anchor or slip out of your dock lines, and move. I hope you have, or find, that level of passion for boating - it is wonderful lifestyle and and a very unique place to live if you're suited for it.

Hello,

Some folks tie up their boats in the designated hurricane holes and then head for land to wait it out. There are a couple boaties that stick it out on their boats in the water... of course they head to the hurricane holes - typically mangrove lagoons where they tie their boat up/down, anchors, to trees ect... I have asked a few captains that have stayed on their boats what they did, scary factor... and they said they removed sails ect. tied the boat as best they could, kept watch during the storm, kept an eye out for other boats that the wind might push onto theirs, retying their boat depending on the wind, bucketing water out... the scary factor they sort of shrugged off and said the boats my home(/business) I wasn't going anywhere.

--Islander

Thanks MGoBlue,

I'll definitely try boat living locally before I move to the islands to do it! I'm just a few miles from Lake Guntersville which is on the TN River and there are several nice marinas in the area. I have to wait until my daughter gets out of high school and off to college before I can experiment with alternate living arrangements. That time is fast approaching though!

Thanks Marty.

Renting is not a bad idea. I might even try that locally before I buy anything just to get a better idea of what my needs will be.

you should read "An Embarrasment of Mangoes" by Ann Vanderhoof. Not only do her and her husband live on a boat, they travel from toronto to Trinidad, spending about two years in the Caribbean. Besides being a good travel writing, she gives a lot of experienced information in an interesting way.... they have it at amazon.com

Islander: I am sure that you remember all the deaths here in Marilyn were people on boats. It is NOT recommended that anyone try to ride out a hurricane on a boat. Tie it up and pray. Oh, yes, get insurance!!!

Thank you East Ender for mentioning that, I definately should have made a note that its not a wise idea despite it being done by a few.

Here are some stats for those interested:

There were 8 reported deaths during Hurricane Marilyn for the USVI. 7 were boat related, 6 drownings and 1 head trauma.

--Islander

I don't know where here you would try to "rent" a live aboard. Haven't seen that sort of thing since Hurricane Marilyn.

I reiterate what east ender said - do not stay on your boat during a hurricane. Closer to hurricane season I will, if anyone is interested, post a list of what to do in the event of a storm for marine related interests. In short you remove anything and everything on deck that could become a projectile, you put out every anchor you own then go borrow a few more from folks who hve thier boats in the yards, you help the other people in the mangroves set thier anchors ('cause it is rarely the Captains who are prepared but the people who don't know what they are doing that cause the most damage). Then you leave the boat and begin to drink ......

There is nothing like waiting for the hurricane to be over to see if your boat is still there. Quite the rush to see it not there, believe me. You just sort of stand there and go but ... but .... but .....

Pamela

Well said, Pamela. No one should ever try to ride out a hurricane on a boat. The boat is replaceable; a life is not. I know a lot of hard-headed folks try to do it, but it’s just plain stupid. Heck, when Frances (or was it Ivan? - can’t remember there were two back to back) rolled through Atlanta (believe it or not!), I put on double lines on my boat, put chaffing protection on the lines where they crossed, took down all of the canvas and loaded my dock boxes in the cockpit and then left the boat until the storm passed. Even that far inland, I’m glad I left the boat - some of the docks broke apart and floated out of the marina, boats and all! Granted, I still have a lot to learn about going through the full brunt of a real hurricane, and I’ll be looking for and reading your tips and instructions, Pamela, when the time comes!

Some folks try to guess where they storms will track and then try to outrun them. Remember, however, a trawler might not be fast enough to out run one. And if one of the two engines breaks down on a fast cruiser, motor yacht or sport fisher, you’re not going to be able to outrun one on one engine, and don’t count on someone venturing into the midst of a violent storm to save you. When the time comes for me, I suspect I’ll probably just haul out if I can, head for a sturdy concrete building, and drink! That’s the best advice I’ve received thus far.

I have seen a few live-aboard rentals in the Island Trader. Maybe check there often?