Anyone live on a small houseboat?

[bae]

Did you enjoy it? Were you primarily docked, anchored at sea, or on the move?

Great fun. Generally I'd cruise for a good part of a day to a new location up/down the San Juan Islands/BC/Alaska coast, anchor or dock, spend a day or two at the new spot hanging out/fishing/paddling around in kayaks, then relocate to The Next Cool Cove/Harbor when I felt like it.

I want to do this route/cruise in a couple of years:

[Ultralight]

Great fun. Generally I'd cruise for a good part of a day to a new location up/down the San Juan Islands/BC/Alaska coast, anchor or dock, spend a day or two at the new spot hanging out/fishing/paddling around in kayaks, then relocate to The Next Cool Cove/Harbor when I felt like it.

You're really living the dream...

[bae]

Recently I've been cruising around here in a simple 15 foot Boston Whaler, which turns out to be surprisingly capable.

The other day my daughter and I went from here to Butchart Gardens over on Vancouver Island, which is about 40 miles, involves going through the San Juan Islands, crossing Haro Strait, then tucking into Saanich Inlet.

The trip on the way over was great, here we are tied up at the dock at the Gardens, you can just make out our small boat on the left side of the dock, mostly blocked from your view by the ramp:



The gardens were spectacular that day:





As was tea!



Then the thunderstorm/hail storm hit as we were about to leave, making the trip back a bit....sporty.



So, you don't need a very big boat to have fun on, and you could "live" even on this small boat here, if you put ashore to camp.

[kib]

Oooh, and cakes! what a lovely outing.

[CathyA]

What a neat day you had with your daughter! (except for the hail). I especially like the gardens and the assorted pastries!

[pcooley]

It was always on my life list to own a small sailboat that I could live on and one day sail around the world in. Then, sometime in my early thirties, I started looking at the actual cost of owning and living on such a boat. Yikes! I thought I could spend $4000-$6000 for a good sea-worthy sailboat and marina costs? What are those? How much could a slip cost in say, Monterey. I thought it would be an extra $80 a month or so.

It turns out that living on a sailboat is not the turn toward ultra-simple, ultra-frugal living I thought it would be. If I multiplied my expectations by about 50 - 100, it would be about what I found.

[bae]

It turns out that living on a sailboat is not the turn toward ultra-simple, ultra-frugal living I thought it would be.

"Boat" and "simple" or "frugal" are not often words found in the same sentence.

[profnot]

Constant battle with mold and mildew problems connected with living on a houseboat would make my life miserable.