Many dream about their retirement with dolphins under their beds, sipping cocktails with the waves lapping gently on the hull of their yacht while watching the sun go down on yet another perfect day in paradise.
While this can definitely be true for many for some of the time, it definitely is not what happens all of the time. It is pretty much the same wherever you live or whatever your lifestyle is – some days are perfect and some not.
I came across several publications where the authors, and sometimes well published authors, make claims that are so unrealistic and downright not true, that it made me realize how much half-truths are sold to unsuspecting, bright eyed newly retired or about to retire people. The claims are so unrealistic that I cannot believe that people don’t see right through it. Some of the claims go something like:
- How to live on a boat moored directly in front of million dollar condos and enjoy the same amenities.
- You do not have to know the first thing about a boat to be able to live on a boat.
- Living comfortably on a boat that cost a fraction of your new neighbors’ dockside condos can be satisfying—especially if you are skipping the fees and the property taxes.
- Living a stress-free life of leisure on Social Security while moored in a $20,000 boat in a river or harbor adjacent to an attractive retirement area can be quite serene“
There are so many things wrong with the above claims that are made by so many on the internet on how to retire cheaply on a boat.
- Firstly, we live in a condo on the water in Florida and our boat is docked right in front of the building in a private marina. There is certainly no way that someone living on a boat nearby can enjoy any of our amenities! I don’t know of any high-end condominium building, private house, hotel or resort anywhere in the world that would allow non-paying guests, owners or tenants to use their amenities for free.
Some of the other issues with the idea of just buying a boat and anchoring it anywhere you feel like living are:
- Most of the anchorages on rivers and harbors in high-end neighborhoods are intended for transient use only. Very few exist where you can live indefinitely and for good reasons.
- Anchorages normally don’t have pump-out facilities which means the raw sewerage goes directly into the water which is not allowed anywhere. The alternative is to go to a marina with pump-out facilities and pay for pump-out or go at least three miles offshore to dump your holding tank directly into the ocean. This needs to happen fairly regularly since holding tanks are usually not very big.
- Million dollar condo owners don’t appreciate derelict boats on their doorstep and will keep calling the authorities who will keep on harassing you.
- Nobody wants the extra liability when a storm hits an area and boats that are not secured properly can drift into expensive structures, other boats, seawalls, etc and cause all sorts of damage.
- If you plan on living on anchor, you definitely need a dinghy with a decent outboard engine. It does sound romantic to row to and from your boat, but carrying laundry, groceries, water and other necessities on a kayak or canoe is not fun especially in bad weather.
- You need somewhere to land your dinghy or even kayak when you want to go ashore. Most properties on the water are really expensive and the owners will not easily allow strangers to use their docks and to walk through their gardens to get ashore. Some restaurants will allow you to dock if you eat in the restaurant, while others will charge you a substantial fee to dock provided there are no patrons who need the space.
- Water is an essential no matter where you live. It is very heavy to cart containers of water to your boat, lift it onto the boat and then stow it. You need water not only for consumption, but also for cooking, cleaning, doing dishes, showers and so forth. Even if you have a water-maker onboard, rivers and harbors are definitely not areas where I would make water – you need relatively clean ocean water to have your water-maker do what it is intended to do.
- Doing laundry is yet another daily or at least weekly chore that needs doing. Off course, you can hand wash whatever you use on a daily basis and hang it out on the life lines to dry but that is another sure way to annoy your neighbors in their million dollar condos. Nobody is allowed to hang laundry out to dry anywhere in these neighborhoods, not even on your own balcony. There is no need then for the condominium owners to watch your panties or rather bloomers hang out to dry in the sun. Towels and bed linens is obviously yet another story. So, the alternative is to load up your heavy laundry basket, load in into the dinghy, search for somewhere relatively close to a laundromat to dock your dinghy, unload the laundry, drag or carry it to the laundromat, spend hours washing and drying. By now chances are good that it started raining, but you still have to do the whole process in reverse to get you freshly washed laundry safely onto your boat, just to repeat the whole process again in a few days. This gets old pretty quick, I can tell you that much.
- Even if you live at anchor or on a mooring ball, your hull needs cleaning about once a month. Again, it is something that you could do yourself, but a lot of older people have a diver come in to take care of it. In Florida it runs about $100 per cleaning at the moment, depending on the size of the boat. Most cities are very strict not to allow boats, especially live-aboard boats not to become derelict and an eyesore to the community.
- Although we all dream about the beautiful days full of sunshine and bright moonlit nights with a slight breeze to keep it nice and cool and keep the water just gently slapping against the hull of our boats, reality is quite different. There are more days (and nights) than most would like that are very windy, rainy and stormy which means that there is not a safe way to go ashore and it also is not a good idea to leave the boat unattended in bad weather.
- You need to have a plan when really bad weather is heading your way. You either need to invest heavily in the right amount and type of ground tackle and need to know exactly what to do when your boat starts dragging it’s anchor, or you need to find somewhere safe to tie the boat up to. In areas that are prone to hurricanes, very few marinas will take you in just for the bad weather spell, and also, most that are fairly safe are booked well in advance and some even have annual subscriptions which allows you the right to book a slip if bad weather is approaching. I would never suggest that anyone who does not know anything about sailing, be on a boat during a storm. It can really be life threatening and on top of that, extremely high liability should your boat do damage to another boat, structure and so on.
- Internet today is not an issue at all. We use Starlink and have never had a single problem with it. In fact, we have better internet on the boat that in our condo.
I just came across a post on FaceBook that shows a boat that stayed anchored where they were obviously not welcome and someone spray painted both sides of the hull! Now, everybody will agree that this is extreme and not the norm, but people do get fed-up with “illegals”.
Having looked at the reality of living at anchor or on a mooring ball, I leave it up to you to decide whether the following paragraph is close to reality or not:
“Living comfortably on a boat that cost a fraction of your new neighbors’ dockside condos can be satisfying—especially if you are skipping the fees and the property taxes. Living a stress-free life of leisure on Social Security while moored in a $20,000 boat in a river or harbor adjacent to an attractive retirement area can be quite serene.“
Having said all of the above, I still believe that living on a sailboat during retirement is a wonderful experience. We live on our boat at least six month a year while we cruise to different parts of the world and love every moment thereof. We will keep on doing it as long as we possibly can, but I do believe that the lifestyle is not suitable for everyone and there are challenges that are not spelled out properly. I also believe that it is absolutely necessary to spend at least a full week or two on a sailboat before you make the decision to spend your retirement on a boat.
Hope to meet you somewhere on the oceans of the world!