Deconstruction Of A Life Ashore.

[Auzzee]

Hi Atavist,

Living aboard is good! Last time I lived aboard, I spent my time at anchor rather than in a marina. I much prefer life on the anchor to life in a waterborne trailer park. Marina living is convenient (particularly in Darwin with tidal movements approaching 8 metres), but I look forward to the dry season so I can escape the marina and throw down the hook in an empty bay.

The interesting thing about 'stuff', is that I am now on my third big clean up in just over a month. At first I kept what I needed....then realised I had kept far more than I wanted. Each successive clean out has brought with it a greater freedom as I dispense with furniture, crockery, cutlery, tools.....and things which I once thought to be important but which, in reality, are of little practical or emotional consequence.

I have a great deal of storage on my boat, but I think when I am fully settled into the cruising life, I will have plenty of vacant storage left over after paring my possessions to those things which I seriously can't do without.

Life is good!

David.

[imagine2frolic]

I am in my shop right now, and outside my truck, and trailer are full of small items ready for the storage unit. Tomorrow the new owners of the house will move in, and my life will get back to normal. We sold off the living room, and the buyers of the house purchased everything else that is big.

This is my 3rd time moving onto a boat. While single my apartments had the look of a model home. Clean, and just enough to make the place look nice. When we bought this house for an investment only, my wife started buying all of the nick nacks, and other twigs to build a nest. It drove me nuts, and now there will be a lot of throwing away, and my mind can count the money wasted....OUCH!

Since I have always made my living through my tools. They will fill many nooks, and crannies. Some will stay in storage to be shipped to my next destination.....WHERE EVER THAT WILL BE! My previous wife said I was like a snail. Always taking my home with me. Now that the house is gone I am beginning to feel free once again....YES!!!!!!!

[KayKay58]

[font="Comic Sans MS"][size=3][color="#800080"]My husband and I have just done the same thing! We sold our house with all appliances and furniture in in it, stored everything else at my daughters house, gave away our large paintings and I had to go through my clothes, kleenex in hand, and get rid of shoes and dresses! Now we are in the process of getting our "new" sailboat, Phoenix ready for living aboard, which is confusing to say the least. But I know that all the work and sacrafices will most definitly be rewarded when we cruise along in the Gulf of Mexico!! Good luck to you, and does anyone have advice for the best galley items to put on board? I am certainly getting a good coffee maker! LOL.

[Lighthouse]

Welcome aboard KayKay58.

A good coffee-maker is a good start.

Welcome to the wonderful liveaboard life!

[saxon]

Hiya KayKay58, I am the very last person to advise you on essential cooking equipment for the galley, my cooking is so appalling that seagulls do not follow my boat as they do others, in fact they usually turn away in horror at any food scraps that I ditch. I am master of the can opener though... But even I can say...get a small pressure cooker! It has turned many of my attempts at cooking into something at least mildly edible, (even if I can't recognise it when it's cooked) Pressure cookers also save on cooking fuel, propane or any other method. I'm told it's even possible to make bread in them but my attempt failed miserably, although a local island fisherman was glad when I gave him the 'loaf' as he used it as a weight in his lobster pot. regards Saxon.

[Stormy]

What a great thread. I spent the day moving most of my personal possessions into a storage shed. I am preparing myself to finally do that which I have put off for 30 years, buy a yacht and liveaboard.

With the loss of my mother a few years ago,and knowing the regrets that she had about the things she never did, I dont want to be like that.

I will be heading off to the Solomon Islands for over a year working.

While I am there I will be looking around for a Catamaran to call home.

Shane

[cwa]

Glad that I found this thread. Really helps the perspective about getting ready to go our cruising.

We are in the process of relieving ourselves of all this land based junk!

Our plan is to finally take off in the spring of 2011 and just go cruising.

Got our boat built over the last 3 years and have started to unload everything this fall.

It really feels great every time another item goes "down the road" and out of our lives.

We found the pressure cooker to be an essential item on our summer trips.

And paring down the tools is a difficult thing for me as I keep wondering if I really need all the tools that it took to build the boat.

Carl

sv-mom.com

Sailing the BC coast in our BS 36

[redbopeep]

Originally Posted by cwa

And paring down the tools is a difficult thing for me as I keep wondering if I really need all the tools that it took to build the boat.

We've found that we're keeping many, many tools from the major rebuild of our boat. Ours is a wood boat and we have the excuse that we're still building out the interior....even so, it is hard to part with tools. We've kept tools in our storage unit and forced ourselves not to even think about those tools and make do with the ones kept on the boat. Then, when it seems that we really cannot "make do" we'll break down and bring whatever tool it is that is needed over to the boat (which we live aboard) and find a place for it to "live" aboard to.

A couple very large things don't yet have a spot but yet we know we really want to keep them aboard...it will all work out, I keep saying