johnegraham
New Member
I am sorry if the brevity of my post appeared acerbic. Let me take the two queries you raised in turn. First, the wind. Unless you are unbelievably lucky, you will have periods when you will have no choice but to sail in force 6 for an extended time. You are also likely to have to sail in gales. Everyone tries to avoid this by waiting for settled weather and listening to weather forecasts but eventually your luck will run out. This may be during your first year or your twentieth. Some people take this in their stride, for some the experience gives them a new level of confidence, others have their confidence destroyed forever. (The replies to your original post reflected this range of reactions.) Unless you are prepared to accept that you could have sustained and unavoidable strong winds, you should not go.
Second, laundry. I did not give laundry a thought before I left home and have not given it a thought since. I used a washing machine on my first yacht but now use a laundry, pontoon taps, mountain streams, marina washrooms as available Washing is just not an issue. I have been at plenty of anchorages where the hot topic was the wind, the holding, the route to the next port, or where to get a sail repaired but never the location of a laundry.
In my limited experience there are two main reasons for people to abandon the live aboard lifestyle. The first is that they experience worse winds than they had hoped and would rather not put themselves through that experience again. The second is that they are not sufficiently flexible on minor day-to-day domestic issues and these become major problems.
This might not be the response for which you hoped. Leaving home on an extended cruise is a huge decision which will probably determine the shape of the rest of your life. I believe that anyone who has the doubts that you have expressed is probably better advised to spend more time on shorter cruises in varying conditions and circumstances closer to home before making the commitment to live aboard.
I am sorry if the brevity of my post appeared acerbic. Let me take the two queries you raised in turn. First, the wind. Unless you are unbelievably lucky, you will have periods when you will have no choice but to sail in force 6 for an extended time. You are also likely to have to sail in gales. Everyone tries to avoid this by waiting for settled weather and listening to weather forecasts but eventually your luck will run out. This may be during your first year or your twentieth. Some people take this in their stride, for some the experience gives them a new level of confidence, others have their confidence destroyed forever. (The replies to your original post reflected this range of reactions.) Unless you are prepared to accept that you could have sustained and unavoidable strong winds, you should not go.
Second, laundry. I did not give laundry a thought before I left home and have not given it a thought since. I used a washing machine on my first yacht but now use a laundry, pontoon taps, mountain streams, marina washrooms as available Washing is just not an issue. I have been at plenty of anchorages where the hot topic was the wind, the holding, the route to the next port, or where to get a sail repaired but never the location of a laundry.
In my limited experience there are two main reasons for people to abandon the live aboard lifestyle. The first is that they experience worse winds than they had hoped and would rather not put themselves through that experience again. The second is that they are not sufficiently flexible on minor day-to-day domestic issues and these become major problems.
This might not be the response for which you hoped. Leaving home on an extended cruise is a huge decision which will probably determine the shape of the rest of your life. I believe that anyone who has the doubts that you have expressed is probably better advised to spend more time on shorter cruises in varying conditions and circumstances closer to home before making the commitment to live aboard.
Second, laundry. I did not give laundry a thought before I left home and have not given it a thought since. I used a washing machine on my first yacht but now use a laundry, pontoon taps, mountain streams, marina washrooms as available Washing is just not an issue. I have been at plenty of anchorages where the hot topic was the wind, the holding, the route to the next port, or where to get a sail repaired but never the location of a laundry.
In my limited experience there are two main reasons for people to abandon the live aboard lifestyle. The first is that they experience worse winds than they had hoped and would rather not put themselves through that experience again. The second is that they are not sufficiently flexible on minor day-to-day domestic issues and these become major problems.
This might not be the response for which you hoped. Leaving home on an extended cruise is a huge decision which will probably determine the shape of the rest of your life. I believe that anyone who has the doubts that you have expressed is probably better advised to spend more time on shorter cruises in varying conditions and circumstances closer to home before making the commitment to live aboard.
I am sorry if the brevity of my post appeared acerbic. Let me take the two queries you raised in turn. First, the wind. Unless you are unbelievably lucky, you will have periods when you will have no choice but to sail in force 6 for an extended time. You are also likely to have to sail in gales. Everyone tries to avoid this by waiting for settled weather and listening to weather forecasts but eventually your luck will run out. This may be during your first year or your twentieth. Some people take this in their stride, for some the experience gives them a new level of confidence, others have their confidence destroyed forever. (The replies to your original post reflected this range of reactions.) Unless you are prepared to accept that you could have sustained and unavoidable strong winds, you should not go.
Second, laundry. I did not give laundry a thought before I left home and have not given it a thought since. I used a washing machine on my first yacht but now use a laundry, pontoon taps, mountain streams, marina washrooms as available Washing is just not an issue. I have been at plenty of anchorages where the hot topic was the wind, the holding, the route to the next port, or where to get a sail repaired but never the location of a laundry.
In my limited experience there are two main reasons for people to abandon the live aboard lifestyle. The first is that they experience worse winds than they had hoped and would rather not put themselves through that experience again. The second is that they are not sufficiently flexible on minor day-to-day domestic issues and these become major problems.
This might not be the response for which you hoped. Leaving home on an extended cruise is a huge decision which will probably determine the shape of the rest of your life. I believe that anyone who has the doubts that you have expressed is probably better advised to spend more time on shorter cruises in varying conditions and circumstances closer to home before making the commitment to live aboard.
