by daveesl77 » Fri Mar 24, 2017 6:03 pm
Well, when I was much, much younger, I lived on my sailboats for a bit over 10 years, all over the western hemisphere. They ranged in size from 35'-48'. When you cut down all the room for engine, tanks, etc, then not nearly as big as they sound. With that said, people used to ask me how I could handle living on something so small. My answer was simple...
Your house has a bedroom, where you sleep. My boat has the same, with anything from a double to king sized mattress.
Your house has a kitchen, where you cook. My boat has the same, just a lot smaller, but I've cooked a complete thanksgiving meal for 10 in Jamaica. Oh, and my stove swivels.
Your house has a dining room, where you eat. Mine has a couple of them, inside and out.
Your house has an office, where you work. My sailboat has a nav station, same thing, except I have a crap load of electronics.
Your house has a bathroom, where you do your toilet stuff. My sailboat has the same.
Your house has a living room, where you stare at a TV set. My sailboat's living room is my cockpit. All outdoors is my TV set.
Oh, and when I get tired of my neighbors or want to go somewhere else, I pull off the lines, and leave. A famous designer used to sail with me every now and then. He was on his first date with his next wife. We were about 5 miles out of Key West and he asked if I really carried a month's worth of food with me. I said yes. He asked how long it would take us to get to Cancun, I said about 4-5 days. He said "let's go". A few hours later his "date" got a bit upset because she realized we were serious. My girlfriend didn't care. So, long story short, we had to turn around and go home. About a year later they showed up when I was down in St. Lucia and we took off and spent the next 2 weeks bumming around. That is what freedom really is. We were friends because I guess I was one of the few people he knew that could care less who he was.
So, could I live full time in my camper, probably, but I wouldn't. We don't have a problem going out for 30-60 days though, which is what we getting ready to do in a few weeks. Go with your dreams, and don't regret them. I can honestly say that there are only a couple of things I ever wanted to do in my life that I didn't accomplish. Not everything was a good decision, not at all, but every decision was a learning experience.