Sailing Life
What is it like living on a sailboat?
Our one year anniversary of officially untying the lines was October 2, 2022. It’s been quite a learning and definitely an adjustment from living on land. It took me eight months to adjust to living with the uncertainty of living on water, which was just in time to leave our boat for the summer to spend four months on land again. I still get attached to being on land which is where I spent most of my life. Now that we are traveling on the sea, I’ve had to learn to transition from land to sea more often. Since we are continuously moving from one situation to another, we work hard to make our sailboat our home. The boat is the one thing that remains consistent, even while we are on a passage.
When we dock our boat in a marina, we are able to easily step off and walk to wherever we want to go. Our boat still moves but the dock keeps it pretty steady. We’ve had some very agitating days and nights in choppy, bumpy, restless waves at anchor, though, especially in the La Paz anchorage where the waves and currents are in opposition to one another. We were not able to get off the boat at times, because the north winds blowing against the strong currents caused by the full moon created a lot of chop, which makes the ride to land extremely uncomfortable and wet. So we had to endure the rocking and rolling for a couple of days until the winds and current eventually subsided.
We also try to create as much daily ritual in our lives as possible to create more constancy. We wake up, make coffee, eat breakfast, and plan our day. We have everything we need in our galley to make proper meals. A stove and oven, a refrigerator and freezer, and a double sink with fresh and salt water faucets. Routine and ritual help me to feel more grounded and at home.
If I’m working that day, I get on my computer to do my calls from the forward berth which transforms into my office. I’ll also make sure I do my yoga routine a few times a week. Yoga can be challenging with the waves rocking the boat but what I like about it is it teaches me to find balance within no matter what is happening on the outside.
If we’re at an anchorage, we take our dinghy to land. Our dinghy is like a car that takes us where we want to go. We either tie it up at a dock or we anchor it in the water with a line that we also anchor on the beach. We love going for long walks to stretch our legs on the beach or into town to pick up some fresh produce from the excellent and interesting local markets. If there is a restaurant nearby we may eat some lunch or dinner to get a break from cooking and cleaning up afterwards. If we are with other cruisers, we sometimes get together for a sundowner (cocktail) to watch the sunset from one of our boats.
Life at sea is not easy or comfortable, in fact it’s a lot of work, but in some ways it’s simpler. We aren’t dealing with the complexities of a city with all of its cars and people or traffic on the freeways to compete with everyday. We don’t have a big house with a lot of stuff to manage or rooms to clean and bills to pay. We don’t have anyone living above us or below us any longer. We sometimes have neighbors who anchor next to us, but unless they are a charter boat, they typically are asleep around 9 pm (cruisers’ midnight). We mostly focus on living simply but some of what we used to take for granted on land has become harder with living on the water.
When we are about to go on a longer passage across the sea or down the coast, we need to provision. That means going to a grocery store and stocking up on coffee, cereal, pasta, beans, eggs, and tortillas as well as fresh produce. We take our dinghy to land, tie it up, walk to the store, wait for a taxi to bring our full bags and backpacks back to our boat. If we are in a slip it’s easier to get the groceries onto our boat via a cart, but if we aren’t we have to get them into our dinghy first and then up to the boat, down the companionway steps and finally into the galley.
The fridge has to be unpacked and then repacked to fit everything and the rest has to to be stored into different compartments. Just getting something out of the fridge to eat involves moving things out to get to it. There’s a lot more effort doing things we use to take for granted. We also have a lot less space onboard which calls for more patience for everything including each other while moving around the boat.
We love being able to catch our own food. It definitely beats having to go to the store! Peter invested in some fishing poles, lines and lures. The first fish he caught was a Sierra in an anchorage off Isla Espiritu Santo. It was a very tasty fish and he quickly filleted it and cooked it on our outdoor grill. We invited Scott and Joanne over for fish tacos.
We make our own water by desalinating the sea water with our water maker which makes us feel very self-sufficient, when it works. We also have solar panels that enable us to have power without ever needing to plug into the grid.
Showering on board is less satisfying than on land since we are always trying to conserve. If the ocean water is warm enough to take a dip, we often jump in to clean off and then rinse with our outside fresh water shower. If we are in a slip, we use the marina’s facilities, but often need to walk pretty far to the bathroom. Otherwise, at anchor we use our own toilets which flush via a manual pump into a holding tank. This involves turning around to face what we’re doing and it’s not always pleasant. Sometimes we aren’t able to flush everything down so it takes a bit of maneuvering with a brush to get it to flow. On land, we don’t think about it. We flush and we go.
Another challenge we encounter living on a sailboat is how often something breaks. Other boaters report having similar issues. It’s becoming something we expect. Recently it was our water maker right after we left La Cruz (near Puerto Vallarta) with guests on board sailing down the coast about 100 miles. The water maker pump quit and we could no longer make water to fill our tanks. Peter ordered purified water before our passage, which was smart, but it never got delivered, because the marina didn’t have a contract with the water company we chose, and wouldn’t allow the delivery man through the gate.
We had to leave our slip without the water due to the short weather window we had and sure enough the water maker pump stopped working on our passage. Sometimes when things break, we have to source parts and wait for them to arrive at our current location. In this case, we have to get them to mail the new pump to a place ahead of us that can accept the package. In the meantime we were able to order purified water from one of the beach restaurant vendors. We carried 23 blue plastic water cooler jugs via our dinghy back to the boat and then into our water tanks. It was a long, arduous process, but we got it done with the help of our friend Scott on Fundango.
Living on a boat definitely has its discomforts, challenges and problems. I’ve experienced a lot of ups and downs since we’ve untied the lines. But I’ve learned to adapt to them like the ups and downs of the waves on the sea. I wouldn’t give up the incredible beauty I experience living in the wild for more comfort. I am learning to live with the discomforts knowing that around the corner eventually there will be something gorgeous or serene making it easier for me to accept whatever comes our way. Overall we are getting to experience the vast variety of nature’s many moods and the variety of different challenges that come with it.
It takes a while but some how staring at the sea for hours on end on a long passage allows me to reflect on my life and realize my worries are not as significant as I was making them out to be. It seems to be the expansiveness of the sea that allows me to let go more, taking deeper, longer breaths, and eventually letting the tension melt away. Living on a sailboat is teaching me how to keep moving with the continuous flow of the sea.
The picture of Isla Espiritu Santo is magical. The photo of Peter doing dishes even more so 😂
When I was 12-13 I read the book by Jules Verne “Captain Grant's Children” where they travel around the world on a search of their missing father. I painstakingly tracked their trip on my world atlas.
These days there are mapping tools that can show your travel path like https://www.gmap-pedometer.com/
I’d love to see your travels on the map! If you feel like it :)
Donna Peter belated happy new year! I enjoyed reading your story about what it’s like to live on your boat. it definitely is not for the faint of heart and requires a lot of thinking and resourcefulness! Anyway, glad that you two are doing OK. I am back to painting finally I’ve decided to do a series of landscapes as a means of becoming more adept with my new art space, and with. All the materials I’m planning to use photographs taken by us over the years. Again thanks for sharing your photos and your adventure. Love, Marie and Joe.