This is Great!

1. We get to live in Paradise – it is really awesome to wake up in picturesque places, swim and dive “at will”
2. We get to go where we want when we want …
3. We are separated from the drama of home – family, politics etc
4. The boat is limited in storage – can’t be materialistic. Start to focus on what is really important.
5. Passage making is challenging and rewarding
6. Keeping the boat and its systems working is challenging and rewarding. The boat is a self contained town where we have to provide our own power, water, communications, propulsion etc. We have to learn to be self-sufficient and able to repair/ replace everything on our boat in remote places.
7. Provisioning involves incorporating local culture food to spice things up
8. Community of cruisers is fantastic. They are a group of generally like minded individuals with similar experiences, most of which are more than willing to jump in to help out one another with expertise, knowledge, tools, parts, and just an extra hand.
9. Learn to be at peace with who and what you are. It’s just you and your partner out there. The need to pretending you are something else for others is not required anymore. Fancy clothing, makeup, etc is irrelevant. You quickly come to terms that you can live with little to no clothing. You come to rely on one another much more deeply

This sucks

1. Nothing is easy – paradise is not for the faint of heart
2. We need to deal with the local governments – lots of fees and each country is Sovereign. They get a big vote on how long you can stay, where you can have your boat.
3. Visiting family is challenging, have to find a safe place for the boat, airline schedules, cost etc. Family doesn’t want to visit us
4. Have to really pick and choose what we bring onto the boat – can’t have everything we might have otherwise. Catamarans are great for partying but they sail horribly and are very weight sensitive so loading them up for cruising is detrimental to their passage making abilities.
5. Passage making is risky, tedious, and filled with unknowns. The weather is always a factor so you can’t just point the boat and go. Ocean currents, tides, water depth and wind all impact our ability to go where we want to go. The east coast of the US is very difficult for larger sailboats that draw more water and have masts taller than 65′.
6. Something is always broke. The marine environment is toxic to most physical items. Corrosion is ever present and will destroy perfectly good items in days. The boat requires a detailed maintenance schedule that must be followed to keep this from getting even worse. Maintaining a boat is almost a fulltime job in itself.
7. Logistics is HARD. Buying food you want is not always possible. Spares have to come from elsewhere, often involving airline tickets. Buying groceries is often a full day process involving taxies, hot and hilly hikes. Amazon doesn’t deliver tomorrow. Fuel (gas, diesel, propane is expensive and often difficult to come by and may be contaminated). Cheap Chinese made stuff is the last thing I want to procure. If I base an important system on cheap parts and they fail, I lose the use of the system. Finding quality parts and systems is surprising difficult
8. Cruisers seldom have the same schedules/ goals so finding a set of friends to hang out with long term is next to impossible
9. Which ever direction your relationship is headed, the boat will take it there much faster. If you are dependent on fashion trappings to meet your self image, you will be disappointed to find out no-one out here cares.
10. Pets are extremely difficult – they have unique food and hygiene needs and most countries want extra paperwork and fees to bring them in and out of their countries. Flying with pets is a PITA and often incurs costs on the order of another seat.
11. Insurance is difficult to come by and expensive. Being from the US carries lots of negatives because our legal system is so litigious.