Book Review: The Essentials of Living Aboard a Boat

The Essentials of Living Aboard a Boat

by Mark Nicholas

The Premise

Smelling the sweet salty air of the ocean. Living on a boat, gently rocked by the swells, selling the house for a dream boat and sail the mighty ocean. That is the dream that many people have and willing to pursue. Except, as Mark Nicholas wrote in the book, doesn't happen in real life. First time buyers, surprised by the "hidden" aspects of living aboard a boat, decided to sell the boat after that one big sailing journey. The author pulled no punches. Most liveaboards aren't sailing their boats. They're stuck in a marina, which depending upon management, maybe closer to being a dump than an exotic marine experience.

The Decision

Assuming that you have already decided to buy a boat, not for pleasure, but for liveaboard, then the author details the steps necessary to find, choose, and actually purchase said boat. Another aspects of living aboard a boat is the marina. Do you have access to a marina? Is it a good one? The best boat in the world won't save you from a bad marina. The author made that abundantly clear. The good news is you can just sail away to another marina, assuming you're not tied down to the land, such as having a 9 to 5 job, or worse, a house!

The Lifestyle

Even worse, if you decided to buy a boat with faulty electrical wirings, on the northern states, in the dead of winter. That is exactly what the author did, and to his credit, managed to turn the poor experience into learning experience. So many people consider only the cost of money, and yet, there's so much to consider. The support of friends and family does factor it significantly. If your spouse in a landlubber, instead of a sailor that you are, then you would want to keep a house, raising the expenditure significantly. The author specified his experience of having to stay in a hotel because his cat was seasick! Yeah, that happens sometimes. You have to be prepared for such eventualities.

Having sources of entertainment in a boat is crucial since living on a boat can be, well, boring. Even if you sail, you're pretty much limited to just the sight of water in all directions. The magic, if you will, is in the journey, and if you're not a sailor to begin with, then perhaps you would want to rent a boat first before buying one. Preferably, a boat that you can sleep in overnight, although I doubt the weather would be stormy as to let you check the seaworthiness of the boat!

Safety and Regulation

Of course, you also need to be fully insured, but that's not all. You also need to navigate the regulations of a boat. That is, your boat must be up to code to in full compliance of government regulation. This goes double if you want to travel internationally. The book does not detail every regulations out there, and most likely, those will quickly go out of date anyway. The important thing is, the author touched the subjects, and it is up to you to research further.

The Conclusion

I suppose it's not the best book possible. It's not the most thorough, most detailed, most comprehensive book available. However, what it lacks in details, it makes up in readability. The author did a good job interweaving his personal experience into what could possibly be a boring informational dump. There's many of them, sure, since that is the purpose of the book, but the snippets of author's experiences here and there makes reading the book very tolerable, and even entertaining at times. If you're not sure about wanting to liveaboard a boat, yet unwilling to read encyclopedic tomes, this book is a perfectly good way to start. Well recommended.