Life as a Full-Time Liveaboard

Zephyros and crew are enjoying life back on the move and are now zig-zagging our way between Sweden and Denmark into the Baltic. This month I’d like to talk about how we think about and deal with some everyday cruising challenges.

We have a saying onboard that goes something like this: “Cruising: life is easier, but the easy things are harder”. To us, this largely captures the full time liveaboard cruising experience.

The “Easy Life”

As any cruiser knows well, people back on shore don’t really understand or appreciate what cruising life is like. In their minds we are out adventuring to exotic places and enjoying mesmerizing sunsets on deserted beaches. Of course, social media often further perpetuates this myth as we sailors are quick to post our highlights and our highs, but are more hesitant to post the negatives and lows, and nearly always skip the mundane.

What would I like to have known or tried to appreciate as someone thinking about taking on this lifestyle? What should the weekend sailors or the vacation charterers think about when they are deciding if they would like to take up this lifestyle full time? What do we still struggle with?

It is true that life is simpler. Gone are the commitments of land life, the hustle and bustle of the 9 to 5 grind. If you don’t like the neighbors or the neighborhood, simply pick up your anchor and move.

We largely do as we please, exploring and enjoying the present. We do our best to avoid detailed schedules and work to enjoy whatever pace and balance currently suits us. We enjoy hikes as a family or sightsee in new towns with visits to museums and historical sites.

Life appears to be ruled by our whims – but it is truly ruled by the simple human needs for food, water and shelter.

The Basic Necessities

We move our house along with us and enjoy an extreme sense of freedom, however, we spend a large amount of energy making sure we meet basic needs in a way that is different than the land lives we left behind. What cruiser hasn’t spent an entire day (or multiple days) on a single errand or a grocery run?

The land job and grind are blissfully in the past, but so is the convenience of a family car or two. Easy movement from point A to B, with a quick stop off at the grocery store to pick up a few days’ worth of dinners and some eggs or milk on the way home, are nothing more than a memory. Also gone, at least when cruising to new countries, is the years-worth of knowledge that you accumulated on land of how and where to find certain things.

The boat provides a wonderful roof over our heads, but our plans are shaped by weather with a constant eye on maintenance and repairs to keep Zephyros safe and ship-shape. We are always planning for the next safe harbor and there is a constant list of needed repairs as well as the need to replenish parts and spares.

Water supplies are covered by a watermaker in our case, and port calls, trips ashore or rain catches for other cruisers. Regardless of how you get your water, cruisers are always monitoring water levels and if issues arise or supplies are low, plans will be changing to resupply water. Laundry requires large amounts of water and having a small machine aboard Zephyros means we don’t spend hours in laundromats in every town we see, but bulky items like bedding for the cold climates require dedicated thought and logistics.

Then there is the food. We provision deeply and enjoy good meals which means lots of staples aboard and many runs to the store. Feeding a family with teenage boys is no small task on land or on a boat. Without a freezer, we can’t simply stock up large amounts of favorites when we find an opportunity close to the boat. The good news is that our teens LOVE fruit – the bad news is that fruit is heavy!

The “Easy Things are Harder”

We have a dinghy with an outboard motor – affectionally known to many cruisers as their “car”, but it can’t get you around on land. For that some cruisers have bikes or e-scooters, but we have avoided land toys with their metal parts that are prone to rusting. While great for exploring and completing light errands, they don’t have the capacity to move groceries in the volumes we usually require. Plus, we just don’t have the space for them. We have filled our boat with other things like kayaks and paddle boards for on sea adventures, and they have the added benefit of serving as back up to the dinghy.

With no land transportation to get us around, we mostly walk places. The grocery store. The hardware store. The chandlery. We carry loaded down backpacks and/or a loaded up cart. We lug everything back to Zephyros like sherpas helping hikers to climb Everest.

When things are especially inconvenient or a large provisioning run is needed, we may take public transport, hire a taxi, rent a car or get items delivered. In Panama, there was an all day excursion of 3 moms through Colon to pick up a rental car and drive to Panama City to shop at a Costco-like bulk store. It all takes planning, google maps searches and mental energy.

Additionally, we no longer know where we can get certain items that we previously knew exactly where to find at the local hardware store or chandlery. Now we are on a search for where parts, spares, storage containers and various supplies and sundries might be found. Perhaps in a hardware store. Maybe in that home goods store or an auto shop.

Online stores still work, but now your address is constantly changing so you must plan ahead. Also, if the language is different (even US English to British English!) expect to spend time trying to figure out what items are called in the current country – online translate tools don’t always help with this.

Cruising = exploring exotic and faraway places, punctuated by trips to the stores and fixing things.

State of Mind

It is important to understand that cruising life does have its challenges, and it isn’t all smooth sailing, cocktails and sunsets. Basic needs are more front and center and often much more complicated to satisfy than on land. They take considerably more planning and research and there won’t usually be a chance to make a quick pop out to the store to pick up an ingredient or part that you are missing. However, like anything, dealing with it is largely about attitude.

If you approach the challenges as all part of a grand adventure, you are far more likely to enjoy the ups and down of the cruising and liveaboard lifestyle. If you can try to see a grocery store in a new country as a chance to hunt for a new food item to try out rather than being disappointed that you can’t find your favorite type of snack anymore, you will be on the right path. Try to treat that millionth attempt at finding a part in a hardware store as a treasure hunt.

Remember to celebrate the wins and rejoice in that discovery of an elusive part. Take time out to stop in an interesting place and be willing to sit for a week to get some parts delivered to the marina or post office.

Be prepared that every visit to town or a marina includes at least a google search of the stores and any walk past a promising looking shop means a trip inside. A stop isn’t just a chance to see a new town and visit the top ten things to do and see in Copenhagen or wherever you find yourself. It is also a reconnaissance mission for grocery stores, chandleries, hardware stores, maybe a laundry mat and a shower ashore.

And so, that is a little window into how we spend a healthy portion of our time and energy, without even talking about the weather planning aspect. That will wait for another musing. Just know that hours of our time each and every day is devoted to weather.

Thank you for this space and joining me on my musings! May you enjoy your own safe and inspiring adventures and let us know any topics about life on board and long- distance cruising that you would like covered.

Megan Schwartz
SV Zephyros
Noonsite Sub-Editor

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About the Author

Noonsite editorial team member, Megan Schwartz, joined Noonsite in October 2024 concentrating on research and updating country formalities. She lives on board SV Zephyros with her husband and two teenage boys (18 and 15 years old) and they have been cruising full-time, since 2017. Zephyros is an aluminum expedition monohull which suits the family’s style of cruising perfectly as they enjoy high-latitudes and places less travelled but have also cruised popular Mediterranean and Caribbean destinations.

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Other Noonsite reports in the Cruising Musing Series:

• Cruising Musings: Finding Balance

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The opinions expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect the view of Noonsite.com or World Cruising Club.