Between our YouTube Channel and our blog, we share a lot of our life on the water. However, there are always things that go undocumented. Over the years, we have met plenty of new liveaboards who feel like they were “duped” into this lifestyle by its romanticized portrayal on social media. In our experience, living full-time on a boat is expensive, it is hard work, and it is time-consuming. Is it worth it? For us, yes. Is it worth it for you? I’m not sure!
So, in an effort to paint a more realistic picture of boat life, here is a bullet-point list of things we dealt with in September 2023:
- Having recently purchased a new outboard engine for our dinghy, we decided it was time to upgrade our lock. So, we purchased some stainless steel chain, a new lock and shackles, and a chafe guard from Island Water World for $410.85.
- The case for our life sling broke. It appears the sun had deteriorated the fabric straps. We could not get a new case for the one we had on the island, so we purchased an entirely new life sling for $250.00.
- Ray changed the generator oil and oil filter.
- I polished our stainless steel once.
- Ray installed a couple of new fans in the battery compartment under our bed to combat the Caribbean heat for ~$75.00.
- I noticed some corrosion on our solar arch where the aluminum rods settled and were touching the stainless steel. Luckily, we caught it before serious damage was done. We were able to scrape through the corrosion and place duct tape and thin strips of plastic between the two metals to act as a barrier and prevent future corrosion.
- Over time, our dinghy chaps have stretched out and had began to flap around and expose the tubes. Rather than get new chaps made, Ray was able to put strips of Velcro on the underside of the chaps! This has stopped the slipping/flapping.
- The generator capacitor failed, we replaced it with a spare we had on board.
- Both our mooring lines shredded while we were on a ball in St. George’s. We replaced lines for $120.00 and purchased chafe guards to use for the rest of our time there for $60.00.
- Ray redid our dinghy’s fuel system (installed fuel filter/water separator and bought a longer fuel line) for ~$200.00.
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