Life on a boat or RV

Next summer we will be heading off to the Chesapeake Bay for a few months. Now is the time to start getting everything prepared for the journey. There are many things that keep getting added to the To-Do List. It’s getting longer and longer each day. So where do you start to get ready?

Well we have an older boat that will have to have every inch gone over before we make such a long journey. We don’t plan on staying in marinas on the bay most nights so we have to rethink electric options if we don’t want to run the generator all night, and then we have other things to get ready.

The first thing we are doing is planning the provisioning of food. So what’s the easiest way to do that?

What we found was to write down what we eat on a normal month. We want to have about 1 month worth of food, even though we will be able to stop and get groceries, we can plan better if we have a list. Plus we want to buy as much as we can before we go. We don’t plan on eating out, but making our meals on the boat. We know that we do need to get a new grill as ours is on it’s last leg.

First thing we figure out is how much of non-food things will we need? Deodorants, shampoos, toothpaste etc. Then we start stocking up on these things now, and store them. This way we have what we need when we are ready to go. Since I love the dollar stores, we can get name brand items cheaper doing it this way. I frequent these stores often. I can stock up on alot of the items I need just from the dollar stores.

We won’t get the actual food till closer to departure time. But we have the list. If there is something on the list that goes on sale, yes we will buy it. We will stock up on Ziploc bags though now, so that we can store the food in. Also at the dollar store I have started to stock up on clear boxes with lids, these are shoe box size that will fit neatly in my closet that I can put the ziploc bags in after I take them out of the packages. I am usually able to fit quite a bit in these bags and not worry about the added weight on the boat.

Since we have the freezer we have researched what we can buy that will freeze. Most cheeses you will be able to freeze if you are baking or cooking with them. Sliced cheese that are wrapped will keep in the fridge for many months.

Food and provisioning the boat is only one part of the preparation to get ready.

We want to get inverters for the fridge and the freezer and get them hooked up. Since we will have so much food, we want them running during the travels so that food don’t spoil. I would also like to have the inverter hooked up to the computer and the TV so that we don’t have to run the generator at night. So we are researching this to find the proper size that we need and then get that hooked up. Since we will be doing everything ourselves, we need to start a few months in advance.

Next we need to get some upholstery work done. And our central A/C unit went out. So that needs fixed before we go. Then there is the engines. We need to replace things on them, get them ready to go. We also have arrangements to pull the boat out of the water in February so that we can get the bottom painted. We also have to do some work on the dinghy.

So as you can see there are many things that you need to do before taking a long boat journey. Since we will be living on the boat while doing this, we are going to stay on during the winter months and get done as much as we can so that we can leave in the spring.

We don’t plan on staying in marina on the bay so we need to get the books and charts that we need to find the best places to anchor out each night. Since we have had some medical problems this summer we had reduced pays due to being out of work for weeks at a time after surgery, so we are going with a limited budget.

If you have to go with a limited budget, you will learn that living on the boat is cheaper for most people, and giving you more opportunity to save more money for your trip. Planning ahead will also allow us to save money while going for the summer. We don’t want to have to spend all the money as we will want to come back with a kitty. We will pay up our bills for the summer before we go, so that we don’t have to have the monthly bills. The lifestyle that we lead so far means that we have no credit card debt, or other monthly debt outside of insurance and cell phone bills. This makes it easier for us that we don’t have to worry about income for a few months.

So how are we budgeting for the trip?

We figure our biggest expense will be fuel. We know how much we want and can spend on fuel each week. This gives us an idea of how far we can go each week. What happens when we use our fuel budget up for that week? We will probably stop and wait till the next week, who knows.

Do we have any plans or pressing engagements that we have to be at? Nope, we pretty much have an opened schedule.  If we have to stop and stay cause of weather, not a problem for us. We have DVD’s and Internet service (thanks to the Data Card) that we don’t care.

While we only plan on taking a month’s worth of food, we will have staples that we will take that we will only have to purchase some food along the way. Once you take the food out of the packages, you will be able to store a whole lot more food in very little space.

So the breakdown is:
Fuel- Food- Marinas. If we find a cheap marina on Chesapeake Bay, we will probably stay at that place a week or 2 then go explore. We know that we can’t do many things because we have a dog that limits our exploring.  But the Bay is halfway between our families and we will be able to have visitors come and visit with us. We will have to walk places or rent a car, but with a dog, again we’re limited to what we can rent as many places won’t allow dogs in their vehicles. So we won’t have to worry about that added expense.  If we want a vehicle, one of our family members can bring a vehicle to us. we will be storing the vehicle at their house.

While many people would be nervous about not having definite plans on where you will be every night, we look at it as an adventure. We know that we are grateful that we don’t have to go to work everyday and instead we can have fun for the whole summer no matter where we are.

So while we are getting ready for the journey, we learned that you do need lists, backup plans (we were going to do this over the past summer till one of us got injured and had to have surgery).  We would be lost without the lists, this is what makes sure that your boat journey or other vacation is fun but most of all safe. Without safety, you won’t be able to have fun at all.