Liveaboard Hate: The top 10 things we hate about living aboard a sailboat in Seattle

   Now, hate is a strong word. I really wouldn't say we hate anything about living aboard, but dislike isn't really the opposite of love (our last post). So, get on board the hate train, she's leaving the station! Surely there are things you dislike about the live aboard life, if we didn't list them, leave them as comments below. Let's get negative.

1. Laundry.

Before we moved aboard we rented a nice little house. It had a washer and dryer. We never took them for granted. The ability to do your own laundry whenever you want should never be taken for granted. Now we haul the dirty clothes from the boat all the to the laundry room...only to find it full of folks.  

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2. Lack of Galley Counter Space.

Captain wifey loves to cook. She even loves our small, two-burner-with-oven Force 10 stove. The only problem is, she needs more counter space to make the magic happen!

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3. No Tub.

This is a hotel…not inside our boat.

Another captain wifey issue: no tub. Hey wait, the giant yachts we check out at the boat show don't have tubs either. Hmmm, I wonder how much a custom tub would cost {see #6 below}.

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4. Birds.

Besides crankies giving me a heart attack every time I mosey down the dock, all of the other birds tend to poo on everything when I'm not looking. I know Shilshole/Seattle aren't too bad compared to other marinas around the world - I've read some interesting stories from Australia - but nothing is worse than getting home to find that the welcoming committee (the 3 seagulls that are always yelling at me when I get home after work), has applied a new coat of bird-paint to my top deck {Insert swab the poop deck joke here}.

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5. Are You Gonna Sail There?

One of our friends actually warned us about this one. She grew up aboard and started to notice that when you'd tell people you were going somewhere on a 3-day weekend, let's say San Francisco, they would ask, "Are you gonna sail there?"
   Hey everyone, Amber and I are going to the San Juans for one night only {A.Y.G.S.T.?} We're off to Napa for Veterans Day weekend {A.Y.G.S.T.?}. Visiting Maine for the first time…from Seattle...{A.Y.G.S.T.?}. Silly landlubbers!

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6. Custom Work.

Did you notice how a propane tank at a boat store costs double a propane tank at a hardware store? Or how replacing those foam saloon cushions & fabric will run you around $3,000? OK, this one I actually hate - I thought yachting would be cheap (kidding:).

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7. No Room To Stretch.

Besides the Wii Fit being out of the question, yoga kind of is too. I've read great posts of people exercising aboard, usually in warm climates out on deck, but then my winter reality on a 32 foot sailboat in Seattle sets in. Downward-facing-dog is tricky with the wife spreading her cooking all over the living-room {see #2}.

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8. Power Limits.

Flip goes the breaker! It's not a huge deal, but 30 amps of power at a time is all we've got. Any live aboard knows, things that heat up stuff use a lot of power. Hairdryers, toasters, & electric heaters need to pretty much be used one at a time…oh well, toast can wait.

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9. Boat Forums.

Wow - look at all of these online boat forums! Let's see, the power on our boat just went off for no noticeable reason (noticeable to me anyway - we're kinda new at this). It's 26 degrees outside so I really need to figure out what is wrong. Let's download that forum app. Click on the problem, oh sweet, there are like 235 posts about this very problem…and none of them…I repeat...none of them have a solution to the problem. We need solutions!
P.S. - It was a dirty/faulty ground connection (one of the green ground wires located around the boat got a little dirty and need cleaning)

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10. Condensation.

Here we are at number 10. You thought it was gonna be the head, didn't you? Well, we can live with our head. The thing that keeps you honest and makes you own less and less stuff every year (which is actually a good thing sometimes), is condensation. In the winter the boat is hot on the inside and cold on the outside. We're inside breathing, cooking, and sometimes showering. It gets a little humid. A dehumidifier helps a lot. Those little black damp-raid things with the white dip-in-dots do too. But man, if you leave a bunch of stuff pretty much anywhere aboard over the winter and don't check it every month or two…get ready…for mold:(

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