oday I was speaking with two gentlemen about the cruiser and liveaboard lifestyle and what it means and now a few hours later I am thinking more about it, and just what does this lifestyle mean.
I spoke about how we are for the most part self-regulating, meaning that in certain parts and places, no one is going to put up with your stupid thieving ways or your continued narcotic abuse or you endangering others through negligence. Alcohol has for CENTURIES been apart of sailing culture, so I don’t think that’s going to go away any century soon, even so, operating a vessel drunk will get you on the shit list, even the hardcore alcoholics will shun you.
“… NO MATTER WHAT WE THINK OF YOU PERSONALLY … A CRY FOR HELP WILL ALWAYS BE ANSWERED … IF YOU KNOCK ON MY HULL ASKING FOR HELP, MY ANSWER WILL ALWAYS BE THE SAME: – LET ME GRAB PANTS”
I also spoke about the communities, how we support people making positive changes in their lives like getting sober or seeking therapy, how we won’t let someone in a rough patch go hungry and among other things, how no matter what, no matter what we think of you personally that a cry for HELP will always be answered.
No really, I’m not shitting you.
You and I can have a massive bloody fight, and unless you raped someone or killed their dog, if you yell for help on the water, I WILL help you, JUST as you are expected to help me. My joke is: If you knock on my hull asking for help, my answer will always be the same: Let Me Grab Pants
That is the largest most #1 of number one rules, we always help other sailors.
Not to say that you are expected to sacrifice your life, or do something stupid, but if you are able to render help, you do.
“RADICAL SELF-RELIANCE AND THE ABILITY TO LEARN AND ACT ON THAT LEARNING … YOU … LIVE IN A WAY THAT OUTSIDE HELP ISN’T READILY AVAILABLE.”
I lived in the same condo in Seattle for 5 years and only knew the people in two of the units. On the water, no matter where, you know your neighbors in 2 weeks or less. Right now I know the names, attitudes and voting trends of most of my neighbors, and every single boat close enough to know if someone is home, I know by name.
We have each other’s phone numbers … loose boat adrift, ring ring.
Cormorant in your spreaders shitting on everything? Ring ring.
My __whatever__ is broke and I need a __ thing__, ring ring.
In any building I’ve ever lived in, in every city I have ever lived in (and it’s a fair few to be sure) I never had the kind of personal contact with my neighbors that I do living on a cruising sailboat, regardless of country or language.
Radical self-reliance and the ability to learn and act on that learning aren’t common traits these days. If you don’t understand what that means, go live on a boat at anchor, or go hike the Appalachian Trail, or go to Burning Man in a tent, not an RV or camper, a tent.
Anyone who can do any of these things, can easily do the other. Because they require you to live in a way that outside help isn’t readily available, and the bulk of civilized humanity just isn’t ready for that.
“THAT’S WHY THE PEOPLE WHO LIVE LIKE THIS ARE SO DIFFERENT. BECAUSE WE HAVE THE ABILITY TO BE ACCOUNTABLE TO OURSELVES AND THE NATURAL WORLD WE LIVE IN AND OFTEN LITTLE ELSE”
That’s why the people who live like this are so different. Because we have the ability to be accountable to ourselves and the natural world we live in and often little else.
My life, for example, is held in place by a couple chunks of metal connected to some other small chunks of metal, on a nylon line (rope) less than an inch in diameter, connected to a plastic tub with a big ass metal stick sticking out from it. Insane.
I honestly don’t know a single person I grew adult with between my ages of 21 and 41 years old who would trust their lives to anything less than dirt and wood, most preferring cement and steel.
One difference to Water Folk and Regular Boat People is this:
When a storm starts rolling in, boat people try to get to shore and off the boat as fast as possible, Water Folk want to get off the shore and back to the boat as fast as possible.
Because that’s our home, and no one else is going to defend it from the storm, even if that only means closing a hatch, let alone fending off a vessel adrift or a dragging anchor on a lee shore.
And that my friend is a L A R G E difference between the two types.
“ANOTHER UNWRITTEN RULE: POLITICS HAS ZERO F****** PLACE ON THE WATER. NO MATTER WHAT YOU BELIEVE IN, OR HOW YOU VOTE, IT HAS NO G*D DAMNED PLACE OUT HERE.”
Another unwritten rule: Politics has ZERO fucking place on the water.
No matter what you believe in, or how you vote, it has no god damned place out here.
You will NEVER see a MAGA / ANTIFA / Ross Perot (lol) flag out here, not on Water Folk’s boats. Sure you’ll see them from some jackass Salt Life weekend warrior, but those people also don’t have an understanding of the phrase NO WAKE, so you just ignore them as best you can and their wake(s).
I have at least 4 people within in spitting distance that vote in a way I would spend a lifetime protesting against, but because we are all Water Folk, we have acknowledged that difference, and we live in harmony together anyways.
They know as I do, that any cry of help will be attended, that if they are working the steps (sober) we’ll make a dish they can partake of at the next cook out / pot luck without alcohol (if the recipe calls for it), and that we will look out for each other, each other’s pets, and each other’s vessels, and at gatherings bring what you can afford to bring, even if it’s just an empty cup & filthy jokes.
AND I would like to also add this courtesy to each other extends to the BBQ joint, the taco place, the bar, and the cruiser’s lounge at a/the marina. We don’t drag shit into our shared spaces, and those that do will not receive another invite from anyone else for anything else. Not a wedding nor a wake, those folks are excluded.
“PEOPLE DON’T LIVE OUT HERE BECAUSE THEY WERE SATISFIED WITH AN ORDINARY LAND LIFE, THEY LIVE OUT HERE BECAUSE THEY WERE NOT”
People don’t live out here because they were satisfied with an ordinary land life, they live out here because they were not.
Some are out here because they cannot afford to do otherwise, living on a boat that will never ever go anyplace else ever again. Sometimes it’s because the boat is old, sometimes it’s because the person is old, sometimes it’s because of ability.
Many land lubbers would call them homeless on land, but here they aren’t homeless, they aren’t helpless, even if they could use a shave and a new suit. They have worth and they have something to offer the community(s), even if you don’t want to sit and talk with them or socialize ashore with them.
There was a guy I came across who had lost a child to suicide. He was for a long time, unable to care for himself, he simply fell apart. That community fed him, found odd jobs for him that he could do, or just outright paid some of his bills.
It took a bit for this guy to pull out of his nose dive, but he did eventually. Had he been living on land he would have been thrown to the street to starve and die YEARS ago.
Out here in Waterworld his community helped support him until he was able to do it for himself again.
Show me any other place in the US that would do that, for an extended period of time, and I’ll eat my own ass. No place I’ve ever heard of in the US would.
I’ll die on this hill.
Fight Me.
Most of us living out here are just regular ass folks with regular ass money doing regular ass things (to us anyways). Everyone from codgery old men to hot young women, from hard core singles to families of 5. We are all represented out here.
“MOTHER NATURE AND KING NEPTUNE WILL SHOW YOU WHERE YOU ARE WEAK, THEY WILL EXPLOIT IT, USE IT AGAINST YOU, AND THEY WILL KILL YOU IF YOU LET THEM, I PROMISE YOU THAT”
Even the wealthy who cruise on $1,000,000+ catamarans aren’t satisfied with a live most ordinary.
Yes they eat better, have better hooch, dress better and sure as shit have more space, but they aren’t viewed with envy, they aren’t shunned, they are welcomed into a community as long as they live by the Written and Unwritten Rules.
The opposite is not true in many wealthy places. Wealthy boating communities do not welcome the penny pinching sailors nearly as much as the other way around. They have a tendency to isolate themselves from the unwashed masses. However once they cast off into the great blue unknown, away from the Yacht Club set, they quickly either realize they need to be seen and see others as equals, or they just go from yacht club to yacht club, wealthy catering space to wealthy catering place, insulated with money from the outside world.
Gross.
The person who lives on a $300,000 yacht in a slip will not help you half as fast as the couple on the $1,000,000 catamaran in the anchorage or the old drunk on a up beat $5,000 27 footer.
That’s a fact.
The yacht slip will call emergency services (911/999), the catamaran couple / drunk will be in their dinghies coming to save your dumb ass directly.
In Waterworld there is almost a complete lack of a sense of entitlement, even in Miami / South Florida where entitlement and Mercedes go and in hand. “I can afford it, therefore I deserve it”. Not out here buddy. Here you are entitled to exactly shit, and you better start earning respect, because you sure as fuck aren’t going to purchase it, and even more sure as fuck aren’t going to demand it.
The single handing guy/gal sailing in Polynesia on a 30 footer is going to garner WWWAYYYY WAAAY WWWWWAAAAAYYYYYYYY more respect than anyone in a giant boat or credit-card captain in his overblown dock queen and/or with a paid for crew. Rich people showing off for other rich people won’t get you invited over for a cocktail. Almost anything that can be purchased with something as gauche as cash is only going to alienate you, not impress others.
“WE LIVE BY LAWS THAT HAVE NEVER BEEN PASSED BY ANY LEGISLATION, NEVER ARGUED ON ANY PARLIAMENTARY FLOOR, THAT HAVE BEEN PASSED DOWN AND HONORED FROM ANTIQUITY …”
It’s not all roses either. I one time had a person anchored near me that put my boat and my life in danger TWICE in the same month.
He was not taking the hint of me being nice, of me saying Hey Now, it took me telling him that if he put my life in danger again because of his STUPID bullshit that I would make him pray for someone to call the authorities.
I didn’t want to do it that way, I don’t enjoy being an asshole, but I also don’t enjoy being put into danger because of some harebrained-half-baked-dumbshit idea.
Even though that was a contentious exchange, when I ran into him at the dock weeks later, I was friendly, said HI, and we held some light banter.
There’s no reason for me to continue to be an asshole to him passed the point I had been trying to make.
And to his credit, he had rigorously maintained his ground tackle since.
Wind & Waves have no eyes, no thoughts, no conscience, yet they are living things, dictating most of your life out here.
Mother Nature and King Neptune will show you were you are weak, they will exploit it, use it against you, and they WILL kill you if you let them. I promise you that.
Waterworld is not a place for the weak or the stupid.
So what does it mean to live on the water full-time?
It means a sense of freedom, adventure, willingness to pit your knowledge and skill(s) against or with Mother Nature and King Neptune, it means that you have rejected what is considered a normal life, what to to others might seems insane or even unattainable.
We have our communities around the globe, most if not all share the same Unwritten Rules, and the places that don’t are shunned, those people who don’t live by them are shunned.
Black, White, Gay, Single, Divorced, Man, Woman, straight, CIS Both or Neither, no one gives a shit.
“… THERE IS ALMOST A COMPLETE LACK OF A SENSE OF ENTITLEMENT … “I CAN AFFORD IT, THEREFORE I DESERVE IT”. NOT OUT HERE BUDDY. HERE YOU ARE ENTITLED TO EXACTLY SHIT, AND YOU BETTER START EARNING RESPECT, BECAUSE YOU SURE AS F*CK AREN’T GOING TO PURCHASE IT, AND EVEN MORE SURE AS F*CK AREN’T GOING TO DEMAND IT.”
No one cares if you’re a Bitcoin millionaire or you scrub bottoms for $2 a foot, no one gives a monkeys ass what you do, what they care about is:
Can you be trusted to Handle Your Shit and then Do You Handle Your Shit?
THAT’S what people care about.
Do you handle your shit?
All of the Liveaboard / Cruising committees have Unwritten Rules similar to if not exactly like what I have said here and that’s just the tip of the iceberg. Perhaps I’ll create another post soon detailing as many as I can.
We live by laws that have never been passed by any legislation, never argued on any parliamentary floor, that have been passed down and honored from antiquity, and we expect YOU to learn them and abide by them if you choose to cast away your lubber life and join us out on the waves, and we will welcome you and we will teach you and we will love you, as much as you allow us to.
That’s what it means (to me) to live on the water.
Be good, and if you can’t be good, don’t be stupid.
– Love Shrub
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Shrub (Le Walker)
He has been a Bartender, Manager of Information Systems, Long Distance Over The Road Trucker, Lifeguard, Systems Analyst, Boat Yard Worker, Hacker, InfoSec Professional and a Single Handed Sailor.
He has traveled through several foreign countries and the entire United States, only missing Michigan, Alaska.
He is now focusing on improving living conditions of the peoples that he meets via donations of computers & technology, education & support, and introducing Circular & Blue Economies to help people secure their future locally.