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Living aboard and learning to sail, or vice versa
Hello everyone,
My name is Mark Ventimiglia. I am 37 and living in southern Illinois near the Mississippi River about two hours north of St. Louis, Missouri. I am interested in making friends, learning how to sail, and eventually buying a boat that I can live on.
I have lived around water and boats (mostly motor) all my life, and even worked on the river for some time, yet I never had the oportunity to learn to sail, yet sailing always appealed to me. When I was working on the Belle (a riverboat casino in Alton, Illinois) I would often times retire to the back deck to watch the grace and beauty of the many sailboats that frequented the Mississippi and dream of the day that I could own a vessel of my own.
About 10 years ago, I started toying with the idea of living aboard a boat for a few reasons. 1) my love of the water. 2) I was led to believe it would be "cheaper" than buying a house, property taxes, etc.(although after reading some of the articles on this website, my thoughts are changing)...
Since I am a novelist (a starving writer) and very, very poor, I was hoping living aboard would be a better option for me, since buying a house is totally out of the question. I have searched the web for used boats and there seems to be many nice 25'' to 35'' boats out there that are not too expensive.
My dilemma is thus: Living aboard and learning to sail, or vice versa. Since I have never been sailing, it seems to be stupid to buy a boat simply as a place to live. Do people do that? Or should I learn to sail and then buy the boat? It''s like the old question of the chicken and the egg. Hahaha!
Mainly, I''d just like to kindle some new friends, and learn the in''s and out''s of living onboard. Since I am a writer, and pretty much a hermit, I don''t need much space. My laptop, a few books, and clothes is nearly all I own! (Now you must be thinking I am totlly insane)! Hahaha!
Well, thanks for listening... or reading. I look forward to meeting all of you.
Feel free to visit my web site. http://www.geocities.com/thebloodswordsaga
Sincerely,
Mark Ventimiglia
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