where to live

[dodgeboatguy]

ok just thought I would put this out there. come may my girlfriend will be finishing school to be an RN and we will not have a reason to stay in the midwest and would like to live on the coast and liveaboard as we build funds to take a few years off to cruise. So my question is with me as an industrial mechanic and her as an RN any suggestions. we want to find a good ballance of good wages cheap marinas that still take live aboards and good sailing.

I know I am asking for the world here
and I know that there are a thousand options but let hear a few

thanks

[camaraderie]

I would suggest the lower Chesapeake Bay...Hampton/Va Beach/Norfolk as providing excellent cruising grounds and ample work opportunities, decent climate and reasonable prices for marinas.
I am presently in NC and prices are lower here but work opportunities are more restricted.

[kd3pc]

2nd vote for the Chesapeake...as Cam says NC is good, but jobs can be an issue...norfolk/hampton great for both RN and Industrial...middle bay is good for both but a bit more expensive..solomon's islnad area comes to mind, several militarybases and regional hospitals

At least worth a visit to the area, before you decide. Good thing about the bay is that it is temperate, not like florida/georgia, bad thing the bay is temperate...can be cold and rainy in the winter...

I've lived aboard and worked from the Annapolis area through DC/Woodbridge and down to the Deltaville area and loved every minute of it.

dave

[sailboy21]

SE Alaska has a huge shortage of RNs, mechanics can always get work, and it is dirt cheap to liveaboard here... and oh yeah, you cant drive here

[TrueBlue]

With slip fees starting at $140/foot for 6 months, a bit lower during the off-season months, Narragansett Bay is an expensive region for live-aboards. Home prices are also extremely high.

It's also an area with not many "industrial" business opportunities, but if your mechanical skills are diverse, you should find employment; perhaps in one of the electrical utility power plants, at a local commercial shipyard, or in one of the many boat building resourses. They all need skilled mechanics for installing/servicing marine engines.

However, there is a serious shortage of nurses most everywhere, coastal communities included, so your girlfriend will have little difficulty finding job placement. It's the career path my daughter has chosen.

Narragansett Bay is well known as being one of the best sailing areas in the world, with an incomparable quality of life.

[christyleigh]

Originally Posted by TrueBlue

Narragansett Bay is well known as being one of the best sailing areas in the world, with an incomparable quality of life.

Ya.... that's a great idea - move to the fridged NE and save the slips and RN jobs in the Carolinas for me and my RN wife in a few years

[sailhog]

Originally Posted by christyleigh

Ya.... that's a great idea - move to the fridged NE and save the slips and RN jobs in the Carolinas for me and my RN wife in a few years

Stan,
They're putting up a new "waterfront" community down here on the mainland, with docks to accomodate 70 slips. RE is going down, down, down around here... By the time you and you're wife are ready, you should be able to get a 9,000 sq. ft. waterfront home with dock for about $10,000. How you doing?

[TrueBlue]

By the time you and you're wife are ready, you should be able to get a 9,000 sq. ft. waterfront home with dock for about $10,000.

I hear there are also some mint condition boats for the taking down in New Orleans . . . all you need to do is dredge the bottom for them.

[sailhog]

It's definitely a buyer-beware environment down here. A new 400-home "plantation" recently went up which was situated around a golf course. The developer went bankrupt shortly thereafter, which closed the golf course, and now all of these people have these new homes with backyards overlooking an immense weed patches. They can't golf, and they can't sell their house. They are stuck.

[christyleigh]

Originally Posted by sailhog

Stan,
They're putting up a new "waterfront" community down here on the mainland, with docks to accomodate 70 slips. RE is going down, down, down around here... By the time you and you're wife are ready, you should be able to get a 9,000 sq. ft. waterfront home with dock for about $10,000. How you doing?

I'm doing great ...... sure tease me some more.....but unfortunatly it's going down here too so I probably couldn't sell out now even if I wanted to Oh... well.... that's years away...... so I'll just suck it up and endure some more winters