We hope to be living on the water in five years, but have absolutely no experience. Will working in a marina help us learn all that we can as quickly as we can? Also, we have two dogs. How do you cope with the logistics of everyday life on board for them (going to the bathroom, managing not to fall overboard, etc.)?
Mat and Corey
Sue and Larry respond:
Working in a marina will certainly give you good exposure to different kinds of boats, and great knowledge of how to fix things, but you also need to get some hands-on sailing experience. Maybe instead of paying rent somewhere, you could use the same money to live aboard a boat, and also be able to sail it. If that's not possible, hook into the racing scene. If you find the right skipper, you'll learn more about boat-handling and sail trim in one race season than you'd learn in five years of day-sailing on your own.
As for your dogs, we have two cats aboard. Check for our recent column article on how to cruise with cats. Our take on dogs aboard is that they are a little higher maintenance than cats, since most owners have not been able to toilet train them on board, and are constantly dinghying them ashore. Hopefully you can train yours to use our method for cats. We would recommend harnesses tethered to the boat to prevent dog-overboard situations underway.
