Living on a sailboat Archives - Making Sense Of Cents

2020 Business and Life Review

Last Updated: January 6, 2021 BY Michelle Schroeder-Gardner - 52 Comments

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Welcome to my 2020 Business and Life Review!

Usually, I separate my travel and business annual review content into two separate blog posts, but this year I’ve decided to combine it into one.

2020 was a different kind of year, and I’m sure nearly everyone would agree with that statement.

It was a tough year for a lot of people, and I completely understand.

I feel very grateful for the life that I get to live, but it was a hard year for me as well. I lost two important family members in my life, my grandma as well as my dog who was my best friend for almost 14 years.

[Read more…]

How I Travel Full-Time By RV And Boat With My 2 Dogs

Last Updated: November 8, 2020 BY Michelle Schroeder-Gardner - 7 Comments

Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links, meaning I get a commission if you decide to make a purchase through my links, at no cost to you. Please read my disclosure for more info.

Traveling with a dog is a lot of fun, but there are some important things to consider so you and your pet are prepared.

Sometimes people think we are crazy for bringing our dogs on our adventures, but I wouldn’t have it any other way. For us, it’s like bringing your kids along, haha!

Since we’ve been doing this for several years and in so many different ways, I figured I would be a good person to share what it’s like traveling with a dog for anyone who is interested in learning how it’s done.

You might be interested in going on a roadtrip with a dog. Maybe you want to sail or RV full-time with them, or perhaps you just want to take your furry companion on your next week long vacation.

Whether you want to travel full-time with your pets, or if you want to just go on the occasional trip, hopefully my experiences will help you.

Traveling with a dog has been a huge learning process for me.

We’ve had to go slow and learn what works for our dogs. I say this because there is no single right way to travel with pets. So, you may have to adjust a little for your specific animal, as all animals are different and have different needs. We even see differences between our two dogs in how they travel. [Read more…]

Living In A Boat Or RV? What Is Better?

Last Updated: November 8, 2020 BY Michelle Schroeder-Gardner - 14 Comments

Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links, meaning I get a commission if you decide to make a purchase through my links, at no cost to you. Please read my disclosure for more info.

Which do you like better? The boat or RV?

Do you miss RVing?

How long do you think you’ll sail for? Do you think you’ll ever go back to a normal home?

The questions are never-ending.

Now that we’ve switched to sailing, we get these questions ALL THE TIME.

As a refresher, we RVed for around four years, and we have been living on our sailboat for almost two years now.

We really love both lifestyles and everything that they allow us to do.

There are a lot of similarities between living in a boat or RV, such as:

You can bring your home with you as you travel.
Marinas are kind of like campgrounds.
Anchorages are similar to boondocking.
They have a lot of the same systems, such as a battery bank, solar, dump, water tank, and so on.
Smaller space than a “normal” home.

But, there are also a ton of things that are completely different between the two. [Read more…]

Living On A Boat – The Good, The Bad, And The Beautiful

Last Updated: December 26, 2020 BY Michelle Schroeder-Gardner - 28 Comments

Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links, meaning I get a commission if you decide to make a purchase through my links, at no cost to you. Please read my disclosure for more info.

Interested in living on a boat? Today’s article will show you what I think about living on a sailboat.

“Twenty years from now, you will be more disappointed by the things you didn’t do than those you did. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from safe harbor. Catch the wind in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.” – H. Jackson Brown Jr.

Wow, it’s crazy to think that we’ve been living on a boat for over a year now! Just a year ago, I was pretty much a complete newbie to sailing. I had no idea what I was doing, and at times, I was wondering what the heck I had gotten myself into.

You can read all about our start in Welcome To Paradise – We’re Living On A Sailboat!

In the beginning, I shed a lot of tears, was stressed out, and occasionally wondered if I made a huge mistake. [Read more…]

Is Full-Time Traveling As Good As It Sounds?

Last Updated: February 10, 2020 BY Michelle Schroeder-Gardner - 28 Comments

Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links, meaning I get a commission if you decide to make a purchase through my links, at no cost to you. Please read my disclosure for more info.

I know that traveling full-time sounds fascinating – you get to explore new places, bring your home everywhere you go, try new foods, meet new people, and more.

But, it’s not always beaches, mountains, and other beautiful landscapes.

I’m definitely not complaining and I am very thankful for the life I get to live. However, while I once believed that full-time travel was the greatest thing ever, lately I have been feeling oh so tired!

Over the last few months, I have seen countless friends and travelers that I know stop traveling full-time, all for various reasons. And, each time someone quits, I have stopped and thought about my own life and full-time traveling journey. [Read more…]

My Year In Review – Looking Back at 2018 and Looking Forward to 2019!

Last Updated: January 6, 2019 BY Michelle Schroeder-Gardner - 32 Comments

Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links, meaning I get a commission if you decide to make a purchase through my links, at no cost to you. Please read my disclosure for more info.

Looking back on the previous year is always a lot of fun, and it’s interesting to see everything laid out in a one year period. I get to see what I did and didn’t do, reflect on everything, etc. So, I am happy to present my 2018 year in review.

2018 was a crazy year. But don’t worry, it was good crazy!

One of the biggest reasons for the chaos is that we made a major change in 2018 – we went from RVing to living on a sailboat.

That big change made for an amazing year.

Before that switch, we traveled to many new areas in the RV. We also climbed mountains, rode our bikes a TON, hosted several family vacations, then we sold the RV, bought a sailboat, and more.

On top of all of that, Wes traveled even more than I did – he logged over 5,000 nautical miles, sailed all over Europe, as well as sailed the Caribbean. [Read more…]

What We’re Doing Now That We No Longer Have a Car

Last Updated: November 28, 2018 BY Michelle Schroeder-Gardner - 40 Comments

Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links, meaning I get a commission if you decide to make a purchase through my links, at no cost to you. Please read my disclosure for more info.

As I recently said in Welcome To Paradise – We’re Living On A Sailboat!, we no longer have our Jeep and have been car free since July. Since we are preparing to cruise and will soon be leaving the marina (eeek, this week!), we no longer have a need for full-time use of a land vehicle.

But, this has led to many of you asking what we’re doing now that we no longer have a car with us.

I’ve heard questions like:

How are you getting groceries?
How are you going to the store?
What are you doing for errands?
How do the dogs get to shore to use the bathroom? Not that a car would help in this instance anyways, haha!

Due to ditching our car, we are commuting by dinghy, folding bikes, walking and Lyft.

We haven’t had a car for around four months now, and we are still very happy with our decision! [Read more…]

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