Captain Maria Langer has logged more than 10,000 nautical miles aboard her boat, navigating the highs, lows, and unexpected detours of life on the water. A seasoned cruiser and author with a talent for storytelling, Maria doesn’t just romanticize the cruising lifestyle, she tells it like it is. In this candid and practical piece, she peels back the glossy layers of long-term cruising to reveal the everyday realities that come with living aboard. From laundry runs to bilge pump malfunctions, Maria shares the parts no one puts on postcards, but every cruiser should be prepared for. Whether you’re dreaming about your first Great Loop or already elbows-deep in maintenance projects, we highly recommend giving this one a read!
Imagine boarding your cruising boat, complete with comfortable staterooms, spacious heads, and a well designed galley with everything you need to prepare meals and docktail hors d'oeuvres. The helm is fully equipped with the latest tech: chartplotters, autopilot, radar, sonar, AIS, VHF radio, and thrusters. The boat is what you’ve always dreamed of and it’s yours.
Maybe you’ve owned it for a while and have taken it out on weekend trips, but now you’re getting serious about cruising. Maybe you just announced at your retirement party that you’re going to cruise the Great Loop. Or maybe you’re working from home or you’re between jobs and have decided to fulfill your cruising dreams. Or maybe you’ve even decided to sell your dirt home and cruise full time.
No matter what brings you out on your boat for a long cruise, all you can think about are the friendly marinas and fellow boaters, quaint waterfront towns, stunning anchorages, and magnificent sunsets waiting for you as you cruise calm waters, trying to keep track of the wildlife you see along the way.
Congratulations! Long term cruising is quite an adventure and if you have an adventurous spirit, you’re going to love it! But maybe you’re not seeing the whole picture?
Wallow in your dreams for just a few minutes longer before I give you a good dose of reality. As you’ll learn, long-term cruising is not quite as glamorous as you might think.
I’ll start with what should be obvious to you. Unless you’re on a super-yacht with a crew — and if you are, you can stop reading now; none of this really applies to you — you’re still going to have to deal with the chores of day to day life.
I’ve already touched on a few chores you’ll need to do when you’re at a marina. For example, a marina is often a good place to make a grocery run, do laundry, or track down a propane refill. Here’s what other things should be on your marina check list:
If you’re going to be running the boat for hundreds of hours on thousands of miles, eventually you’re going to have to need regular maintenance such as oil and filter changes.
You might be able to do this yourself — heck, I learned how — but if so, you’ll still need to have the necessary parts, tools, and supplies to get the job done.
Keep track of your maintenance to-do list and don’t skip scheduled maintenance! When it gets close to the time something needs to be done, either get what you need to do it yourself or make an appointment at a facility ahead of you on your route. For big jobs such as bottom inspection and painting, you might need an appointment a month or more in advance.
You’ll also need to keep the boat clean and in good shape. Hose down the exterior with fresh water when you can. Apply wax if you’re feeling extra ambitious. Keep the windows clean, inside and out. Take care of rust stains, polish rails, oil teak. Replace wiper blades when they seem worn. Tune up your dinghy motor. Check your fire extinguisher levels and inspection dates. Check your flares and other emergency equipment.
The longer you spend cruising, the more maintenance you’ll need to take care of. I find that taking care of little things as you go along helps keep maintenance chores under control.
Emergencies are no fun no matter how dire they are. When something goes wrong, you need to stay calm and take the necessary steps to get out of that emergency situation.
I have been extremely fortunate in my 10,000+ nautical miles of long-term cruising. My boat “emergencies” have been limited to:
I’ve also faced a pet emergency: one of my pups scratched her cornea after frolicking on the beach and rubbing her eye with her paw. Her eye swelled shut with lots of icky mucus. I had to find a vet walking distance from a marina that could take us the same day. Heck, that was more challenging than finding a Canadian diver to diagnose and repair my stern thruster.
Oddly enough, in nearly the same area the following year, I had an eye emergency. I can’t remember what caused it — maybe sand under my contact lens? — but I had light sensitivity so bad in one eye that I was forced to stay in my berth with a pillow over my face. An Uber trip to a Walmart Vision Center got me eyedrops and assurance that the problem was temporary. I was able to move on the next day.
These were relatively easy emergencies to resolve. Emergencies can be worse. I met boaters in Steinhatchee who missed a channel marker and steered their boat onto rocks. They had a small hull breech but also damaged both props. Other boaters up on the Erie Canal couldn’t stop one of their engines from overheating, forcing them to put their Great Loop trip on hold until the engine could be removed and repaired.
And then there’s my friend John. His crewmember nearly lost her thumb when she had it just a bit too close to the windlass as she was pulling up the anchor. That emergency required an EMS boat to take her to an ambulance waiting on shore.
The list of things that could happen is endless. The best thing you can do is be prepared. Join BoatUS or a similar emergency tow organization so you can get your boat moved to safety if you can’t move it yourself. Have spare parts on board, like a prop and bilge pump. Have a good first aid kit and know how to use it. Be prepared to change your plans to find a mechanic or doctor or vet. Take care of little things before they become big things.
Everyone likes to cruise in perfect cruising conditions, with minimal waves, swells, and wind. We like clear — or mostly clear — skies. We want the temperature to be somewhere in the 70s F with low humidity. We want perfect weather.
Sadly, the weather isn’t always perfect. Sometimes it’s just a little less than perfect and sometimes it’s so bad you’d be foolish to cast off into it. The trick is knowing what kind of weather you and your boat can endure and being able to make a no-go decision if it isn’t safe — or comfortable — cruising in it.
I’ve been in angry water many times but very angry water only twice — well, three times if you count the time I turned around to get back out of it. In both cases, the boat was rocked around so badly that everything that wasn’t secured wound up on the floor. I now use the dog puke index to judge the roughness of water. On the Neuse River outbound from New Bern with an incoming wind and an outgoing tide, my two dogs each puked twice. I’m pretty sure some of those waves were about 5 feet. On the Atlantic Ocean between Cape May and Atlantic City, in constantly shifting 3-foot waves, they puked a total of six times. In each case, I underestimated how bad conditions would be. The good news was that my boat could handle it. The bad news is that my dogs could not. I’m not convinced that I could, either.
You can minimize the negative impacts of cruising in bad weather by just staying put until the weather passes.
Sadly, bad weather can happen when you’re docked or anchored. I remember being stuck during storms at an anchorage in West Palm Beach. The boat didn’t rock much, but I got completely soaked when I took my pups ashore to do their business and later when I made a quick grocery run.
It's Not All Fun and Games
As if all this isn’t enough of a reality check, I do want to add one more thing. Not all marinas and anchorages are going to live up to their reviews or your expectations. That marina that got great reviews has a kooky manager and dirty bathrooms. That remote anchorage with the great sunsets is also a gathering place for local teens who like to jump each other’s jetski wakes or play loud music until long after sunset. You learn that the highly regarded museum in the town you went out of your way to visit is closed on Mondays when you arrive late Sunday evening. And the prime rib just isn’t very good at a certain stop known for its prime rib dinners.
The point is that not everything is going to be perfect. You need to take the bad with the good.
But, on the other hand, the things no one talks about, the things you stumble upon on your own, are often the things you’ll remember forever. For me, it was spending the night in a lagoon off the St Johns River, anchored in just 4 feet of warm water filled with fish, turtles, and manatees. Hopping off my swim platform to walk up to other boats parked nearby. Sitting up on my command bridge at sunset with a martini, watching manatee families swim around my boat in crystal clear water. And turning on my underwater lights in the middle of the night to see thousands of fish jump, all at once.
Maybe everything won’t be perfect, but I’m not complaining.
Maria Langer is a freelance writer, OUPV Captain, and (mostly solo) cruiser. She crossed her Great Loop wake in August 2024 and is hard at work writing a book about her experiences. When she isn’t cruising in her Ranger Tug in the Pacific Northwest, she’s teaching boat handling and prepping future Great Loop cruisers nationwide. Find her online at www.MyGreatLoopAdventure.com.