I'm renovating a sailboat at the age of 34, so it's never too late to start. My father had a sailboat he would take us up and down the coast with, but it's been a long time. And one thing that sailboats beat everyone else with: They don't make sound while you're sailing. You can just hear the sea, the birds and it's like nothing else.
Are there any vagabond developers here? I’ve been dreaming about this lifestyle for over a decade. Now that I’m finally freelance and saved up a bit for a boat I’m reluctant to jump the fence. Last year we’ve chartered a boat for two weeks and i couldn’t do any work. Partly because of all the admin - anchoring, weather, moving to another spot, monitoring system status. Another reason was it was vacation for rest of the team plus it was sport hot to work down below.
What are others experience? Is there any forum where you congregate? With Starlink coming I feel this is going to be much more viable.
The only developer living on a boat that I know of is Dominic Tarr, creator of secure scuttlebutt. I think one of the other main contributers lives off the grid somewhere. Seems like a cool group. They could probably tell you what it's like.
I lived on someone else's boat in the marina for 2 months about 10 years ago. It gets pretty damp in the cabin, so electronics might have a short life. I would love the opportunity to sail and code at some point. I haven't looked into weather proof gear, but a raspberry pi in a plastic shell case might work well. At least the pi is easily replaced.
Scuttlebutt is a peer to peer protocol with peer discovery on the same LAN, which seems like it would be good for making friends while docked.
I haven't heard anyone loose gear due to dampness (even tho salt spray eventually gets to everything). I think it depends a bit on the size of the boat.
I've fried couple of iPhone chargers tho. Just touch the charger end with wet fingers and it gets fried instantly when on fast charge.
Bizarre timing... I am in the process of setting up a forum for the intersection of a few ideas: small sailboats, hacking, low-power computing, living aboard and cruising. Literally started setting up a server last night.
The bigger sailing/cruising forums are not focused on the things that are important to me. And some good resources for small boats have disappeared recently.
I can let you know when it's set up if you're interested.
Still picking a name at the moment. :D
Sailing has really helped me get away from it all; 'it' being the stresses of work and life. Besides the allure of open waters and beautiful sceneries, getting out of a marina, unfurling the sails, killing the motor, and then just using the wind and the water to propel a boat towards a destination is one of the most gratifying feelings I've experienced.
And then there's the myriad terminology and theory, with the various points of sails, different types sails, fine-tuning their shapes for optimizing speed, navigation rules, man overboard procedures, various knots, etc. Those, with the occasional spray of salt water, the feel of the rudder, the way the boat reacts to minor adjustments keeps the activity exciting enough to not get boring and monotonous.
"we’d spend hours on the water trying to obey the instructors’ yelled commands. I was freezing cold, I understood nothing about the wind"
I think this is too many people's first experiences on boats, why husbands and wives fight on boats, and why their partners ultimately leave the sport. We used to go out every weekend, but now we are more selective, choose those sunny, flat days. We still pick a couple of "wet" events like Spinnaker Cup down the coast during early spring, but everyone's enjoyment has gone up considerably. Orientation and comfort go a long, long ways towards getting people back out on the boat again.
See you out there.