r/liveaboard

The AI and "I've developed a vibe-coded app" bull is getting a little out of hand. Maybe add some mods? /u/svdasein what's your opinion, mind adding a person or two to the squad? EDIT: In the mean time, I will continue downvoting, asking "Is it vibe coded?", and ridiculing them if the answer is yes.

Peace.

I'm just trying to gauge my personal experience over the past two years vs what everyone else is seeing. I've been trying to sell my 1987 Niagara 35 out of Oriental, NC for almost two years now. She's in the water and ready to go, but I haven't had nearly any luck with showings or folks interested in the boat. She's been listed locally as well as on Sailboat Listings. I've had my fun with the boat, and she's in great shape for what she is, but I've had three different brokers tell me flat out they can't sell it because the market is rough and "nobody is buying boats in that price range right now."

Making money on the boat really isn't a concern of mine, I just want her to get some use and get back out on the water. I'm worried that if I lower the price too much, folks will assume something is seriously wrong with it and continue to avoid it.

We are under contract on a Sabre 47. It has a 12v system with a 3kw inverter + an 8kw generator.

My background is in electrical engineering so naturally I've been thinking about upgrading the battery/inverter system if it passes sea trial / survey and we close.

So I've been considering two options.

1.) a light weight 12 v lithium conversion. Replace batteries, new DC charge controllers, new victron multiport inverter 3kw etc. essentially this just buys me battery capacity and charging speed.

2.) 48v Lithium with a 10kw victron, to manage it id put in some 12-48 v chargers from the alternators. Then step down again to the DC panel. It's annoying Af but slightly better then doing new alternators, starting batteries and swapping out every 12v thing. This basically ensures that everything on the boat could run on battery and the generator would only be needed to top them up while running at peak efficiency.

In both cases I'd do 11-20kwh of batteries.

I'm curious if anyone else has done anything similar and what you would recommend.

Secured myself a 31' Ketch that I'm going to spend the summer fixing up for the winter. Will be mooring in the Solent area. Cannot wait, have wanted to do this since I was a young'n. The engine needs an oil and filter change and the main needs some stitches but other than that it's mostly cosmetic. I will update you all as it goes. Plan to sail to Isles of Scilly by end of the summer and to Spain in 10-12 months from now depending on the conditions at the time. Any advice is welcome! So happy to join the live aboard crew!

USCG Unlimited Tonnage Master here. I'm the captain of a US Flag container ship for a living and run a small ASA sailing school when I'm home. Spent the last few months building something for myself that I figured I'd share.

Every time I plan a passage I have six tabs open — Windy, OpenSeaMap, Active Captain, Google for customs procedures, the marina's own website for VHF channel and harbor master contact. Wanted one tool that pulls it all together and gives me a plain-English briefing instead of just data.

So I built seabriefai.com. It does daily weather briefings for sailing, fishing, racing, power, and paddling — but the part I actually find useful is the passage planner. You pick two marinas, it gives you a real tactical write-up: "Wind shifts from ESE to S around 01:37z, then backs SW by dawn. Beat windows mid-day. Reef early at 18 for cruising comfort." Plus a chart map, hour-by-hour conditions, and port info for both ends.

Not trying to replace anyone's chart plotter. Different use case — pre-departure planning and crew briefings.

If anyone here is curious enough to try it and tell me what's broken or wrong, I'd genuinely appreciate it. I built this for myself but if it's useful to other captains I want to make it better.

https://preview.redd.it/lu2cl6an3p1h1.png?width=1013&format=png&auto=webp&s=ead47618320f4b15e78b308dbabb9211489fe8fe

Planning the sail inventory for a longer passage and going back and forth on the light-wind / downwind options.

The Parasailor gets a lot of love from shorthanded crews for its stability, but it’s expensive and rigging it solo sounds like an adventure. A standard asymmetric gennaker on a furler seems more practical for a two-person crew on long watches.

Code 0 I’d consider if we were doing more reaching, but for trades-wind sailing it feels like overkill.

Would be curious to hear from anyone who’s done an Atlantic or Pacific crossing:

• What did you wish you had?
• What stayed in the bag the whole time?
• Reefing / furling in 25+ knots — how did it go?

Boat context: fin-keel 47 footer, fractional rig, short-handed (2 people most of the time).

I feel small

A giant manta passing right over my head at Socorro… probably one of the best underwater moments of my life

This year I finally checked off two places that had been sitting on my dive bucket list forever: the Galápagos Islands and Revillagigedo (The 3 Islands, Socorro,Roca partida and San Benedicto). I’d read hundreds of reviews, watched way too many YouTube videos, talked to dive guides, and honestly couldn’t decide which one I wanted to prioritize first… so I ended up doing both within a few months.

I know a lot of people compare these destinations because they’re both considered “big animal diving” and both are expensive enough that most of us can’t casually do them every year. After spending time in both places, I figured I’d share my personal experience in case it helps someone else decide.

For context:
I’m mostly into pelagic encounters, healthy ecosystems, and dives that feel wild and unpredictable. I care way more about what’s underwater than luxury topside stuff. I travel solo most of the time, usually shoulder season when possible, and I’m happiest on boats talking diving until midnight with strangers who become friends by day three.

Travel & Logistics

Galápagos definitely felt easier overall. Flights through Quito were straightforward, and once I got to the islands everything felt pretty organized for tourism. There are more options for land-based diving too if you’re trying to save money. Puerto Ayora had a fun atmosphere, lots of little restaurants, dive shops, cafés, and backpackers everywhere. It felt adventurous but comfortable.

Revillagigedo was a completely different mindset. Getting to Socorro felt like committing to an expedition instead of a vacation. Long crossing from Cabo San Lucas, no land in sight for days, nowhere to “escape” once you’re out there. Just open Pacific. The remoteness honestly became part of the experience for me. Everyone on board was there for one reason only: diving.

And I think that changes the energy completely.

Topside Experience

Galápagos wins easily if you care about things to do outside diving. Wildlife everywhere, great food, little towns to walk around, sea lions sleeping on benches, marine iguanas casually hanging out beside you. Even non-divers would probably love it there.

Socorro isn’t really about topside at all. You live on the boat, wake up, dive, eat, repeat. No beaches, no bars, no wandering through town at sunset. But weirdly… I loved that simplicity. It felt immersive in a way that’s hard to explain unless you’ve done a remote liveaboard.

Diving — the real reason we go

Galápagos felt raw, chaotic, and alive. Some dives honestly felt like underwater traffic jams of marine life. Hammerheads everywhere at Darwin and Wolf, huge schools of fish, sea lions constantly messing with divers, turtles, rays, Galápagos sharks… every dive felt busy.

But conditions can absolutely humble you.

Cold thermoclines, surge, strong current, negative entries, rough surface conditions — this is not relaxing Caribbean diving. A few dives genuinely felt like work. Amazing work, but still work. I remember finishing some dives completely exhausted and grinning like an idiot at the same time.

Now… Socorro.

This is where things changed for me.

The diving in Revillagigedo felt less crowded underwater but somehow more emotional and more personal. The giant mantas there are unreal. Not just because they’re huge, but because of how interactive they are. I’d heard people describe them as “curious puppies” before and thought it sounded exaggerated… it’s not. Multiple times they stayed with us for entire dives, making eye contact, circling inches above us, coming back again and again.

I’ve had amazing shark dives before, but those manta encounters honestly hit differently.

Then you add dolphins joining safety stops, massive schools of tuna, silky sharks at Roca Partida, whale songs in the background, occasional tiger sharks, humpbacks during the season… the whole place felt like blue-water magic.

Visibility in Socorro and Roca Partida was generally better for me than Galápagos, and the volcanic seamounts rising from deep blue water made every site feel dramatic. Roca Partida especially felt like diving in the middle of nowhere on another planet.

One thing I noticed: the divers in Revillagigedo were generally more experienced. The conditions can get rough, and most people onboard had hundreds of dives. The overall pace felt calmer and more dialed in.

Cost

Neither destination is cheap. No way around that.

Galápagos can be done cheaper if you stay land-based, but the best sites still require expensive liveaboards. Socorro is basically full-commitment liveaboard pricing from the start.

That said… if I had to save up and choose only ONE to repeat tomorrow?

I’d go back to Revillagigedo without hesitating.

Galápagos impressed me. Revillagigedo stayed in my head long after I got home.

There was something about the isolation, the pelagic encounters, and especially the manta interactions that felt deeper and harder to describe. It reminded me why I started diving in the first place.

Curious what other people think though, especially divers who’ve done both. Which one hit harder for you? And if you could only repeat one trip for the rest of your life… which would it be?  

Wondering if anyone would be interested in stable work in the Florida Keys for a small hotel. You could park your boat right out front. We're looking for managers that have cleaning/mechanical/carpentry experience.

As long as this post is up I’m still looking!:)

We can also do a trade work for a sailboat/sailing lessons situation. We have a lot of boats.

Curious how others deal with this on longer passages. We carry a fairly complete medical kit, which includes some prescription-only items — and for proper offshore passages, things like strong opioid analgesics that technically fall under narcotics regulations.

Practically speaking: do you carry a doctor's letter for everything? Translated copies for each country? Some ports seem to barely glance at it, others are very thorough.

Specific things I'd love to hear about:

• Your documentation setup for controlled substances
• Countries where you had real scrutiny (Caribbean, Pacific, SE Asia)
• Whether a ship's medical log / official logbook entry has ever helped — or been requested

Not looking for legal advice, just real-world experience from people who've been through clearance in more than a handful of countries.

I'm researching how boaters handle maintenance documentation. Whether you're keeping records for resale value, insurance, charter operations, or just personal organization, I'd love to hear your approach.

Some specific questions if you're willing:

What do you currently use to track maintenance? Paper logbook, app, spreadsheet, nothing systematic?

Have you ever needed your maintenance records for something important (insurance claim, sale, dispute)? What was that experience like?

For those running charter or commercial operations: how do you handle compliance documentation for surveys and inspections?

I'm exploring whether there's a real problem to solve here or whether existing approaches work fine. Genuinely curious about your experience, not selling anything.

I am thinking very hard about buying a liveaboard boat but I have limited experience. I’m going to be in the Norfolk/Virginia Beach area in June and was wondering if there were any places that did any short (a week or less) rentals to sleepover on. I would like to even see if I like sleeping on a boat before I sink a bunch of time and money into it. I wouldn’t need to go anywhere in it, just hang out and sleep for a couple of nights to see if I like it.

All I am basically finding are charters. Charters seem a bit excessive when I don’t want to move the boat. I recognize that is an insurance liability as well.

I don’t have any idea of how to find that other than walking the marinas asking around, and I would like some kind of game plan in place before I’m actually there. Airbnb and Vrbo make it very difficult to search directly for houseboats.

Is this actually a thing that is possible?