The vast majority of marinas we’ve been to have been very accepting of us having a dog on board.
At some of them, the people in the reception when we go to check in are more interested in Scrappy than us paying!
He gets a lot of attention wherever we go due to the fact that even fully grown, he still looks like a puppy and are shocked when we tell them his age (he’ll be six this October!)
Scrappy will happily go and demand attention (tummy rubs) off whoever happens to be walking by (and usually gets what he wants… the people doing the tummy rubs are even sometimes rewarded with a wet foot…!)
One thing that Scrappy is very good at is barking.
He honed this skill when we lived in our house by sitting on the back of the sofa/window sill and barking at anyone and anything that went past our window!
He has decided to bring this skill with him but now barks at any boats or birds that dare to come close to the boat which gets tiring pretty quickly…! However, he makes an excellent guard dog and ensures we never get any intruders on the boat.
A lot of marinas require you to keep your dog on a lead and should go without saying but if your dog goes to the toilet on the pontoon, clear up after them! I’ve almost stepped in dog poo in the dark before now and I can see why some people get really annoyed. (It wasn’t Scrappy, we always make sure we clean up after him!)
On the whole, spending time in marinas basically makes life much easier if we need to get anything from the shore. It’s a lot easier to take Scrappy for walks and helps tire him out too. However…they do cost a lot of money so we much prefer to not be in marinas if we can help it!
As we’ve been in Northern Europe since we moved aboard, the winters are cold, wet and can get quite stormy at times. We have spent three winters aboard now and have based ourselves in a marina for the winter months (1st October – 31st March).
We’re just about to spend our fourth winter aboard but this year we have travelled South so we will be spending it in the Algarve where we’ve heard it will be MUCH warmer!
It’s just not fun being stuck on a boat out on a mooring or at anchor in bad weather with only a small dinghy and outboard to get ashore in so we choose not to!
Luckily for us, it’s always a lot cheaper to be in a marina over winter and the majority of them do winter deals so although it’s annoying as you’re effectively paying rent to stay in your own home, it’s a price we choose to pay for the ease of getting ashore for supplies and safety.
How have you found being in a marina with your dog?