The cost of staying in marinas adds up very quickly so we knew we needed to find alternative places to stay during our summer voyage so we didn’t completely annihilate our cruising fund.
We spent some time anchoring out during our first season in The Netherlands and France, but Scrappy wasn’t toilet trained. This made life much harder as we’d have to get to shore multiple times a day for him and he wasn’t all that keen on going in the dinghy to start with.
I hate to say it, but we ended up staying in a lot of marinas during our first season aboard as we didn’t know any better and found it to be the easiest option (once we’d managed to manoeuvre into a berth!)
Due to our success toilet training him over our first winter aboard when we were in Jersey, we are now able to spend time out on a mooring ball or at anchor much more easily as we don’t have to worry about going ashore.
If the weather is pants, we can stay aboard quite happily for a day or two and not even leave the boat!
It just means he gets extra long walks on the days we are able to go ashore!
During our second season, we crossed the English Channel from Jersey and found ourselves in Falmouth. We decided to take a seasonal mooring ball through Falmouth Haven as we needed to sort a few things out back home and decided it would be easier to stay in one spot for a bit.
We still went off exploring other areas (like the Isles of Scilly for seven weeks during the summer) but based ourselves there for the season (April until the end of September).
For our third season, we decided to stay in Falmouth as we had just found out I was pregnant and wanted to stay close to medical facilities! We thought about whether we could get away without a mooring and just anchor for the summer around the Falmouth area but we (chickened out!) decided against it so ended up with a mooring ball again.
Because we would be adding an extra crew member to our boat, we decided a bigger boat would be needed as Baremka only had one bedroom. We found and bought Asterie in Eastbourne and sailed her back to Falmouth.
Baremka was still on her mooring ball and we didn’t want to pay for a second one so we bit the bullet and ended up anchoring out on Asterie for the rest of the summer.
It was easier than we expected and more enjoyable! We could move ourselves around the bay to the best place according to the weather which meant more comfort for us all and also no boats skimming past us like on the mooring ball!
Our fourth season has been spent heading South from Falmouth through France, Spain and Portugal which has involved anchoring and marinas. It’s really good to know that Scrappy can cope with the longer trips now and has given us the confidence to go further afield.
Scrappy has adapted very well indeed to life out of a marina which is great (and makes life a lot cheaper too!)
Being out of marinas more means our dinghy got a lot of use and Scrappy went from not enjoying dinghy rides at all to practically jumping off the back of the boat to get in it, sitting up on his back legs and having his front legs on the side of the dinghy so he can see better and get the wind in his face.
It goes without saying that Scrappy wears his life jacket at all times when in the dinghy for his safety. It also makes it much easier to get him in and out of it at either end of the journey because of the carry handle on it (also for the times when he’s been sat on the front of the dinghy and has accidentally gone overboard when we’ve been rowing ashore…!)
Do you prefer being out of marinas either on a mooring ball or at anchor?
What does your dog think of dinghy rides?