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All in the Same Boat : Living Aboard and Cruising | 
 enlarge | Author: Tom Neale
Publisher: International Marine/Ragged Mountain Press
Category: Book
List Price: $14.95
Buy New: $8.14
You Save: $6.81 (46%)
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Avg. Customer Rating:  6 reviews
Sales Rank: 43723
Media: Paperback
Edition: 2
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 376
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1
Dimensions (in): 8.3 x 5.5 x 1.2
ISBN: 0071427910
Dewey Decimal Number: 797.1
UPC: 639785802778
EAN: 9780071427913
ASIN: 0071427910
Publication Date: August 11, 2003
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Shipping: International shipping available
Condition: Brand New, Perfect Condition, Please allow 4-14 business days for delivery. 100% Money Back Guarantee, Over 1,000,000 customers served.
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Product Description
"An excellent and practical step-by-step manual to help prepare you for the cruising lifestyle and to entertain you as you learn." --Cruising World More than two decades ago, Tom and Mel Neale moved onto a boat full-time with their two daughters. Now their neighborhood is anywhere they choose to anchor. Here's all the information needed to follow in their footsteps, including choosing a boat, earning a living, raising and educating kids, and much more.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 1 more reviews...
 This book effectively cured my desire to be a live aboard cruiser September 21, 2008
You use the saying "all in the same boat" when you're with at least one other person and you find yourself in a not-so-good situation, but you're stuck there, so you grit your teeth and say, "We're all in the same boat here, so let's make the best of it." That pretty much sums up the feeling I got about living aboard a boat full time, i.e. cruising. It sucks, but if you're really determined, you'll probably survive it.
The perfect example of the way this book is written is the "Dollars and Sense" chapter (chapter 5). The back cover of the book proclaims that it will show you how to "Earn a living, and hold onto the money" while cruising. Out of over 350 pages, the money chapter is a meager 13 pages long. And as an added bonus, most of those pages are all about your expenses: marinas, insurance (both boat and health), clothes, etc. Then the author tells you how it almost never works to keep your old job ashore, so just forget about that. After starting the chapter by saying that 2-4 people cruising need $20-35k per year, he literally spends 1.5 pages on how you might make some money. Even this 1.5 pages wastes paragraphs on how other cruisers have no money either, so don't expect them to pay you for any services. The best bet, according to the author, is to get odd jobs ashore, like waitering, fast food and secretarial work! I'm sure I don't need to tell you that these are not high-paying jobs. In fact, you'll probably find yourself hovering somewhere around $8/hour, and at that rate, you'd need to work over 40 hours/week to make the $20k per year he says you'll need! How does that fit into the idea of a life, living aboard your boat, anchored in the Bahamas?
Now, making money seems to me to be a rather important subject that deserved more time. As much as it sucks, money is a requirement of life these days. But the author decides to go into much more detail on other topics. For instance, while only 13 pages were spent on how to make money, he spends 25 pages on how to anchor your boat. All I could think while reading this chapter was, "How will I ever have the money to afford a boat, let alone an anchor, let alone getting the chain galvanized every three years?" Of course, I only had time to wonder about affording my anchor rode when I wasn't reading the extended sections on the fact that your rode will get chaffed and break when you least expect it, or another cruiser's anchor will come loose, letting his boat crash into your boat - after which, you won't be able to get ahold of your insurance company to get money for the repair, and even if you do, where will you get your boat repaired in the middle of nowhere?
Chapter after chapter of all the things that can go wrong - and will! Just you wait! Even the chapter on scuba diving and fishing (which the author had lead me to believe that he liked, so I thought it might be a good time) quickly deteriorated into a discussion about what to do when the sharks show up. Oh, and don't eat fish X Y and Z because you'll get ciguatera poisoning. And thinking about a nice walk on an isolated beach, kicking your feet in the surf? Well, watch out for all those little creatures in the sand that can puncture/cut your feet, and if such a wound does get infected, don't expect to find good medical care anywhere around. And did you know that a broken off bit of coral can live and thrive in your wound? Excellent!
There was one - ONE - chapter that made cruising sound at all appealing: the last one, chapter 23, "Our Neighborhood." 13 pages of relative happiness where the author tells you about cool things you can see and do.
I'm giving this book 3 stars because it does have a lot of information in it. A lot. Information that I'm sure it would be good to think about, consider, and prepare for in advance. However, I do think that the author could have written the information in such a way that everything didn't seem, well, unappealing. Isn't cruising supposed to be fun - at least on some level? Otherwise, why do it? On the other hand, perhaps it's good that he writes it this way, because now I can cross that idea off my list.
 Absolutly the best book I've read about cruising. September 3, 2007
This book is outstanding! This is the most thorough, down to earth, well thought out how to account of cruising life that I've found. If you find a better book out there about the realities of cruising please contact me with the title. I can't imagine anyone who is thinking about living on a boat not being thouroughly satisfied with this book.
Excellent and informative July 14, 2007
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
Being homeschoolers we have a number of friends who live full time on their boats and many sail around the world which is a great hands on learning experience.
The thing I like about this book that other books lacked, is information on things like what to do about mail, TV via satellite, computer use, and information that helps you realize even if you live on land, just how much stuff you DON'T need. It's a book that will inform the 2007 reader well.
Banking, paying bills and everyday information that is a must to know. And buying food locally, fishing etc. Visiting other places and knowning the stuff you need to know there.
As well as how to have the right boat for your needs so that you have the comforts you need and even some you want. Now that I am a widow I am seriously considering getting back to living on a boat full time.
Great coastal cruising book July 21, 2006
3 out of 5 found this review helpful
I'm a wannabe bluewater cruiser and this is the first book I bought to learn about this adventure. I would highly rate this book for basic and technical information, with some limitations. Neale covers all the systems on the boat and the problems and the advantages of each. There are four limitations of the book though. First of all he is a coastal cruiser primarily and the open ocean sailing part is not there. Secondly, there is some other info that's left out. An example is anchoring. He discusses this thoroughly because of its importance, but never tells you what a CQR or Danforth anchor really is. I know there are limitations on length. Also, he never mentions product names. It would be good to have some names of products that really worked well or were dismal failures. This is probably my biggest gripe. And some cost factors too. We can adjust for the time factor. But again, this is a great book. I understand much more how the electrical inverters, toilets, stoves, water systems, frigs, etc. operate on a boat and why I do or don't need them. Buy this book if you're looking for a good read that's loaded with info.
Impressions July 9, 2006
2 out of 3 found this review helpful
My husband and I both loved this book because we think it offered very practical advice. I also loved the pictures and the input from the author's wife and children. I highly recommend it!
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