Reply #15: All Great Ideas! I have a shelter example that worked for me [View All]

I installed carpet for 30yrs and have degenerative disk disease with nerve damage.

It took 3 1/2 years for my SSI to go through and spent it trying to make plans for how to survive

on, what in '05 (when it did) was $579/mo. The only way I saw was if I didn't have to pay any or much rent.

Since 1979, my hobby has been sailing and I knew that there were reasonable sized old sailboats

that could be had for very little money. I got about $8000 from SS in back pay and went shopping.

I found a usable (and sailable) 28ft 1978 model boat on Ebay for $2500 and bought it.

It was located, in the water, in Great Peconic Bay at the eastern tip of Long Island, NY.

I had friends in Virginia and found a marina there for $180/mo including electric and water.

The boat had sails, but had been stripped of most everything else, so I had to spend a couple of thousand

on a radio, a GPS chartplotter for navigation, ropes, and stuff. It has an inboard diesel motor that needs to be looked at someday

by someone who knows diesels, but I already had a good outboard and it has done fine.

So, I sailed it from Long Island to VA via NYC, the Atlantic, Delaware River and the Chesapeake bay.

This was the same time period when Katrina and Rita happened and I had to dodge one coming up the east coast.

It was also the summer when Dr William Hurwitz, a prominent VA pain Dr. was sentenced to 40 years by DEA set up.

I couldn't find ANY pain doctors in VA who would take a new chronic pain patient that year. So, I was in a bind.

But, a retired carpet store owner I used to work for had a truck to pull it back to TN on a trailer. He also has a farm to park it

and he and his wife spend half the time gone in their RV. So I'm here to watch the place when they are gone.

And I get free rent, power, water and the use of a shower in their outbuilding ( a drapery shop his wife runs)

Been here over two years and though I hope to get back in the water when the boat is ready, I'm fine for now.

I realize my situation is unique, but a sailboat is good shelter even if you don't know how or care to sail one.

Who knows, once you have one you might just decide to learn