“Captain Ron” Talks About The Houseboat Lifestyle -Travel Full Time – Affordable

It was a beautiful afternoon for a walk tonight, so I went down to one of my favorite places: the Toronto waterfront. Listening to the tumult of languages, looking at the wide mix of people, I thought about upcoming travel plans, business matters, articles to write for the website and many other things. I like this feeling for a hamster on a wheel that is constantly spinning and moving. My brain was working overtime, which happens a lot when I think about the website and all the ideas and topics I’d like to write about.

So I’m strolling around the sailing harbor at Ashbridges Bay, a particularly serene spot with a quiet little cove lined with willows on the east side, on the north side is a private marina where hundreds of sailboats dock, on the south side is a small peninsula with few places where various boats can anchor in the municipal docks.

So I am walking, enjoying the reflections of the afternoon sun playing in the water, listening to the happy songs of the birds, observing cyclists, walkers, skaters, looking at the boats… and then I had an idea: I could also interview one of these sailors and find out a little more about their lifestyle and travel adventures.

I approached a houseboat and saw that the captain was sitting on the bridge. I knocked on the glass door and asked if I could interview him. The man, a white-haired, bearded man in his 60s, was very welcoming and invited me inside. In fact, he asked me to sit in the captain’s chair and I sheepishly agreed.

He introduced himself as Ron, “Captain Ron”, a name by which he is well known in the Lake Ontario boating community. Ron is a former corporate sales manager, now comfortably retired, with an active lifestyle. Ron still has a house in Whitby, just outside of Toronto, but he spends a lot of time on the houseboat and many of his friends live full time on the houseboat.

His particular boat is an intracoastal houseboat, meaning it has a hull and is more seaworthy than pontoon houseboats. It was made in 1970 and cost $17,000 when new. Ron has owned it for 18 years and regularly gets offers from people who want to buy it. Someone recently offered you $50,000 in cash for the houseboat. But since Ron loves his lifestyle, and a new boat would probably cost $150,000 to $200,000, it doesn’t make sense for him to sell his beloved home on the water. He politely declined the offer.

The ship has a raised bridge that not only houses the “steering wheel” (is that the proper marine terminology?), but also accommodates a fold-out double bed. A few steps down is the kitchen on the left and a bathroom with a combined toilet, sink and shower on the right. Next to the bathroom there is a small door that goes down to the cabin that has 4 bunk beds. Behind the kitchen is the living room with a dining corner and another double pull-out bed.

The houseboat can theoretically sleep 8 people, but Ron said you wouldn’t want to fit that many people on board with just one small bathroom. Makes a lot of sense… Ron seems to be traveling almost alone, judging by the solitary lounge chair that was located on the upper deck of the ship from where he had a perfect view of the serene surroundings of the port. Ron says that Ashbridges Bay is one of his favorite places and that he was sitting quietly enjoying the evening when I approached him for the interview.

Ron uses the boat about 6 months out of the year, putting it in the water mid-April and taking it out mid-October and mostly sailing Lake Ontario with it. From the 1000 islands in the east near Kingston, a city he loves (me too…), to Toronto with its islands and St. Catharines with its port of Port Dalhousie, he actively cruises the north shore of Lake Ontario.

He commented that the ports on the US side of Lake Ontario are not that clean and unfortunately since 9/11 the US Coast Guard has become overly protective, he said even paranoid, and the moment they see it they are they realize he must be a drug dealer and got him into the third grade. So he prefers to sail on the Canadian side of the lake.

Many of Ron’s friends actually live on a houseboat full time. They navigate northern waters in the summer and then connect via the Ohio River – Mississippi waterway system to the Gulf of Mexico from where they sail south to Florida. On the way back in the spring, they take the Intracoastal Waterway (the “Ditch”) to return north for the summer.

Ron also has many friends who have ocean-going sailboats and spend much of their time in the Caribbean. In fact, one of his friends has a unique type of sailboat that was recently requisitioned by the producers of the “Pirates of the Caribbean” sequel.

Naturally, I asked Ron about the cost of the houseboat. In addition to the purchase costs, which he estimated at $150,000 to $200,000 for a new boat, are the costs of docking, fuel, insurance, repairs. He said he spends about $1,000 on fuel and about $5,000 a year on docking and other operating costs. According to Ron, people who do the Canada-Florida route typically spend between $10,000 and $30,000 for the round trip, which could take an entire year. Cost on the lower end means you’re using the galley facilities on board (or rather, the galley), staying at the city docks instead of private marinas, using the ship’s shower, instead from the expensive facilities of the marina. Since Ron is a good cook, he pretty much always uses his ship’s kitchen to cook his own meals, a huge savings.

Captain Ron has truly figured out a perfect retirement lifestyle for himself. Travel on houseboats in the summer, go deer hunting in the fall, leave Ontario for Florida or British Columbia in the winter, where you stay with friends and family, or rent a reasonably priced apartment in the interior of the coast. Or, if he sees a good deal in the paper, he could fly to Mexico for a quick getaway. And he loves to spend his summers in Ontario, where he sails on Lake Ontario and spends time in beautiful Georgian Bay, where his brothers live.

According to Ron, the key to retirement is health and he works hard to stay healthy. He plays tennis, rides his bike, loves to swim and works out. He said that, particularly if he wishes to travel to the US as a retiree, being healthy is essential. His brother had a heart attack in Florida, and his health insurance did not cover the costs of his treatment, and he ended up with a $150,000 bill in the end. No wonder Captain Ron considers good health a key factor when traveling…

Captain Ron gave me a glimpse into his unique lifestyle, and I couldn’t help but envy him a little. He seemed so calm, so relaxed, enjoying the afternoon sun looking out over the water. I realized that he had figured it all out and that he had created the perfect little niche of his for himself…