My fifty-footer has been in new York City more or less all her life--I've met people who knew the couple that owned her in the 70s, when she was at the comparitively elegant 79th St Boat Basin. Now, like many a lady before her, she has been forced by age and decrepitude to the uncertain light of the backwater, frequented by quite a rougher class of sailor. Yes, she's now in the Bronx in a marina owned by an old French tugboat captain whose vessels, I think, were pieced together from old pieces of boiler. But I'm at Queens College full time, and it's really quite convenient for me--plus my slip fee is $400 a month, which includes water but not electric--not at all bad in a city where two-=bedroom apts. are $2,000 and up. I've been re-paneling the main cabin with 1 x 3s from salvaged palettes, and plan to do the ceiling the same way. I've got a 22' sloop tied to the stern, and am in the process of turning the cuddy into a Jacuzzi. I must say liveaboards are treated much better in NYC, where they/re rare, the in places like Key West, where they're common, and harassed a lot by the authorities.

One day I was fried out by the work , and the pumping out, and the hassle, then i saw all these people pleying in the courtyard of an apt. building--I thought of how much room I had, and my view, and the water, and it all seemed worth it.