What are the rules about anchoring off the coast? Can you just drop anchor wherever you want, as long as it's not in a shipping lane or something?
I'm dreaming of living on a boat, but apparently harbours charge quite a lot if you're just visiting for a few days. It sounds romantic to just sail to a quiet spot and stay at sea or in a natural harbour until supplies run out.
Strangely enough I haven't found a good information source for this kind of idea, possibly because I'm a noob and it's a crazy one :)
A lot of people who do this type of thing blog about it. There might be a better one now, but I used to use this repo of links to peruse:
http://cruisenews.net/
One of my favorite links from there was
http://www.katiekat.net/
by an engineer who detailed how he hacked his cat for cruising. I also like the way he renders his experiences.
A cat = a sailing boat. At first I thought he hacked his cat (pet). After all, I wouldn't see it as a given that a cat would feel at home on a relatively small sailing boat? But there is the concept of a "ship's cat", so maybe not impossible to have pets.
Probably started when old cargo ships were swarmed with rats eating the supplies and spreading diseases.
I have read about several people sailing around the world though that have kept cats aboard in more recent times. Robin Lee Graham (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robin_Lee_Graham) had several during his voyages, his book Dove is excellent by the way for anyone interested in sailing and exploration.
