Sleeping on our cruiser

jobofly

jobofly

Member
Jul 22, 2008
413
Ithaca Ny
Boat Info
1985 Sea Ray Weekender 230 OMC Stringer
Engines
5.7 260 w/OMC Stringer
Hey guys we just bought our first boat, it's a sea ray weekender 230. I'm excited about staying on our boat at the marina but my wife is not. She doesn't think she will be able to sleep on the boat. Have any of you ran into this problem with your significant other? If so how did you address it?


Thanks
 
I've tried to get my wife to do "Many Things" on the boat. No luck though. She did take a several hour nap one day after chugging a bottle of champagne at a sandbar party north of Anclote Key a few years ago...
 
First, I would imagine that would be something you discuss before you buy the boat. But beyond that, I'll just say that the harder you push, the more resistance you will get. You are trying to make her do something she doesn't want to do.

If she changes it will be over time. I would bet that there will be long days on the water where she gets tired and wants to take a nap. That's a good start. She just has to figure out whether or not sleeping on the boat is something she CAN do, before it becomes something she chooses to do on a regular basis.
 
Great advice, I'm not going to push her. She loves camping but she's afraid of the boat sinking while we are sleeping on it.
 
She will get over that with time after taking the boat out a few times. I was paranoid the first 2 times I left my boat docked in the water at friends houses.
 
Yea I think she will get over it once we go out on it and she sees that it's safe
 
I think once she gets familiar with it she should do fine. My wife was the same way. We stayed on a friends boat a couple of times and she still was not sure. Once we go our own space and got the routine down, she can't get enough of it. (thank goodness).
 
Take it easy for a while when you take her out. My wife is always telling me to slow down. Last trip out I relaxed and kept it under 30 mph and even idled most of the way home. It was a much more enjoyable trip and I uses a lot less gas.
 
Great point paulie, that I will definitely do.
 
Me being the nice guy I am I bought 1 flying lesson for my wife in a small plane with our 2 boys. She said she would like to try flying once. I stayed on the ground. A short time later they returned. She puked!!!! Skip forward a year, we buy a boat. She says " I dont know if I can sleep on it" Keep in mind I cant do the old nagg voice over the internet!!!! First night we had our boat we spent the night, then the week end. She loves it, except that one night we had troubles walking down the dock with the wind almost blowing us off last fall. We drove back home. I think a good stiff White Russian helps a little!!!!!! LOL
 
My wife is really not into Camping and even a larger cruiser is like camping to some extent. That's why we eat Dinner at Marinas etc for fun. We usually raft-up overnight on the hook with other friends/boats and after a few bottles of wine or some nice dark rum on ice, sleeping is no problem! My wife takes her bed pillows with her and that helps quite a bit. We also anchor only in a few feet of water so if we sink, we won't drown! The first time I boated in the NY Finger Lakes, where the bottom is a few hundred feet down, it seemed wierd. If she sinks here she's gone for good! High water bildge alarms will also wake you if you have them. We stay out late at night and when it gets too late, we just stay overnight! Our kids are on their own now so that is less planning and less work for the both of us. It's all about relaxing and having fun with family & friends. My wife loves taking her girl friends out for a dinner cruise once a month...yes I Captain them and also have a blast, Mike.
 
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I would suggest sleeping on the boat in the marina first... Then sleep out in a raft up... When we anchored by ourselves, I would not sleep thinking that the anchor was not going to hold... my wift never had a problem sleeping on the boat, maybe because I did all the worring...
 
rcknecht said:
I would suggest sleeping on the boat in the marina first... Then sleep out in a raft up... When we anchored by ourselves, I would not sleep thinking that the anchor was not going to hold... my wift never had a problem sleeping on the boat, maybe because I did all the worring...
Click to expand...

I agree...This might be old news but have you guys seen the DraqQueen Anchor Alarm app? I know it is available in the apple store for free. It alarms when you move too far from your set coordinates. https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/dragqueen-anchor-alarm/id489294173?mt=8
 
thanks for all of the input on this. i dont think that we will ever sleep on it out on the lake, mostly because its a couple of hundred feet deep. she loves to go camping, we camp in tents throughout the summer. im hoping that it will carry over onto the boat.
 
rcknecht said:
I tried the anchor alarms, and found they would go off when the wind direction or current changed, and it did not help me much... I much perfer to raft up with multiple anchors out...
Click to expand...

I am not sure what you have used in the past but this has a distance and delay variable that you can set. This way you can determine the amount of drift you are comfortable with and delay setting so you can give it 30sec or time frame before it goes off in case it corrects itself. I personally have not used it but am considering it. I have had a devil of a time convincing my wife to stay on the hook. We also have 2 dogs which plays into the ability to do it. Marina stays are much easier with the two kids and two dogs!
 
We sold our 280DA mainly because my wife got sea sick every time she went into the cabin. With that said, on paper she liked the idea of sleeping on the boat and I think it's mainly because of a vision she created in her head. I think the key to getting her onboard with the idea centers on how you frame it. Paint her a mental picture and make it fun and get everything set up...but also be spontaneous and flexible. My wife had this picture of us hanging at the dock with friends then cruising to a restaurant for dinner and wrapping up the night back at the dock. Send the friends home or to their own boats at the end of the night and retreat to the cabin for some *cough* sleep followed by coffee and breakfast in the morning. Never happened..... Dramamine, patches, nothing worked.

I had many sleepovers with our boys at the dock and they loved it. Good luck....
 
Sleeping at the Marina is as safe as sleeping at a Motel but you can talk until you're blue in the face and it most likely wont change her mind. Try picking up one of these (click on the word these I was not referring to the photo below)and place it right next to where she sleeps, I know the high water bilge pump has an alarm on it so this is redundant but it's something she can see and it's less than $10. Put the sensor in the bilge and test it in front of her. Make sure you have a carbon monoxide detector in case some knoodnick in the Marina runs his gen or motor at night and tries to kill you in your sleep. If all this fails you might explain to her that all the Dock Bunnies are yammering to spend the night on any boat. :grin: That being said you may be using the boat as your permanent resident. Good luck

img_1130.jpg
 
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Anchor out in a nice cove and tell her that the battery is dead and maybe it will have enough juice to start in the morning.

My friends have a 230 and they sleep on it all the time. They love it. She just needs to give it a shot.
 
Solution = 420 Sedan Bridge (or bigger).
 
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