Testimonials

Read what readers are saying about this great book!

Learn what others have to say about Essentials of Living Aboard a Boat. These are unsolicited testimonials.  Please send along your comments by contact form, email or however you’d like. On behalf of Paradise Cay Publishing and myself, we love them! Here are some e-mails, all unsolicited and used with permission (although personal information and personal notes have been deleted).


Hey Mark, just got done with your book and wanted to say thanks. It was a great book with a ridiculous amount of stuff I wouldn’t have considered. I’m super excited about this move and your book helped me focus on some realities. Still excited. Better informed.
Thanks!
Jason
Seattle, WA

Hi Mark,
Just finished your book.  Loved it!  Actually felt your pain during your interesting events.  Laughed out loud on numerous occasions with your humor and especially the stories about your cat.  I felt your book was a great eye opener for me, for I am one that like you would like to retire living aboard.  This has been my dream and I am working toward making a reality.
Thanks for a wonderful book.
Doug

Hi Mark,
It’s a rain drenched afternoon here in Merrimack, New Hampshire…. a good afternoon to relax in the recliner with a warm cup of coffee and “feed” on all of the good advice in your book “Living aboard a boat” which I received from you on May 10th. It’s like having a trusted friend educating a beginner in a lifestyle that, up to now, has only been a dream. Thanks for your help, and most certainly, thanks for writing the book. It’s “Great Stuff”
Sincerely,
David A. J.

Hi Mark!
Living in Singapore has made me fascinated by the ocean since young. We are a small island country just spanning 42km from east to west, so i am not too far from the coast wherever I am! And now, after reading your book, I feel that I am more prepared for the liveaboard lifestyle. I must say really say a big thank you, not just for your amazing book, but also for your help when I encountered problems receiving it.
Sincerely,
Marcus
Singapore

Mark
I just finished your book and really enjoyed it. So, I took you up on your invitation to send an email. I related to your tales of Boston winters as my daughter, husband and daughter live in Charlestown and have a place in Orleans on the Cape. Thanks again for your book. I am getting closer to my dream and your book was a part of my preparatory education.
Thank you……
John

Hi Mark:
I’m a little more than halfway through your book. Very helpful information! I flipped to the back and saw where you gave your email address and encouraged people to write. So I’m really just sending this first to see if you meant it.
Rebecca
Atlanta, GA

Dear Mark,
We’ve enjoyed your book – thank you. Happy to say that we are just finishing closing on a 1989 70’11” Hatteras wide body motor yacht out of Ft. Lauderdale! Our slip is waiting for us in Hampton, VA and we are excited about the future.
Sincerely,
Lisa & Ron J.

Mark;
I have read your book and found it every enjoyable and well laid out in its context. I would highly recommend it for reading for anyone contemplating on living aboard or extended cruising.
Capt. David W.
Ontario, Canada.

Dear Mark:
I greatly enjoyed reading The Essentials of Living Aboard a Boat. I believe that anyone considering living aboard should read it thoroughly. … Thanks again for writing a great reference on living aboard…
Sincerely yours,
Robert C.
Denver, Colorado

M-
The book was very informative and precise. My wife is reading it now. We plan on living aboard in 5 months in Hawaii.
Cordially,
Laurence A.

Hey Mark,
Enjoyed your book THE ESSENTIALS OF LIVING ABOARD A BOAT. Now I am ready to make the transition from land to a live aboard. THANKS AGAIN!
Bill

Hi Mark,
i received your book last saturday and haven’t put it down yet. it has been immensely helpful to me especially the part about estimating costs. again. thanks again writing the book. its been a great read!!
Rich
Richard J. Ph.D.

Hi Mark!
Thoroughly enjoyed your book!! Easily readable, good common sense information, honestly presented and I got the distinct impression that you had experienced most of this information “first hand”.
Having been born in Long Beach CA, and growing up in Orange County, Huntington Beach & Laguna Beach I was involved with sailing and power boating most of my life growing up but reading your book really brought home the reality AND differences between merely yachting/ motor sailing on the week ends and actually deciding to live “full time” on your boat! Thanks for pointing out all those important distinctions…|
Yours Truly,
Lynn R. A. BS, PA, MBA

Hi Mark,
We are really enjoying the book and especially your CD. Just wanted to thank you again for all your suggestions and insights, it is really helping us in determining whether we are Liveaboard types. Well I know both of us are its just deciding if we have the right boat at the present time for the size family we have. We like your style of writing and we have already referred several people to your book …
Martha
Redondo Beach, CA

Mark,
I want to take the time to tell you that I have thoroughly enjoyed your book, “The Essentials of Living Aboard a Boat”. What I like about it is that you give explanations, or restate in more than one way what your trying to get across to the reader. AND, to some degree it is “dummied down” for us novices. Thank you for your time and your book.
Sincerely,
Randy and Vicki
Bend, OR

Mark;
I’m starting the Pardey’s second book, I enjoyed their first book almost as much as yours (hey, I’m an engineer, I enjoy facts and data). Once again, thank you for a great, honest book.
Thank you;
Dan – future Cruiser.

Hey Mark-
Saw your name and your stories about Max and the USS Constitution on the yahoo liveaboard list and thought “hey, i remember reading that somewhere” 🙂 Thanks for the book…it helped out and got me pointed in the right direction.
Happy sailing.
Henrik

Hi Mark,
Got the book. Read the book. Liked the simple, matter of fact, KISS, presentation of facts and thoughts.
Mike

Dear Mark,
I am halfway through your book, and I’m getting excited about my fantasy to follow the warm weather on a boat in a year or two. I say fantasy because at this point it is unclear that I will be able to make the dream a reality. Thanks for writing the book. It really is a great help and push in the right direction
Sincerely,
Carol

Mark,
I bought your book “The Essentials of Living Aboard a Boat” a couple of months ago. I just wanted to drop you a line to say what a great read it was. I appreciated your dry wit, plus all the clearly presented information. The idea of living aboard came to me as a way of managing to afford to live in San Diego in a few years time (I love Tucson and the desert, but the ocean is a draw too). I think it’s a bit of a pipe dream really. I have no nautical background (though former generations on my father’s side were Thames lightermen…does that count?!) Levity aside, I think your book captured a very real impression of the challenges one would face in living aboard. I’m not suggesting it put me off. It did what you intended: informed me and suggested how to go about exploring the idea further in a realistic and practical way. Thank you for writing it.
Alexis

Hey Mark,
Thanks for writing a great book. I loved it.
Ken

Hi Mark
I finished to read your book, “essentiels of……..” I ‘m from argentina and there i live in many place and in diferent lifestyle, i was living for 3 years in a farm, there were my 5 dogs and me, and the nearest neiibord was at 10 miles, I ‘m founded a sailboat for these, it was a Catalina 27, in good conditions, i ‘m thinking in mooring for these i need to buy a solar panels, and a lot of things for it. Thank for write these book, i think thats it’s a very good tools to liveabord. more simply and understably, thanks.
Matias

Mark
I just finished reading your book and thought I would drop you a line to say how much I appreciated the thought and time that I am sure you put into the book.   My wife and myself are just in the preliminary stages of purchasing a boat with the expectation of living on it for a period of 2 to 3 years probably in the Bahamas.

After reading your book we are revised the spreadsheet we are using to concentrate on the hull, deck, engine with less attention to the electronics which as you so wisely have stated can be put in as needed.  But major work on the hull deck or engine would be extremely costly.
J. Michael White
Toronto, ON

Mark, I loved your book! I had it read in a very short time after receiving it. I will recommend this to anyone even thinking of this lifestyle. Its rare to find such an informative, to the point, from experience book on a topic. The facts were bitter sweet but I now have the info I need to make an educated decision.
Thanks.
Jeremy

Hello Mark,
We are now into our 4th year of living aboard. Your book was one of the first we read. Thank you. I have spent a good bt of time reviewing this site and your personal site. I have a passion for teaching and sharing. I have written a bit too. Several of my articles have been published. I just finished a detailed how-to article that I will be adding to our site, www.svBellaRose.com.
Again, thanks Mark.
Your Living Aboard Friend,
Rob

Hi Mark
Thanks for a great book. Thanks for creating this that made me scream YES! when I found it. A recipe for my dream out to the unknown! And now indeed -in addition to that the book was a great read and after three other books (you recommend)- as my savings are closing in to make my dream come true; everything has started to shape in writing, in budgets, check lists. I feel confident and even more inspired. Thanks a lot man.

By the way since the land of my origin just won the status of a country, I’d like to greet you as a Kosovar! Though I’ve  lived the last 18 years (I’m 29 now) in Norway. The land with a coastline twice the circumference of the Earth, and with amazing shores! Here in the heart of the capital, Oslo is a great marina too. Facing cofee shops with beutiful Norwegian women siping their drinks and dreaming for a boater to come and take them away. I’m sure! See you here someday?
Regards,
Ylber

Thank you for writing “The Essentials for Living Aboard a Boat”. My future boat mate and I found it to be so informative that we’ve begun to refer to it has “Our Bible”!
Bill

Mark, I loved your book. I sat down and read it in one weekend. I lived one summer on a 48’ Ocean Alexander in  New York at Chelsea Pier and after taking the boat to Florida, spent every weekend that winter on it. I loved it but t’was not my boat and my dear sweet captain passed away the following year. So I had a dream of going back onboard. Your book was so helpful in presenting a realistic financial picture. I just have to save more….
Thank you…
Jane

After reading more of your book I continue to be more and more impressed. I am a high school/community college teacher, author and have my own website and it amazes me that you cover so many issues which need to be addressed by anyone considering not only the liveaboard life but purchasing a larger boat of any kind. You must have spent a great deal of time researching and gathering information.

I have GREATLY changed my beliefs about a liveaboard because of your book and hope that it saves others the potential of great loss of money and stress as well. After rethinking my needs …
Don
Garden City, Ks

Hi Mark I would love to be able to say to you that I have realized my “dream” and living aboard, but sadly I can’t. I’m still pushing hard for it….maybe real soon. It will be hard to improve on or add to your book….you really covered so many aspects of the lifestyle.
Regards, Rod LI, NY

Mark.

Reading your book, Living Aboard A Boat, and talking to you on the phone was instrumental in my decision NOT to buy a boat.  Not for cruising and not for living aboard.  I chose instead to travel and see the country by automobile and to charter a sailboat with Capt/Crew when I desire to “go down to the sea. …

In March of 2007 we also spent a week in St,Lucia, W.I. where we went “down to the sea in sailing and motor craft, departing on day trips from the Windjammer Resort.  This is where your book and the questions you asked and the questions you told me we should ask ourselves, proved invaluable to us.  This is where and when we decided to “own the land and rent the sea.”  And we thank you for sowing the seed that provided the insight to make this decision.

With respects,
Michael

Hi Mark,
Id like to say “thanks”, your book has given my husband & I a lot of information. We have never owned a sail boat, we are vey excited to embark on the live aboard adventure in the near future. My husband’s sister lived aboard with her boyfriend for many months in Dana Point, Calif. They really enjoyed it, unfortunately her boyfriend’s father sold the boat and they are back to renting an apt. They would really rather be on a boat.

Lastly, thank you, thank you, thank you…For people like my husband & I, your book gives great insight for people who are searching for alternative ways of exsisting on this crazy planet!!!
Peace & Love,
Leah