Living: Boat People, American-Style

Live-aboards, hide-aboards and work-aboards

"If I wanted structure," argues Travis McGee, "I'd live in a house with a Florida room, have 2.7 kids, a dog, a cat, a smiling wife, two cars, a viable retirement and profit-sharing plan, a seven handicap and shortness of breath." McGee, of course, is the swashbuckling hero of 18 John D. MacDonald mystery novels who lives on a houseboat, The Busted Flush, that he won in a poker game. His aversion to structured, land-based predictability is shared by an ever growing number of Americans who live year-round on their boats.

From ocean to ocean and at...

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