Catamaran moored at Kedah, Malaysia

About Saltwater Journal

Welcome to Saltwater Journal — a modern adventure lifestyle publication for lovers of sailing, good design and the great outdoors. Here you’ll find the most helpful information you need to learn to sail, buy a boat and live aboard, with incredible sailing destinations and stories to inspire your own sailing journey.

 

Masthead

Tara Cooney, Founder + Editor | tara@saltwaterjournal.life

 
 

Saltwater Journal History

Saltwater Journal was created to help make sailing and living aboard more accessible and welcoming to all ocean lovers, regardless of background, location or sailing experience. Here you’ll find a wealth of original content to inform and inspire readers to get outside and explore the world around them.

Editor — Tara Cooney enjoying cruising in Ko Phi Phi, Thailand

The Beginning

Sometimes in life, you know you need to make a big change to how you’re living — that was me and my husband in 2017:

  • Living in a rental home fed up with paying someone else’s mortgage

  • Stressed with work and living inland

  • Craving time on and in the ocean (we’re both ex-PADI Dive Instructors)

  • Loved the idea of buying a yacht to live on and learning to sail

  • Wanting to do something different — something exciting!

We researched as much as we could, but a lot of the information online was for offshore sailing, or was out-dated, and didn’t give me insight into what it would actually be like living onboard, or how to make a yacht feel like a home. And at that point, I didn’t know a lot of sailors. But I found Sailing La Vagabond who had just started YouTubing from their monohull and I was completely sold on the adventure, the challenge and the freedom that sailing could offer. It’s a pretty big leap to go from selling everything you own (mostly), to living on a boat, but a job opportunity came up in a new city — which was where our ideal boat was moored — so we did it.

2017 — We just bought our first yacht!

2017 — We just bought our first yacht!

My crew and family

The crew — my whānau, family

Are we crazy?!

Buying a boat is a huge investment (regardless of your budget), and you don’t want to make a bad decision — I get it ! We borrowed $40k to buy a yacht to live on without ever having sailed. Some of our friends and family thought we were crazy to be moving onto a boat to live full-time. It’s a complete change of lifestyle, and they asked us:

  • How would we cope living in such a small space?

  • Won’t we miss all our things we sold?

  • What did we know about sailing?

  • What if we hated it?

  • How could we afford it?

  • Where would we shower?

  • What would it be like living in a Marina?

These were also the questions I asked myself too. And of course, we hoped we hadn’t made a big mistake, but deep down, we knew we were making the right decision. Now, we’ve been living aboard happily for five years, I can give you the answers to those questions and many, many more.

I can say 100% that buying a yacht to live on has given us three important things:

  1. Financial freedom

  2. More connection with nature

  3. Adventure

Now I share our plans and experiences, and answer important money questions like:

Personal insight

Buying a yacht isn’t for everyone though — especially living on a small 34ft yacht like ours, that doesn’t have a lot of cabin space or a shower! So I want you to know what to expect, and to have all the information you need to make the transition from living in a house, to learning to sail, or living on a boat. If you’re like me, you also want the details — the good, the bad, and the ugly, so I’ll be sharing this with you here too. In addition to practical tips and guides, here you’ll find an unfiltered account of our own sailing experience. It won’t always be pretty, but you’ll know it’s real.

Marine industry experience

I share from my professional experience within the Marine Industry, as an Assistant Marina Manager at one of New Zealand’s top marinas. So if you’re here for practical questions about living in a marina in New Zealand, great!

Learn about topics such as:

  • Boat insurance

  • Electrical Warrant of Fitness (EWOF)

  • Mooring techniques

  • Local navigation

  • Hauling out and hardstand facilities

  • Finding good contractors

Everyone’s an expert

In the sailing world (particularly if you hang out in a marina), you’ll soon find that everyone has their own way of doing things, and their own opinion on how you should do things too. It’s the same online too and I guess it’s what makes life interesting!

So, I’ll be drawing on best marine practice in New Zealand, with contributions from industry professionals I trust, combined with personal experience to give you a well-rounded guide to the sailing lifestyle.

A safe community

It can be daunting starting out when you’re new to sailing. We’re grateful to the strong community spirit which leads boaties to share their experiences and give each other a hand to learn something new. Saltwater Journal is a safe community, where you can ask any question you like! In fact, if you have a question or a topic you’d like covered — please contact me and let me know.

Jan 2019 // Motuara Island, New Zealand — 41°05.5′S 174°16.5′E

Jan 2019 // Motuara Island, New Zealand — 41°05.5′S 174°16.5′E

Follow your sailing dreams

I want to end with a personal story — it’s shaped how I live my own life and make my own decisions.

It’s about the heartache of lost opportunities and the frailty of life. You see, my Dad loved sailing — in fact he and Mum had started building a yacht and were gonna sail around the world with us kids. At 9 years old, the last thing I imagined was that Dad would suddenly pass away. My world turned upside down. To this day, I'm still clutching on to the handful of memories I have of him. His laugh. The way he drummed his fingers on the table. The time we caught the train to the movies together, and we ate Jaffas and watched Crocodile Dundee, and then swam in hotpools — the coolest day out ever. The photo below is one of my favourites (Dad’s in the yellow jacket, my Uncle —another old salt — in the blue).

I think Dad would be proud that I’m a salty kid too.

I think Dad would be proud that I’m a salty kid too.

You know life’s short too, right? So if you wanna buy a boat, or liveaboard — today’s the day. Explore the Journal, learn, and let’s make it happen.

And if you’d like to talk — I’d love to hear from you.

Tara Cooney smiling on top of mountain range in the rain

Partner with Saltwater Journal

A partnership with Saltwater Journal offers a chance to connect with enthusiastic sailors and boaties worldwide, who appreciate great design and high-quality, environmentally sustainable products. Want a product review? Or advertise, contribute, suggest an article update, or just say "hi"? Give me a shout here: tara@saltwaterjournal.life