how do you get mail living on a boat

When planning to cruise for months or even years at a time, a big question people have is How do I handle my mail? 

Living on a boat is an alternative lifestyle that takes preparation and an ability to roll with changes! There are a variety of ways you can receive your mail living on a boat full-time.

How do we personally get a hold of our letters and packages?getting mail living on a boat

When choosing your preferred mailing method, you must evaluate your lifestyle while living aboard.

Getting Mail on a Stationary Boat

Most people use a marina office to receive mail. Some other boaters use their home address, if they have an actual “address” associated with their boat. Since we sail to different places frequently and aren’t always docked at one specific marina, we prefer to use our P.O. box located in Florida. 

Traveling Often? Get Mail with a P.O.Box

By using our P.O. box, we have the freedom to travel without having to worry about where our mail is being sent daily. While we are away on our adventures, our mail and packages get shipped to our P.O. box. They are held there for only $15/month until we are able to retrieve it all. The man that owns the Mailroom Plus we use is amazing! If we have packages waiting and need them delivered to us somewhere along the way he consolidates them for us and ships the items wherever we need. 

Using USPS General Delivery

USPS General Delivery can be another great option to receive mail while living on a boat. General Delivery is a mail service for those without a permanent address, often used as a temporary mailing address. We have used USPS General Delivery in Puerto Rico and the USVI’s. First, you must find a USPS location that participates in General Delivery. You then address your package as follows:

NAME
GENERAL DELIVERY
CITY STATE ZIP

Keep an eye on your tracking information because USPS will not hold on to your package for more than 30 days (sometimes less in particular locations).

You can find out more about USPS General Delivery here.

 

How to Get Large Packages Shipped Internationally

Shipping large packages internationally can get extremely expensive.  We recently used Tropical

get mail by boatshipping located in Miami, Florida.  Tropical is a very affordable option compared to using larger shipping companies like Fed-Ex because with Tropical you are essentially renting unused space in a shipping container on a cargo ship.

The process of using Tropical Shipping’s one-time consolidation service includes the following:

Email customercare@tropical.com to request a quote for your package size and delivery location to make sure it is an affordable option in the area you are in.

Fill out a one-time consolidation request form and email it to TropicalLCL@tropical.com so you can be assigned a representative to handle your packages.

The representative will give you a unique address to have your packages shipped to. You must also provide tracking information and invoices for every item.

Once all packages arrive at Tropical and are consolidated you will receive a bill of lading followed by a notification of arrival. You can either pick up your package at the Tropical warehouse or have them deliver it to you at a marina.

Our package took about a week to be shipped from Florida to St. Martin in the Caribbean and it cost us around $270 to have 16 packages consolidated and shipped. Some of the prior quotes we received from FedEx and UPS were closer to the $1,000 range.

If you ever wondered how we get mail while living on a boat, we hope this blog cleared things up a bit! Living and adjusting to boat life can be challenging at times, but there is always a solution – even for receiving your mail.