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?
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
shipping 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.
Where can I send you some things (tools) that I think you could use? Can you please give me your PO Box address? I am a 71 year old guy that has always been a do it yourself type, and like watching you two figure things out, and work together to solve problems.
I only to use a marina office to receive mail. But it is difficult to receive mail on long journeys. Thanks for your tips, I’ll try them.
Only discovered your YouTube videos last night. I was BLOWN AWAY to see you launching the trimaran from the boat ramp in Wareham, where my brother launched his MacGregor 36 cat in the early 80’s. Then, you motored to the mooring off Cromesett Point, a few hundred yards from where Brian moored his boat!
Brian passed away from cancer at the end of summer ’83, aged 38. I’m now retired and preparing to sail my own Newick Tremolino and, in tribute to my big brother, will launch from that spot to begin my own Sailing Adventure.
Thank you for the great video!
Cheers, Bruce
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