If you are the type of person who loves the smell of salt breeze in the morning and the gentle rocking motion of the sea, then life on the ocean waves could be just for you. If you don't want to join the Navy and spent weeks and weeks at sea, then owning your own boat could be just for you, and this will allow you to get out on the ocean waves whenever you feel like it. If you are affluent enough to afford your own boat, you may consider getting a nice sailing boat, a luxury motor cruiser or a speedboat.

I personally would not choose a sailing boat, although I can see the appeal of using the power of the wind and the sea to quietly and calmly cut through the open sea. The problem I have with this is I would want my time at sea to be lazy, and having to constantly trim the sails does not sound exactly lazy.

I would probably not select a speedboat over a motor cruiser though; although a speedboat would be lots of fun. The thing about racing boats is they have no luxury to them. It’s just a way of travelling across the open sea at high speed, which of course is fun and can be necessary when you're in a hurry. The other thing about racing boats is they are often open topped which leaves you open to spray and the weather, which let's face it is not nice if you are either getting soaked by the precipitation or getting fried by the sun.

I would have to choose a luxury motor cruiser to cruise the open sea, as it would be something not too big, with a couple of luxurious rooms that would have space for me and my girlfriend and a couple of friends. Also, it would have to be rapid when I wanted it to be, but also nice and smooth and a peaceful cruiser most of the time.

Before you go out and buy a boat of your dreams there is one very important thing to think about and that is money, as any sort of boat is not cheap to buy and run. A small rubber inflatable can set you back as much as a thousand euros. Large boats like racing boats, sailing crafts and motor boats tend to start in the tens of thousands of euros for a small second-hand one and this can rise to millions of millions of euros for large oceangoing ones.

Once you have bought a boat of your dreams the expenditure do not stop there, as frequent maintenance is required to keep the boat seaworthy. Simple things like wiper blades are more expensive, and replacement wiper blades have to be bought constantly as the salt attacks the rubber wiper blades and the metal frames. My tip to minimize the money spent on replacement wiper blades is to buy flat wiper blades made from silicone. These wiper blades may be one of the costly on the market, but you make your money back and more by not having to buy them as frequently. This is because of the design of the flat wiper blades, there is no metal frame to rust and because they are made from silicone, the salt water will not break them. Another thing to consider is fuel costs as nowadays fuel is not cheap and only seems to go up and up, so it is always best to shop around for the best price. It is necessary to remember you cannot just pull over and then walk to the nearest petrol station when you run out of fuel in the middle of the Ocean.