I mentioned in my post about our two weeks in Boston that we’d changed our address to SBI in Florida and for the generic stuff we had our USPS mail forwarded from our Portland Maine Apartment to my Parents’ house also in Maine. Over the years we’ve had a number of mailing solutions and there are a number of ways to get your mail when you’re nomadic that all have their pros and cons but I think you’ll discover why we went with the professionals.

The first and what seems like the easiest is that you can send your mail to friends or family. After having filled out the forwarding form at the post office to have our mail sent to my parents’ house I can say that the “all mail forwarding” to the family is a bad idea. My parents quickly became overwhelmed and since we’re only there a few times a year they don’t know what to send us or what not to send us. Now for packages that might be back-ordered or orders that we’d like them to drive to us when we’re in the area it works well. We had kayaks and solar panels mailed to their house both of which were back ordered for months. And most recently we had our new VHF/AIS radio sent to them for the same reason. Single packages work well with family. Just not the “Flood” of everything.

We’ve also used a PO Box when we were in a place for a while. It sounds like a good idea and if you’re at anchor it can be a good way to get mail. But honestly, it’s a bit limited and we only did it once and never really used it.

The UPS Store box rental is a bit more versatile than the USPS box in that they will receive more than USPS mail and if you find a good UPS Store that you like they will relay your mail to you from time to time. This can work well if you’re attached to your home base or really love your independent UPS Store owners. We gave up our UPS Box after our first summer in Portland. While I love the ladies who run the shop I just wasn’t going to be calling them every week or two to check in on my mail. That said I think the UPS Stores have a huge opportunity to fill this need if they ever decided to.

The solution that works for us is to simply go with St. Brendan’s Isle in Green Cove Springs Florida. They’re so professional, so nice, and they are the absolute wizards at getting you what you need no matter where you are. We now get 90% of our mail sent there with just a few things sent to my parents and of course all of the junk mail that seems to have followed me through that USPS New Address form that you file with the Post Office.

SBI as it’s affectionately known will scan the outside of every bit of mail that comes in and send you an email. You can then log in, see the envelope, and then choose between scan, shred, or send. And where then do you have them send your mail? Well if you’re at a marina that is the obvious choice and if you’re at anchor there are three options that work for us. The first and most common for us is to use a “UPS Access Point” these are most common at CVS Pharmacies and you can receive your packages there for FREE best of all you can pick up a treat when you are there to enjoy on your way back to the boat. The second most common for us is to use either a UPS Store or another similar store such as Mailspot Express which we use when we are in Provincetown. These options typically charge between $3 a box as is the case at Mailspot Express to $10 a box at some UPS Stores. The third option is to use General Delivery at the local US Post Office. BUT if using General Delivery it’s best to visit or call the specific post office BEFORE you have anything sent. Not all post offices do general delivery anymore, or at least not all of them LIKE doing it. It’s best to find out first.

Best thing with the SBI service is that we can give friends and family that address and they can send us whatever they’d like without needing to know where we are which can make it helpful near birthday time if we’re roaming with the weather and don’t know where we’re going to be.