Vent away sir. Boat life is very different, has a steep learning curve, and as you have come to find out all marinas/towns/marine service centers are not created equal. You've taken the most dramatic step - no-boat to liveabord, and I think an even more dramatic step than many, the professional mariner to smallboat owner/operator. I'll comment on that below. Regarding the marina frustrations, help there is what the guidebooks and forums are for! They are definitely not all created equal. Additionally, in my neck of the woods, I've found that one person's recommendations do not necessarily suit MY idea of ideal. For example, I'm halfway handy. Some are not. A recommendation for a "GREAT" mechanic for me will be someone willing to talk technical details that I can bring a piece of equipment that I've removed from my boat that is beyond my ability to repair because I don't have the specialized shop or tools. But someone who relies on a mechanic to look at it, tell them if it needs to be fixed and to fix it and to get it done will have likely be talking about a different person than the person I rate as a "GREAT" mechanic.
You're going to have those substandard marina/town/marine operator experiences. They suck, try to look for intel on where you are going so you might be able to avoid or minimize your negative experiences.
Dirt life has evolved over years to make daily living convenient and easy. By default boat life is not that easy. At first. It will take time. How many collective or continuous have you had aboard? You're still in that learning curve of a major life change; and you're doing it alone!
I'm really curious to hear your introspective look (when you're in a better place) of the transition of professional mariner to small boat liveaboard. I see a lot of people in forums touting their long time captain experience when discussing their opinions on navigation or maintenance, but at the time they are posting on the forums they are usually decades into owning their trawler. You sir are going from a mega perspective on wind waves to a micro (my guess is that at work you think of 1-2 or 4-5 ft wind waves as roughly the same thing, nothing) one where now there is a HUGE difference. And also at work there is a crew, with a chief in charge of taking care of all these maintenance issues - likely to the point you never worry about them. As the single hand owner/operator/liveaboard - you have to do it all. One guy, provisioning, route/port/passage planning, fueling, business planning, preventative maintenance, emergency maintenance, navigation, helm, deckhand, etc.
While we're not liveaboards, we set up NWD as if it were our second home, not a boat we load everything on each time we take an overnight trip. We increasingly find going to the boat, working on her, traveling on her is easier and easier because she's ours, has our stuff how, where and in the manner we know and expect all the time, every time. Our stated goal is to show up with perishable food and leave. We're not quite there yet but getting close.
But like others have said, we all have your trials and tribulations. Right now NWD (again, my "second home") is sitting at the dock, unable to move due to steering and even if it did unable to keep us warm at anchor. I can't turn the helm because a steering pump is off and at home, it self destructed inside and needs major work, and I will probably have to replace it due to the damage. My diesel heater simply won't consistently work and we will likely have to break down and replumb the fuel lines (instead of running through the same filter array as the generator, it will have its own very short line with its own dedicated filter.
Think you've already seen you're not alone; not only do we all support you, we've all been there. First night at anchor on NWD we found the batteries draining before our very eyes. We tried running the genset during the night to keep my CPAP running and almost asphyxiated ourselves due to a failed exhaust hose. Then the one working toilet plugged, and we didn't know that the plunger the PO had on board wouldn't work on a marine toilet. And we'd already paid everybody for everything, it was our mess now.
Whether its a huge mistake remains to be seen - if boat life is not for you (or dirt life, or your career, or anything you do) is part of living. My guess is that the time and dreaming you've spend on this forum are a decent indicator of your passion for this life, and you have a steep learning curve that you probably hadn't anticipated would look the way it does for you.
I think one thing we can all agree on, we are all still jealous of the fabulously well found boat you've acquired.
You just need to learn her like a lover.
