Abord the Schooner Steven Tabor, which set sail from Rockland, Maine, the summer is completely booked.

Schooner Steven Tabor, Whisky Delta Bravo.

Captain Noah Barnes, like his parents before him, ushering in guests.

Welcome aboard the Steven Tabor. We're going to have a great time.

Vacationers pay just over $300 a night to eat, drink, and sleep aboard. Two, six, and pitch in.

Hoist the stage, Rizel. We've got pilots, and we've got lab techs, and we've got plumbers, and we've got cable installers, and we've got doctors, and the radiation tech, and we've got... And it's everybody.So.

Business is good.So.

Business is good.

Americans' summer travel budgets are up, up 18% overall from last year, and travelers are hungry for experiences. My cell phone went off and just got thrown into the cabin, and it was It was wonderful. It was the first time in so long that we just chilled out. Below deck.

We are in the galley of the Spooner Season Caber. Today, I'll be cooking breakfast for about 26 people, including crew, And, yeah, just another morning in paradise.

Chef gray Littaker serves it up.

We're having Blueberry Dutch Baby. We're having a maple sausage that is from a small in Iowa.

What's this job like?

Well, it's basically cooking all day long inside of a shaking box. You must love boats. Yes. It's a prerequisite for the job is must love boats.

Vendors, please.

Barnes says the cost of marine materials he uses, like paint, varnish, and wood, has risen 46% since 2019. Collectively, the rising costs are a challenge he has to pass along to passengers, he says.

I don't worry about our product. I worry about staffing. I worry about the cost of materials.

Do customers balk at the higher prices or they're still coming?

We haven't seen a dip. I don't think we've met the place where people are resistant to pay it, but we don't want to find that spot.

Do you search for deals? Do you have to search for deals?

I do the best I can to search for deals. Sometimes you're hamstrung by the realities of the market.

To maintain crew, Barnes has raised wages and even added to his team. His overall payroll increasing more than 50% since 2019.

We feel a responsibility to make sure our crews are taken care of and that they can afford to be here and that we can afford to hire the best candidates who come our way.

Even still, gray and several deckhands live aboard when they aren't sailing. Housing costs on the mainland, out of reach. The average price of a home here has nearly doubled in the last five years.

I couldn't find anything. I couldn't find anything. I found a bedroom in someone apartment that was my entire fit-out housing budget for one month, and it was a bedroom. It was phenomenally expensive. Staying on the boat just made economic sense.

gray sleeps here under the stairs.

I was here when it was still snowing on an unheated boat.

Because the housing market is so tough here, you slept on the boat unheated in April and May while you were getting ready? Absolutely.

That's an adventure. Rainshine, no heat, no insulation, just bundled up. Got a better sleeping bag. You can learn a lot about today's economy aboard a 115-foot wooden schooner built when Ulysses Grant was President.

Right now, we are in the Fox Island thoroughfare between Vinal Haven and North Haven, and we've got some thunderheads coming our way. We're going to reduce sail and stand by to drop the hook, drop the anchor right over here in North Haven Village.

Finish this sentence for The American economy is...

Seems to be doing just fine from where we're sitting. Well, there's something about this experience, just being out in the weather, being outside, being in good company. It reminds people the important things. There's good food, there's cool boats, a little bit of music.

A contrast on deck. For so many, affordability a challenge, even while travel and leisure are booming. Christine Romans, NBC News, Rockland, Maine.

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