Capt. Paul and I are officially less than a year and a half from throwing our dock lines for good and cruising full time. We have also been living aboard for 2 years now so I figured it was time to dust off the old blog and catch everyone up.
Two years of living aboard has taught me a lot of things, probably too many to mention in just one blog so I’ll just try to hit the highlights.
Most people think we live in a row boat.
One of the first questions people ask me, with a look of abject horror on their face, when they find out that I live on a boat is “What do you do when it rains???” I typically look at them patiently and try to reply with a minimum of sarcasm. “I go inside like most people do.” The usual follow up question is “Well, what if it gets really hot or really cold, then what do you do???” Again, patiently, as if talking to a small child, I respond, “I turn on the heat or the air conditioning.” From there, the little Q & A game goes on to include things like “My God, what do you eat? Where do you sleep? How do you shower?” Contrary to popular belief, we live on a 2 bedroom, 2 bath motor yacht with all the comforts of home and a view that most people would kill for.
People think we are either rich or poor, nothing in between.
Most people hear the word "yacht" and think "Well, it must be nice to be rich enough to own a yacht!" Technically, a yacht is any boat that is 40' or longer. Our boat is 41' so we just made it! Besides, if we were rich, we'd be living on a mega yacht!
On the other hand, some people just assume that a catastrophic financial hardship has befallen you and you can't afford your house anymore so you are forced to sell everything you own and live in squalor on the aforementioned upside down dining room table with a motor attached. I'm happy to report that there is some middle ground here. Some of us are lucky enough to have the freedom to choose this lifestyle, and the wherewithal to carry it out.
I've become obsessed with the weather.
While living on a boat is, for the most part, blissful, it is not without it's inherent dangers. Pirates & the occasional Kraken not withstanding, I would rate the weather as perhaps one of the biggest challenges that we have to deal with on a regular basis.
Some consider weather prediction a science, I consider it and those that predict it the equivalent of a 3 year old throwing paint on a wall and calling it art. I'm sad to say that I have learned in the last 2 years that weather predictions are seldom correct. Hence my need for numerous weather apps. I figure if I look at all of them and take the average I'd at least be 50% correct..... sometimes.
Tracking down strange smells or sounds is harder than it seems.
Unlike living in a dirt house, living aboard affords you the opportunity to get very intimate with all of the environmental systems on your boat. After the first month you are pretty much familiar and are used to all of the interesting sounds that your boat makes so you hardly even notice it. But, God forbid you hear an unfamiliar sound! All persons aboard spring into action to locate the source of the sound to insure lines haven't come loose, environmental systems aren't failing, or that the Kraken hasn't come a knockin'! This is often a comical scene because on a boat noises are omnidirectional and sound like they are coming from everywhere, much like the dreaded Kraken! It's very Keystone Cop-esque.
Again, unlike houses, boats have all of their environmental systems (heat, AC, plumbing, etc.) contained within so as not to pollute the waters we live in. While this is seems like a neat little package, it does require some maintenance to ensure that your tidy little waterfront home doesn't start to smell like a Jiffy John after a 3 day summer festival. We practically have it down to a science now but on rare occasions a strange smell will rear it's ugly head and thus begins the tedious task of sniffing every nook and cranny of the boat to determine it's origin. To my knowledge, Krakens don't have a distinguishing aroma so hunting down smells is not nearly as stressful has hunting down sounds.
Things are over rated. Scenery is under rated.
One of the other things we frequently get asked is "What did you do with all of your things???" Now this, my friends, is what separates the boys from the men, the girls from the women, and the fair weather boaters from the salty dogs. If you need "things" to make you feel good, define yourself, or otherwise give you security, then this is not the life for you. That is not to say that we don't have keepsakes or things of sentimental value, we've just pared it down to those of utmost importance.
We made the decision to move aboard full time in the fall of 2013, so we spent that entire winter going through all of our worldly belongings to decide what was really important to us. We digitized all of our photographs & music, made huge donations to charities, and gave the rest of it to family members. The house was sold the following April and we moved aboard full time in May of 2014. I am here to tell you that I don't miss that household of things in the least. As a matter of fact, I can't even remember what any of it was or why I even kept it. It turns out that finding that tattered girl scout sash with the meager 3 badges on it did not fill my heart with nostalgia and warm memories. It was merely a painful reminder of how much I sucked at girl scouting. It's embarrassing that I kept it for 45 years. Good riddance!
One of the best things about living on a boat is the scenery. It is the best vantage point to see Mother Nature's beauty and she never disappoints. Boaters are some of the most serene people you will ever meet and it's because they appreciate the simple things in life, like a breath taking sunrise or a stirring moonrise.
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ReplyDeleteRight you are sir! Because it's a mythical creature, it's a proper noun. My bad.
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