Remembering that we moved aboard in June 2014 we now (October 2016) have almost 2 1/2 years under our belts. So at this point here are answers to the common questions we hear:
- Do you miss not having a house and yard?
- Clarice expected she might miss her yard and garden. During our 40 years together we have gone from 5 acres with a very large vegetable garden and a private forest to a "small" yard with a couple of terraced gardens in town at our last house. She even started an herb garden when we moved on the boat just in case she needed to weed something and feel some dirt under her nails. She is now down to a mason jar with some sprouts in it and is happy as a clam.
- I miss having a hot tub. I have some neurological damage to my lower spine that results in aching legs and the only thing that seems to really calm them is hot water. Our answer is to seek out a marina or hotel with a hot tub when I need a break and the boat (or marina) shower is not cutting it.
- We do NOT miss having a lot of room to live in except on rare occasion when I get a bit of cabin fever (but that happened in the house as well - its just part of my nature to not be a sit still person).
- Does the boat rock a lot?
- No - we are moored fairly far back in a well protected marina. We also have a full keel and weigh 60,000 lbs so we will notice the wind moving our neighbor's boat long before we move much at all. In reality we enjoy the sound of rain on the hatch over our sleeping berth as well as the movement when it does occur and sleep well.
- Are you afraid of storms?
- We feel safer in the boat than in a house with a tree next to it or a river that might flood. The strongest wind we have weathered in the marina was 60 knots last winter. The noise of the wind through the rigging of other boats was LOUD and I felt obligated to wear a life preserver when walking on the dock in case I got blown off balance. We worried about other boats but ours felt quite secure.
- What adaptations did you have to make?
- Rule #1 (#2, and #3) - any purchases must be CAREFULLY evaluated for space considerations. Buy ice cream - it better be a small container that will fit in an open space in the freezer. Buy a new shirt - which old shirt is going off the boat. Furniture is for window shopping only. Kitchen gadgets better have MANY uses. Tools must be multi-functional and have a planned storage space. Etc. , etc..
- Don't you get tired of being in such close proximity to each other all of the time?
- Clarice and I are pretty blessed with really liking each other. We have never really had a problem being together for long periods.
- What do you do for exercise?
- We live next in a marina and park area where other people come to walk. We have to walk 1/2 block to take out the garbage or take the dog for a walk. Our mailbox is about 1/4 mile away. In a real sense we have more opportunity for exercise living where we do. Even I have found that "boat yoga" (AKA working in challenging locations in the engine room) has improved my flexibility a bit.
- Where to you get mail?
- A local marine hardware has rental mail boxes.
- What about overall costs?
- The answer needs to be qualified a bit. We are paying our mortgage ahead as fast as we comfortably can so that we will hopefully own the boat outright in about 1 1/2 years. We also put a lot of money into upgrades and repairs as we want to feel that she is fully blue water ready in another 1 1/2 years. Our moorage in a very nice marina (including all utilities and parking for the car) comes to about $800 / month. Insurance on the boat is not a huge amount more than homeowners insurance was for the house. All in all we are probably spending about the same or a bit more than we did when we lived in the house (and seemed to always be remodeling a rental or some other project).
- What about fuel costs?
- Filling the tanks if they were all empty would amount to a fair hunk of change as we can carry 1000 US gallons. In reality our fuel costs are very low. We recently got our 2500 nm pennant which means that in almost 2 1/2 years we have not even used a single fuel load (about 3000 nm worth). We tend to get down about 250 gallons and then fill a single tank when we see fuel at a good price. (When we were considering buying the boat we planned on $4 / gallon - the price has been consistently much lower since we made the purchase with our most recent purchase being about $2 / gallon.)
- Does Jarvis still seem happy?
- Jarvis seems to have fully adapted to boat life. He considers the whole marina park to be his private territory (which needs to be well marked daily - roll eyes). He also has a lot of admirers that know him and he knows he can get a petting session from if he greets them when they pass. It is interesting to us that he clearly recognizes our marina and gets very excited as we come up the river when we have been out for a while..
- Where do you plan to go on you retire?
- We hope to retire in 2018 and will likely head north. We have fond memories of doing the inside passage in our 26 ft sailboat but could only take a month and were always concerned about fuel consumption and where we could get the next fill. We plan to go and take time investigating many little coves and villages. We wont be surprised if we over winter in SE Alaska and then take another year to do Prince William Sound. At some point we will get to warm water but the remoteness of northern latitudes has great appeal to us and Salish Aire is able to take us there in comfort.
- How long can you go before you have to empty your holding tanks?
- We have about 50 gallons of capacity divided between two tanks. We usually plan on pumping the tanks about every 5 days. We carry about 250 gallons of fresh water and have a water maker so fresh water capacity is never an issue.
- So final question: Why do you like living on a boat?
- We find it a comfortable and cozy tiny house. When we lay down to sleep at night it feels like we are in our comfortable little cave (why do people want 400 sq ft master bedrooms?????) and Jarvis snuggles into his kennel at the foot of the bed and all is well. It gives us the ability to go out boating with about 15 minutes of preparation time. We have a pleasant neighborhood and know more of our neighbors here than we did after 10 years in our house. We always were jealous of people with a waterfront view who could look out and see the water and boats and the surrounding mountains - now we live in a gated community and are part of their multi-million dollar view. In summary it is a home that meets our needs and interests that we are comfortable in and very proud to show off.
