We have been living aboard for 10 days now. I can’t believe it’s actually been that long. The time is flying by. We’ve learned a lot of things since moving on board. For example we just learned how to take apart and clean a carburetor. We also recently learned which way the valve handle should be pointed to ensure we are pumping the toilet to the holding tank instead of overboard (oops– fortunately we haven’t really used it yet). But in addition to learning about our boat’s systems, we have also learned (or relearned in many causes) some valuable life lessons. Here are our 10 lessons learned from 10 days of living aboard.
Tag: let it breeze
A New Year, A New Home
Happy New Year everyone! We are officially liveaboards! We said goodbye to our very colorful beach apartment on Friday and moved all of our belongings on board Kairos. This was by far our most pleasant moving experience to date. It’s not such a dreadful and daunting task when everything you own fits in your car. Once on board we spent the remainder of the day organizing and developing storage solutions. We were both pleasantly surprised with how much we were able to bring on board. We still have some unused storage on the boat, which I plan to fill with new shoes and bathing suits (just kidding…kinda’).
And the New Name is…
When we adopted Jaela last year we decided right away that we would rename her. “Jaela” wasn’t as bad as Baxter’s pound name, “Coco Puff”, but we could come up with something better. After two days of reviewing dog (and people) name lists, we decided to stick with Jaela after all. It was just easier.
Operation Cushion Update: Completed
I am a domestic goddess! Okay, that’s a bit of a stretch, but we finally finished updating the salon cushions and they are divine. After reading Jody’s (Where the Coconuts Grow) DIY Cushions post and watching some Sailrite videos, I was convinced that updating our cushions would be a breeze. They made it look so easy. Who cares that I’ve never really sewn before? My recent throw pillow success had me filled with confidence.
One Step Forward…Two Steps Back
Well, we’ve had our boat for a week now and we’ve already learned that owning a sailboat is HARDWORK. We’ve been working very long days. The good news is that we are becoming very familiar with our boat’s systems. The bad news is that every time we fix something, we discover two more things that require maintenance in the process. We were testing the hot water heater, when our fresh water pump failed. We cleaned out the anchor chain locker only to find that the windlass and raw water wash down pump weren’t working. Thus, our to-do list is growing faster than we can cross items off.
Who Has 4 Thumbs and Owns a Boat???
These Guys!!!
It’s official. We bought a Pearson 39-2 sailboat. We plan to move onto this lovely lady in the Regatta Pointe Marina after the New Year. Until then, we will be dwindling down (and of course adding to) our to-do list. We are looking forward to taking her on some shakedown sails this weekend when Rob’s dad is in town to help.
Goodbye House
Okay, so that blizzard I wrote about in the last post WAS a joke. We didn’t get the 12 inches that was predicted…heck…I don’t think we got more than an inch. But it’s the last snow the dogs will see for awhile, so we went to the park to play.
Packing, Goodbyes, and a Blizzard
Mother Nature has decided to send us off with a bang. A BLIZZARD! It seems fitting that we shouldn’t be able to escape to 80F, sunny days without one last snow storm.