Live aboard life for us? Well, there are things you don’t know until you go. All in all, it has been a great experience so far. There have been ups, and there have been downs. But, as the saying goes, “a bad day on the boat is usually better than a good day at the office.”

Some of the good and bad, thus far …

Sunrise, sunset, stars, interesting people and places, something new each day, cycling, kayaking, walking everywhere! Days we get to sail and even those that we motor.

Less connectivity is nice, but yet need better access to wifi when needed (something we want to fix but have not spent time on it yet).

Laundry is not my favorite, but then again, I’m usually sitting by a pool while it is running, so how can I really complain.

Have done some great cooking on the boat, but keeping it light and simple. Don’t want to eat out as much, but finding it hard not to enjoy the local cuisine and new eateries. Have not found that balance yet. We are usually spending a minimum of three days away from any town, so that allows more boat meals.

Stinging nettles are interrupting my swim plans …. Very bad!

Need more space on the boat. We definitely have brought more stuff than we need, so we will be dumping stuff before the trek South in the Fall. Would like to have better space for guests as well.

The detour from our trip further North has resulted in having to endure warmer weather than I wanted (Howard likes the heat though). It’s ok, but results in not leaving Caleb on boat so limits places we can go together. Recent cooler temps have helped in that regard.

One thing we feel for sure … for now, we want to continue this lifestyle of living on a boat. The question is what type of boat. We know Dreamer is not it for long term and our plan now is to start researching what it is we really want to do and what’s the best boat. Lots of questions and things to figure out. One of the bigger discussions we’ve been having is “sailboat or trawler?”. I know, I know, we are sailors! But, in a live aboard lifestyle, we are finding it is not about sailing but rather exploring and doing. Over the last 3 1/2 months, we have only been able to sail about 8 days. Yes, we could sail more if we chose sailing over destination. But, then, there is no reason to be out here. We can sail everyday from one port, and go back to that same port if sailing is all we want to do. It is nice to have the option to sail when you can, though, thus save on fuel (and we do love it when we can). And, of course, overall cost is a big factor as well.

We are going to start looking at options as we progress over the next year and during our trip down the ICW starting in the Fall. Maybe it’s just a bigger sailboat? There will be pros and cons to whatever choice we make, I’m sure. And, surely lots of discussions with our sailing crowd about the topic as well. More to come on that … we look forward to the voyage.