It’s officially been one year since we’ve been living aboard, can you believe it? The time has sailed by (ha ha), except for this winter, which we’d really like to forget. We’ve settled in quite nicely, and now consider it totally normal to live on a boat, a major lifestyle change we approached with a bit of apprehension not too long ago. This was pretty obvious when we spent a few nights at the house not too long ago and spent all of our time in the living room – eating, sleeping, working – because we thought the rest of the house was too big. We’re talking a whooping 1200 sq. feet here. Pretty much sums up how much our perspective on things have changed. That, and the fact that I now instinctively go to throw my TP in the waste bin instead of the toilet, even when I’m on land. Eh, old habits.
Over the past year, we’ve learned a lot about the boat, ourselves and each other. We’ve done some pretty big jobs so far, like replacing the floor, rewiring the electrical panel, reupholstering the salon cushions, among so many other little projects that punctuate our days. And trust me…. we’re not even close to being done.
We’ve had to tweak the way we communicate with each other, or rather, how I communicate with Matt, since I often find myself on the losing end of understanding how stuff works on the boat. He tells me things two, sometimes three times, and most of the time they go in one ear and out the other. (Matt straight up schools me in all things marine related). I’ve found that I prefer the cooking/cleaning/organizing aspect of boat life in addition to keeping up with the blog. It sounds very June Cleaver, but I enjoy it. Honestly, I’d rather be whipping up something in the galley than poking around in the bilges any day. And here we thought we knew all there was to know about each other after 10 years together. Ha!
All of the things we’ve learned over the past year will hopefully help us on the next part of our adventure…. we’ve decided to head south to Bahamas, baby! Woo Hoo! We figured this is as good of a time as any to take a mini sabbatical to simultaneously lose ourselves and find ourselves all on the same trip. Being bums for a year sounds like a pretty good idea to us. Plus we’re not willing to spend another winter on the boat since the last one nearly broke us. We’re planning to leave in October, leaving us just 3 short months (!) to prepare the boat, and ourselves, for the journey. It’ll be here before we know it!
There’s no doubt that this next year will be even more amazing than the last. Cheers!
