This is a belated post. We officially moved onto the boat Monday, April 3rd. This blog post was written in the week leading up to the move. Our next post will cover boat life since we moved onboard. Spoiler: so far boat life has been good.

Discomfort

We haven’t even moved onto the boat yet and we are all feeling discomfort. I think this is something we need to get used to. The circumnavigation edition of boat life means Sarah, Lillie and I will face a constant barrage of new and challenging scenarios. What we are experiencing now is just the beginning.

We are moving onto the boat this week. We are actively getting rid of the last of our things that won’t come with us onto the boat. We are fixing up various minor problems on the house, in preparation for its sale. We are, at the same time, preparing Spice for full time live aboard status. We are coordinating a major upgrade with a new solar arch. All of these things present daily logistics problems to work through. Where do we need to be? When do we need to be there? What decisions do we need to make today? How do we know if this is the right decision? Many boat decisions have safely-critical considerations, which adds to the stressful nature of this new life. None of this is routine. The lack of routine will create its own discomfort until we get used to it. The daily rhythm of life as we know it will be much different in just a few days.

Boat Chores

Lillie Gets Comfortable in the Water

Lillie is also taking on new challenges. Her most important assigned task was learning how to swim. Lillie spent nearly all three months of her swimming lessons crying. She listened to her teacher, she did most of the exercises well, but she cried just the same. She was uncomfortable and she was expending herself mentally and physically. She didn’t like it. But after a few months, at her final two lessons, she finally learned to love swimming. Her teacher allowed her more freedom to choose her lesson plan; Lillie said she wanted to learn backstroke. Lillie immediately got the kicking art down and was cruising fast across the water. Toward the end of the lesson, Lillie finally got to “spin spiral down”, which involves swimming under water, picking up toys and spinning around to swim back to the platform. In the end, Lillie cried at the end of the lesson, but only when we told her the lesson was over. I suspect (and hope) that we will all come out the other side like Lillie, loving the freedom of our life and being happy that we learned many new skills in order to get there. But right now, we’re dealing with our own discomfort.

Last Swim Class

Everything Must Go

Getting rid of things first and foremost takes a lot of work. Sarah has shouldered the burden of the vast majority of our minimization (AKA selling all of your shit) efforts. She has been at it nearly continuously for two years. Minimization has ramped up in the last few months, but thanks to Sarah’s proactive approach, our final minimizing efforts won’t be as chaotic or as rushed if I had used my methodology. My method mostly involves waiting until the last minute. We have managed to recoup funds and minimize waste by taking the time to find a new home for most of our things. Sarah and I haven’t felt much anguish over getting rid of our stuff. Lillie, on the other hand, has had a bit of trouble. She didn’t want to get rid of most of her toys. Over the last couple of years, some of her things would go missing from time to time, leading to sometimes awkward questions. “Where did my big legos go?”. I know Sarah is feeling overwhelmed and stressed dealing with the sell-off and preparing the house for listing. It doesn’t help that we’ve spent the last few nights sleeping on an air mattress in a house with no furniture.

Sleeping On the Floor

Boat Preparation

I am certain we are bringing too much stuff and not enough stuff at the same time. Too much stuff means too much weight. Too much weight is a problem for catamarans. We had to add solar power to the boat, so we can stay at anchor or go to sea for weeks. My arch design is much different than the factory design, I am worried again about the 350 lbs of new weight on the stern, as well as the potential for lines hanging from the boom to snag and destroy the arch and boat hull with it. We also replaced our 160 feet of anchor chain with 300 feet of new anchor chain, adding another 200 lbs. I was uneasy rigging up the swivel and anchor connection. The anchor and chain are critical hardware, they need to work when we are hiding in a safe harbor from 50 kts and higher winds. Normally, I wouldn’t ever sweat about this kind of rigging, but I’m feeling uneasy about the high-stakes of our new lifestyle. Having the family depend on my decisions and my workmanship makes me afraid.

New Solar

We have to prepare the boat for our world-cruise, including installation of 3 solar arrays. These guys are finishing the install of our first of three solar arrays. Now its up to me to wire it up.

I’m looking forward to getting past this transition phase and getting out to Port Townsend and the San Juans to meet friends, see whales and spend time relaxing.