It feels like its been awhile since we posted anything about our happenings…other than boat work. To be honest it has been a bit of a struggle for the last couple weeks and we wanted to share the experiences.

For those of you who think that this life is nothing but a fun vacation, drinking Mai Tai’s on a beach, relaxing, sailing around to exotic places and soaking up the sun; well so far, its been nothing like that. Although hopefully there will be some amazing trips, relaxation, glorious sites and lots of delicious rum drinks in the future, we aren’t there yet.

Nothing about living boat life is easy. I repeat…NOTHING. We knew it would be a lot of hard work AND sacrifice going into it. Especially in the beginning. This lifestyle comes with so many challenges and headaches (figuratively and literally with all the bumping around) that we could have never known until we started living it.

For starters, everything is work. From the moment you wake up on a boat there are so many things that have to get done. Even the normal day-to-day stuff is so much work.

Say you wanted a snack. If it required heating, you could grab it out of your fridge, throw it in the microwave and its done. You can leave the dish or dishes in the sink for later or throw them in the dishwasher and forget about them for days (or weeks).

On our boat its so much effort just getting food out of the tiny cramped compartment we call a fridge (which is more like a glorified cooler). We have no microwave, so we have to heat everything on the stove. To do this, we’d have to climb outside, turn on the propane, come back in, flip the solenoid switch, grab a lighter, light the stove and then stand there while the food cooks. You can’t leave anything cooking unattended because the risk of fire is much bigger on a boat. It can destroy it in a few minutes and leave you in a very catastrophic situation, especially when you are out on the water, miles from land and help.

Prepping a snack is a lot of work

Once finished, we can’t leave anything out because A. it takes up too much space and you need that space for some other project and B. anything left out will go flying once the boat is in motion. Since we don’t have running water yet (3 weeks!!!), we have to go outside to fill up water bottles from our 5 gallon jug, then climb back in and fill up both sinks with water (one w/ soap for washing, and one for rinsing). Then dry off with a towel and put back in its place. We can’t leave anything out or in the sink since we will likely need the space for storing things during the next project(s) of the day, so we have to clean everything up, every time.

And that’s just for a simple snack! If we wanted a real meal, the amount of steps involved triples because of the small space and limited resources we’re working with. There are a lot of moving parts to making a meal. There is no easy or lazy option. There are a grand total of 3 restaurants in this town. 2 out of 3 are only open on weekends or for a short time during the day. We have learned that they are overpriced and not very good. So the option to go out is not much of an option. Plus, we don’t have an unlimited amount of money, so even a decision to go out to eat is weighed heavily.

There are so many things that humans do in the average day-to-day life that are given very little thought. Things like showering, going to the bathroom, getting dressed require so little effort in land life and so much effort in boat life. There is very little storage and even less space to work with on the boat, so everything takes 5 to 10 more steps to complete.

Another kind of funny, but more annoying, thing about this boat world is that everything costs 30% – 40% more. The things we’ve come to expect from land life are a luxury in boat life. Things like running water, heat, air conditioning, a solid foundation that doesn’t leak when it rains, unlimited power, internet, television are just a few examples. If you want these things on a boat, you have to pay TOP DOLLAR (thousands) just for the ability to have luxuries. When something breaks in your house, you can call someone to come fix it (i.e. -plumber, electrician, etc). On a boat, your lucky if you can get someone to fix something within a week of your scheduled appointment and not charge you an absorbent amount of money for a service that is only “half-assed” at best.

It’s been a challenge to get a good night’s sleep on the boat. Right now our bed is a 27-year-old foam pad in the shape of a V. The bed is in a compartment and is about a foot shorter than we’d like in order to stretch our legs out completely. So sleeping has been less than stellar. (Note that we are having a luxurious new bed made that will be a bit larger and much more comfy, but still awaiting its arrival)

Our V-shaped bed. Soon to be made more comfortable and larger

The boat is lacking any kind of insulation, so when its hot its ROASTING and when its cold its FREEZING. Sometimes we can keep our hatches and port lights (windows) open during the night to let air in, but that comes at the price of noise. When it rains we have to seal everything up or else water will start pouring in, but that is at the price of extreme heat and humidity.

The marina is really loud. During the week, the workers start at around 7AM, so we are up at 7AM. Sometimes the weather and wind can cause other boats’ lines and gear to clang throughout the night (all of which we hear). It also causes our boat’s rigging to make noises that we aren’t used to. Generally in boat life, when you hear something abnormal, it is a big cause for concern. So we have been extra sensitive to any unusual sounds during bad weather, causing us to get up every hour to go adjust something on deck.

The other night it rained pretty heavily and sounded like water was leaking in everywhere. Jake and I were paranoid and would wake up every hour to check things. We did find several leaks, but the hardest part is that its not at all obvious where those leaks are coming from. Chalk it up to another project on the ever growing boat project list.

It has been hard to find energy to accomplish the things necessary from lack of sleep or extreme heat and humidity. We did pick up our A/C unit that came with our boat (it was in storage about 2 hours away), so that has been a nice treat. However we can’t run it too long or during bad weather, so its only been a temporary reprieve.

All these challenges have made boat life a very tough, exhausting, hot, sticky, humid, torturous transition.

We have asked ourselves a few times; Why did we decide to do this again? (then we laugh at how crazy it seems)

The crazy thing is that with all this time, we still haven’t been able to take our boat out to sail yet. We motored around once (12 days ago) but nothing since. We have been stuck at our marina because we had some unforeseen engine issues (though on a boat unforeseen issues is VERY common). Frustration only mounted because we planned several day sails and anchorage overnighters that we had to forego. It would be so great to just get away from everything and start living the life that we signed up for. But we have to wait until our engine parts arrive, hopefully Thursday and installed, hopefully Friday.

We have plans to take Bosco out this weekend and do a raft up across the bay with some friends. A raft up is when several boats tie up to one another and essentially form one giant platform. They create one giant party! If things go well, we may still be able to get out on Friday and stay out until Monday. It will be reinvigorating and give us a taste of some of the good of boat life.

This has been a test of our limits and our patience. Sacrifice and simplicity are what we wanted…and that comes at a price (a very steep one). But this is what life is about right? Evolution? We can’t evolve with struggle and sacrifice.

But it can still suck 😉