ADJUSTING TO BOAT LIFE
It has been a little over 3 months since we sold our land home and finally made the move onto Escapade. At the time, it felt like an overwhelming process. Going through everything we had accumulated over the years and determining what was important to us and what could go is a tough task. For those planning to move aboard from a land home, we would encourage you to start early. One recommendation – if you have a box that hasn’t been opened in 5 years, do not open it just throw it out. You don’t need it until you open it. The process takes a lot longer and is not only physically draining but mentally and emotionally draining as you sift through hundreds of items that elicit memories of times past. Organizing all of our stuff and further assimilating to limited space in the middle of winter with 3 dogs that were very used to a doggy door and yard was also no picnic! But here we are 3 months later and life is pretty darn good! Sure having a house, garage, yard, and tons of space is great, but now that we have finally made the move, it’s been an adventure we are enjoying.
The first week of being a liveaboard was a little harrowing. Escapade had been in for repairs and upgrades which included a new muffler/sound dampener/heat blanket, bow thruster, engine mounts, shaft alignment, props tuned, new inverter, cutlass bearings, electrical wiring cleanup, backup stand alone charger, flybridge canvas replacement, new bug screens, crane circuit board rebuild and stabilizers rebuilt with new control panel, circuit board and rams. The day our house closed is the day we were able to get the boat back! Things just take 3 times longer than anticipated on a boat!
Here is a picture showing the condition of our 21 year old muffler before replacement.
So our first night living on the boat we spent cleaning and putting everything back in order, we were exhausted after picking Escapade up and bringing her home from SeaView Boatyard. We tucked her in to her liveaboard slip and promptly hit the rack. Morning came and the Captain went to flush the head and nothing happened. Thinking perhaps the water pump went out and needed to be reset, he found a fitting had come loose in the water system. We had emptied about 200 gallons of water into the bilge. Neither of us heard a thing! We are normally very intune to any bilge pump noises or unfamiliar sounds, but we must have been so exhausted that we slept right through it. Thankfully the bilge pump worked great and did its job! Not exactly the way we would like to test the system but grateful none the less.
A couple days later the Captain left early to catch his train into Seattle for W-O-R-K and just after getting out of the shower, I heard a loud bang and felt the boat viciously rock. Throwing on a housecoat I went running out to see what was going on, only to find a boat had hit the bow of our boat while trying to turn into the fairway to dock. The canvas covering the aft cockpit was stuck on our bow pulpit and anchor. Everytime they tried to go forward their aft swimstep would be pulled back into our boat. Eventually the canvas ripped, freeing them from the front of Escapade. Later we learned these were new boaters, boating in the dark, on one engine because the other was out, no insurance and they were at the wrong marina. Long story short, they had purchased a somewhat derelict boat to fix up. Fortunately there is minimal damage to our bow, but that was quite the ordeal at 6am in socks and a housecoat in the middle of November!
We will soon be going on 4 months living on the boat. Life has normalized and Escapade feels like home and not just a haven we escape to on the weekends. We no longer mention how nice it was to have a garage or yard. We have become accustomed to this new lifestyle of walking alot, donning foul weather gear, carting our groceries to the boat, walking a 1/4 mile just to get to the car, trains, freeway noise, and city life, but mostly that peacful feeling that living on the water brings. When the water is flat as glass and and the morning sun paints a glorious picture that takes your breath away along with the freedom to change our scenery if we so choose, we feel very blessed. Mike will be retiring at the end of March, and I plan to do the same in the not so distant future. Then the real fun will begin!
SO WHAT’S IN THE FUTURE?
We have our shake down cruise planned for early summer and plan to circumnavigate Vancouver Island. If all goes well, in 2025 we will continue our dreams of Alaska, Mexico and beyond. Stay Tuned…
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