S/V Adventurer

I know I've said this about a million times, but I am going to say it again...we are pretty lucky. We are floating in our home in one of the most beautiful areas on the face of the earth. We don't exactly feel like we are on vacation because of all of the needed attention that the boat has thrown at us this past week, but we still don't have to go to work. I can still sleep in as long as I want, I can go to bed when I feel like it, and I can eat cookies all day long (if Brenda would let me). Retirement is good. We anchored our floating home next to Spencer Spit on Lopez Island and decided that this spot was as good as any to get caught up on boat projects and drift back into boating life. The first few days flew by because of the barrage of needed boat projects that were required after 9 months of sitting in the storage yard. We had to put the sails back on the boat so we at least resembled a sailboat, we swabbed the poop deck to wash off 9 months dirt and grim...

Compared to the average American (or 'Merican as they say in Texas), we live pretty simply. Everything we own can just about fit into a normal sized closet. Even with our lack of the typical 'Merican's stuff, it took us a handful of days to move out of our home on wheels and back into our floating home. A handful of days to move seems like an awful long time to move all of our junk from one tiny space to another, but in the process, we had to strategically pack that junk so it doesn't go flying across the boat in rough seas, we had to get the RV put away in storage, and we had to run some needed errands while we were in the big city. We stocked up on food and supplies since there isn't a grocery store or a marine parts store on every corner up in the islands, we had to scoot all over town to replace our spare parts that we used up last summer, we picked up some doo-dads to make some needed improvements on the boat, and we did our best to visit with family and f...

We have pretty good friends. Since our friends are good people and good people like to hang out with other good people, for the most part, our friends have pretty good friends. Sometimes we meet a friend of a friend and want to punch that person in the throat because they are driving us absolutely nuts, but in general, a friend of a friend is a friend of ours. Every once in a while we meet a friend of a friend that really strikes a chord with us. It could be because they have an interesting back story or maybe they have similar interests as us or it could just be that we are meant to have an adventure together. It's hard to say why people connect, but sometimes we just do. If you have been following along this constant stream of rambling that I have been putting out for the last year, you may know that we just went on a white water rafting trip with some good friends from Seattle and their good friends. While we were on this little rafting adventure, we got to talk...

In my working life, I had a list that helped me make it through my day. Every morning I would get to my office early so I could have a few minutes to review my list and plan my day before the rest of the guys showed up and before the phones started ringing and the emails started flying. I couldn't seem to get everything accomplished that needed to happen on any given day without that list. It seemed that there was just too much to do and my measly brain couldn't keep up with it all if I didn't have the list to keep me straight. The list would grow as new tasks popped up and I would get satisfaction out of crossing a completed item off of the list. It kept me organized and efficient. A little over a year ago, when we left our home in Seattle to head out on our big adventure, I had made another list. This list that I am going to tell you about wasn't “The List” that all boaters have and that all boaters detest. If you are a boater, you know exactly what I am...

Now that we have a full year of traveling under our belt, I feel like we are getting pretty good at it. I feel like we have accomplished a lot in our first year and we have figured out some pretty important stuff. The main thing that we figured out is that we like it. I take that back, we love it. We have also figured out a good rhythm that works for us. It's a rhythm that has no rhyme or reason, but a rhythm nonetheless. We cant seem to plan anything, we freak out at the sight of a commitment, and we panic when we think of going back to work. I panic so heavily at the mere mention of the word work that I get the cold sweats, rock back and forth, and start sobbing with a combined nervous laughter that would assure anyone within a 3 block radius that I am completely crazy. It's a natural reaction that my body has come up with to make sure that if I ever did have a job interview, I would never get hired. A back to work scenario is going to involve Brenda in an office ...