September 30, 2015

We've moved, again....

The box is what I have so affectionately named our temporary dwelling. This little cabin is where we will be taking up residence for at least, the next four weeks.
 We have got to find another boat and fast! 

Sure, I could take pictures to show you the inside, but really, it would just be one picture because it is that small! I will give you a vivid description however, that should prove to be far more enlightening! When you walk through the door, on the right wall {of the box} there's a light colored faux wood desk accompanied by two light colored wicker chairs, complete with green vinyl, circa 1960's, I'm sure! It is followed by a tv stand {that I'm pretty sure is covering the water heater} an uber small TV along with an even smaller DVD player. Now we are at the back wall of the box, where there's a super small & thankfully, closed off bathroom. Its depth is as wide as a shower stall and there's a toilet across from the shower. Come out of the tiny bathroom and there's a "kitchenette" with a little bar sink, microwave, itty-bitty coffee pot, a couple of cabinets & a dorm sized refrigerator. And lastly, on the left wall of the box, we have a lovely set of.....wait for it....bunk beds, oh yeah, you read that right! :/ There was a little joking on "who gets the top bunk" but all joking aside, I can't remember the last time I actually slept in a bunk bed and here I am, mid-thirties, sleeping in a bunk bed. And just in case you were wondering, no they are not the kind you can remove the top part of and put side by side, not that there would be room for that anyways, in the box. :[

In fact, hubs & I were talking the other night & he said it is actually smaller than the living space of our 30' sailboat. So there you have it! 

There may not be any sailboats in our immediate view {literal & metaphorically speaking} but one thing remains the same, we still have incredibly amazing sunsets, like this one from last night!!


September 17, 2015

Homelessness on the horizon....

A couple weekends ago, on a whim, hubs & I decided to take a super mini road trip and get away from it all! Friday at about 6:24pm we up and decided we were going to go somewhere! We left a little before 7pm and started driving south. We ended up in Rockport, a small coastal town near Corpus Christie. We thought we'd look at a couple of boats, well, we looked at the outside of one & crossed it off the list immediately. It's amazing how pictures can lie! I called on another boat that we wanted to see, but the broker couldn't be bothered to show it to us. {must be nice to be independently wealthy, cause he sure isn't making money selling boats} Luckily, I made friends with a local fish market lady and borrowed her key to at least access the dock where the boat was. We still didn't get to see the inside of the boat, but a close up visual of the outside showed us that the boat wasn't worth the amount they were asking. However, we didn't cross it off the list just yet, but we also haven't decided if we want to take on that big of a project. So the search continues....

Aside from the radio station playing music from the past 25 years & giving me the feeling of having my very own mix tape....the real plus side of our little getaway landed me with this most wonderfully king-sized bed!!
It was enormous and I may or may not have took a running jump & dove onto said bed! I could've stayed there forever, oh but if only I was independently wealthy!!

We have just over a week left on the trawler and then we will be back to being homeless. I had hoped that we would've bought our next boat by now, but this month has gone by incredibly fast & we just haven't found the boat we really want, yet. 

So, it looks like we will be back to square one...whatever that might be! 

September 4, 2015

Boat shopping continues....

Just when I think we decide on a certain boat brand, we {and by we, I mean Joe....(okay, I do too a little bit) but it's mainly him} change our minds and go with something else! We both are desperately trying not to jump into a quick decision just because we are indeed desperate, but the clock is ticking before we wind up homeless, again!

A few of the boats we've looked at lately. 

At first we thought for sure we would buy another Catalina. Then we threw that out and decided on a Morgan Classic <---my favorite!! 😊 After finding none locally, we thought it might be better to find a boat near us so not to have to pay any extra charges (I.e. shipping/trucking the boat, hiring a captain or taking time to go get it & sail it back ourselves) all of which are added expenses to the purchase price of whatever boat we buy. 

Originally I wanted five things in my next boat:
1. Walk through transom 
2. Two separate cabins 
3. Usable counterspace in the galley
4. Double stainless steel sink in the galley
5. More overall storage

One & three were somewhat negotiable, but the others were basically must-have's. 

Then Joe went back to his love of true ocean going boats. Which are great for well, ocean going, but living aboard, not so much. Don't get me wrong, they really are great boats {most of them} they are just much much more narrower than I would prefer. And none of them meet my full criteria, basically I get the double sink and more storage. No walk through transoms on the older boats, usable counter space is sketchy and don't even get me started on the lack of cabins. 

When I think of an aft cabin, I'm thinking more along the lines of what a 2nd bedroom would be in a house....maybe more like a tiny house 2nd bedroom. But mainly, it would have an actual bed that sleeps two people, somewhat comfortably! However, the problem comes with most of these ocean-going boats only having a quarter berth and if you're real lucky, maybe a 3/8 of a berth..... Not exactly what I had pictured in my mind. .


 In all actuality though, I could probably do without most of my criteria. I mean I lived on a 30' boat for 14 months and quite frankly that was never what I had thought would happen, so maybe I just need a new picture in my head. Needless to say we are both going to have to come to some sort of compromise or even a few compromises, before we can decide on what boat to purchase. But really, it would also help if we fell into a nice loan too! Because if the boat is more than thirty years old, banks will not finance it and well, most of these ocean-going boats that is within our budget tend to lean on the older end of the spectrum. 

So that's where we are at right now. A lot of "I don't knows" and "we'll see's"!! Hopefully by my next post I'll have something more to tell you! 

Until then....