We've done it again

We sold our boat, again!!

Signing papers at closing....

You may remember last time our boat sold in eight hours and we had to be off of it a week later. Well, this time we thought we had wised up a bit by waiting until the end of boating season, to list it. After all, it was mid-November and just a couple days before Thanksgiving, so we thought maybe, just maybe we could buy a little time and maybe we could have it in the 'for sale' column just a teensy bit longer, while we look for the next boat. Nope, that didn't happen! About two hours after we had listed Irie, we had it under contract....and no, we didn't list it too cheap..We're actually making money off of it! Albeit, not a whole lot, but it's always better to be on this end rather than to be losing money on the deal! The first couple that saw it, put in an offer...that we accepted. The crazy thing {well, one of the crazy things} is, is that our boat listing didn't even populate to the broker's website!! All my staging & photography skills used up and I didn't even get to see the final result.

Needless to say, the search is on to find our next boat!! I have stopped referring to it as our "forever boat" though and am just saying, "our next boat". Our pier at the marina is starting to look more like the 'Bricker Brokerage Pier'  with all our old boats lined up! Haha :)

In the meantime, we have become pros at being squatters!!! I wish I could say I was joking about that, but that's the downside to selling your boat in a couple of hours, during the holidays. Everyplace is either already booked or extremely over priced because of the time of year. The upside however, is the friends we have made at our marina have been outstanding to us in our current situation! We have had many, many offers for us to use their boats, come do laundry at their house or stay in their spare bedroom!! I've said it before, but it bears repeating, our marina friends & neighbors are without a doubt some of the best people and we are so incredibly grateful for their hospitality!!!

I'm hoping by the time I type up my next post, I'll have something to tell you (or show you) on our next boat, but until then, I'm keeping it hush hush on the blog, so nothing is jinxed! ;)

Here's hoping we aren't homeless for too much longer...until next time!

Saturday Sail

A few weeks ago, we did a weekend trip with a few other friends at our marina! We hadn't really planned too much, other than to get away from the dock for a night or two. Friday afternoon we pulled out of our slip and went towards Redfish Island. This was our gorgeous view of the sun setting over Kemah!!

We arrived just after sunset and decided to anchor for the night. There were three other boats there with us, for the night. We all took our dinghy's over to Tom's boat and ate & hung out before heading back to our own boats to go to sleep. 

There's something great about being anchored and feeling the boat move with the water versus feeling little to no movement while being tied to the dock. I miss this more than I can say (at least in the daytime, when I can clearly see that we are not going to hit anything). 

There were no bugs out and the weather was cool, but not too cold, so hubs and I decided to sleep in the cockpit. Around 3:37am the wind picked up more than what was forecasted and at this point I was awake. Mostly, because of the headache that woke me up, but also because I'm always too worried that we we are going to drag anchor, I'm sitting up every few minutes and making sure we are not closer to the surrounding boats and so I can't really get any good sleep. It's like whenever I take a roadtrip with anyone. I cannot fall asleep for nothing, even when I've been awake for thirty-six straight hours, I just can't do it. I feel like I have to be the lookout person, at all times. About three hours later though, I decided Joe could be the lookout person for awhile and I went down below to catch some Zzz's before our day sail! 

We slept in a little bit and then I whipped us up some oven French toast!!! Yum :)

I felt like a real-live cruiser, complete with my collapsible tea kettle, heating the water for my coffee in a pour-over coffee maker and the toast about to go in the propane oven. I think I'm getting the hang of this no electricity needed, way of life!! 

After breakfast and a quick cleanup, we pulled up anchor and radioed over to our friends about the day's plan. We were going to go with one of the boats, that had anchored with us the night before and sail to Galveston for the day, but they decided they wanted to hang out in the bay instead. It's all good, we thought, were still gonna go, because we could, so we did! :)

We stayed just outside the ship channel and sailed all the way down to where the cruise ships come in and out of port. We kept seeing flares shooting up into the sky, followed by a thick cloud of orange smoke.

There were no distress calls heard over the radio, so we figured it had to be some sort of a training or an authorized removal of expired flares. Sure enough, we later realized, that was being done at the Coast Guard Auxillary Station and all was well. 

We cruised around a bit and got up close and personal with World War II history! Seawolf Park is a memorial to USS Seawolf, a United States Navy Sargo-class submarine mistakenly sunk by U.S. Navy forces in 1944 during World War II. It is located on Pelican Island, (29°20′03″N 94°46′45″W) just north of Galveston. You can read more about the submarine and ship here. 

We then sailed back to Kemah...

We went no where in particular and it took us all day to get there and back, but that's just one more thing we can say we did on our boat. Plus, you gain experience each time you take your boat out. And well, isn't that what everyone should do? 

Why we do what we do...

In short? Because it makes us happy!

Still, even after two years of boat life, occasionally, when we tell people we live on a sailboat, we see the look of "why on earth would anyone want to live in such a small space, full time?" Or even when family & friends come see us & check out the boat. Not all, but some look around our tiny home and though they don't say it, you know that's just what they're thinking, by looking at their faces. It's times like these, that sometimes, I myself start to think, "are they on to something?" But then I remember, I'm not doing this to make anyone else happy, I chose to live in a small space because that's what is good for me/us, right now. For years, I lived everyday, for the future. What if this? What if that? Then a series of life events happened and one day I realized, that I not only didn't want to live the so called "normal" but I also wanted to live in the now! Enjoy every moment as they are happening, ergo, we live on a boat!

Yes it's small, yes it's different, maybe it's even weird to you, something that you can't manage to wrap your mind around and that's all fine and dandy because you don't live our life afloat, we do. And guess what? We're not done yet!! 

In fact, we've recently narrowed down our search for our next boat and are really starting to make progress in making a final decision. We are keeping the next boat under wraps a little this time, but that's mainly so you don't have to suffer through all the many, "we made a decision" & "we changed our minds" posts. 

What I will tell you about our next boat is this. It will be:

-->older

-->bigger 

It's okay, you don't have to understand why we do what we do! Having done both, we don't get how you'd want to mow grass for the rest of your lives. Our backyards may look differently, but we enjoy ours just as much as you do, well maybe a little bit more!! ;) 

Our tips for liveaboard newbies:

Being at a marina means we see a lot of peeps come and go! Some are seasoned sailors and some are liveaboard newbies, just like we used to be....though some days, I still feel like a newbie!

When we moved onto our first boat there were two ladies here that welcomed me and taught me everything they knew about living aboard a boat....and trust me, there is so much to learn and know. It goes way beyond just learning to live in a small space! They are out cruising now, but I have tried really hard to pass on what they taught me and things I've figured out that works or doesn't work.

In no particular order....

Remove all most cardboard | I've heard several reasons for this one, like bugs are attracted to the glue that hold the box together and/or bugs like to live in between the folds of the box. In any event, I'm not cool with bugs taking up residence in my tiny home, so I remove almost all cardboard from the boat. And what does remain, gets checked often for any unwanted visitors

While we're on the bug topic: peppermint oil is great for keeping spiders away | I'm not really scared of spiders, but I also don't want to live with them. And because we are living full time at a dock, there are always spiders around. So I use peppermint oil to keep them at bay! I have a couple battery candles in the cockpit and I pour the oil on the tops of the fake candle trays, but you could also use a cotton ball or a small lid to hold the oil. 

Detergent as a head/tank cleaner | when we go to the pump out we like to rinse out the tank with liquid detergent (and water) after pumping out the stuff that needs pumping out. So after you've pumped out your tank, pour a healthy amount of liquid detergent in the tank and then fill with water. Now pump out the soapy water mixture and you're all done! We also pour a little detergent into the head after pumping out to help clean the bowl and keep smells to a minimum. 

Vinegar | this stuff is basically liquid gold when you live in a boat! Ok not really, but it is super versatile and used almost daily! 

Bleach is a big no-no | boats have lots of rubber hoses and bleach will eat away at the hoses and overtime you'll have a much bigger problem than a dirty boat. So when you think of bleach, think only for laundry! As long as you're doing laundry at the marina or laundromat and not in your sink!

Get to know your area | we will be here for a couple more years, at the least, working and saving money towards our cruising departure. So it is important to know the area you're in and where to get the best deals. I cook most every night on the boat, but when we do go out, we like to catch a good deal! Different area restaurants usually have weeknight specials and we know where to go for the $2 tacos or the $6 ribeye steaks!!  So learn your area and figure out where you can eat out on the cheap! 

Free table | the liveaboards at out marina (and several others) usually have a  designated area or table where you can get rid of anything you're not using anymore and in turn, pick up something you may want from the table. Just be sure to find out where said area is, I've heard a few peeps say they didn't know that was a free table, left what they were working on to go grab something from the boat and came back to find their stuff gone. :/ Yeah, not good! 

Cook with pork sausage instead of hamburger meat | on our last boat {baby Irie, if you will} we had the teeniest, tiniest freezer. This is where I made the switch and I began cooking solely with pork sausage. I quickly found out that I was throwing out more hamburger meat than I was using....and that stuffs not cheap. The benefits of using pork sausage are the many different flavors, the cheaper price, the fact that it doesn't have to be frozen & lastly, 9 times out of 10, there's no grease to drain off after cooking it, so less work!! 

Thinking outside the box | living on a boat means you have to get pretty crafty when you need a trash can in the bathroom. Especially when the only flat piece of real estate on the head floor to hold this is approximately, three inches by ten inches. Yeah, inches!!! The good news is, those plastic cereal containers with a lid that includes the flap lid part {where a normal person would pour the cereal from} are usually the perfect size to make into a trash can for a tight spot! Just make sure to always use a small trash bag as a liner and never try to reuse it for food, ever!! 

I know there are so many more, but this is a good start for now! 

So tell me, what are your tips & tricks??

Weekend raft-ups and more!!

My apologies for the super long gap in blog posts, lately! With me going back to work, life has become a bit more hectic than I was used to. Gone are the days where I wasted the day away, lounging by the pool, soaking up the sun and where the only work that was being done was, me, working on my tan!! Truth is, I was ready to go back to work. Not only do I enjoy contributing to the income, I also want a bigger boat and that my friends, is what I work for, everyday...well, three days a week, anyways! What a novel idea?? "If you want something, you work for it!" Someone should clue in the millenials with that fine wisdom!! 

Labor Day weekend was a lot of fun and an extra long weekend for us. I had five days off work & Joe wound up using a vacation day so he could get four consecutive days off and it was like a mini vacation!

That Friday, we slept in, then got the boat ready to go anchor out and met up with new friends. We rafted up with two other boats (we're in the middle)  as you can see we have our "project" dinghy upside down on the bow. We were basically given the inflatable, but it needs a lot of work. But you can't complain when it's free (another piece of advice for those millenials). It's exactly the type of dinghy we have been looking for and we're not afraid of a lil' work so that is why I have affectionately dubbed it as, 'Project'! In fact, that may very well become its name! 

This was our wonderful view for a couple of days!!! We had never really rafted up for more than a few hours before, but this was great!! Being able to just step aboard your friend's boat and hang out was pretty cool!! 

And, I broke my own rule about only swimming in clear water, where I can see what's beneath me. Ahh well, it was worth it and I only felt something brush past me once or twice...it was probably better that I couldn't see what it was. 

We had planned to stay there for two nights but the winds had picked up and I doubt it would have been a comfortable night on the hook, not to mention that we don't have a generator on board, so it would've meant another night with no air conditioning. So, we opted to go sailing and head back to the marina. It was a good sail and we even saw a couple of dolphins! I don't know what it is about those magical creatures, but I never tire of seeing them!! 

On Monday, we headed back out with a different dock neighbor and went and anchored out in a nearby cove. The water there is a lot cleaner and less salty...still can't really see what's lurking beneath, but we did a little swimming there as well! 

All in all, it was a good time and we can't wait to do it again!! 

Last but not least, here's hubs showing off his mad docking skills....yes, he's driving the boat backwards, literally! One of these days I'm going to video how we dock the boat, seriously impressive how good of a job he does with "parking" our thirty-six footer!!!