comfortably living aboard

Rick and I had a great laugh last night talking about an article in a sailing magazine that came in the mail yesterday. It was titled, how to prepare to live aboard and was 3 pages long about a single guy who took 10 years to come to the place where he moved aboard his boat. We put the house on the market March 9 when we had a contract on a boat (not this one). Moved aboard within 7 months. We decided our article would be written in one to two paragraphs. One paragraph on the how the decision came to be, another on sell your stuff, sell your stuff and then sell more stuff. The last article would cover what happens when you acutally move aboard and decide you need to sell MORE stuff you thought you NEEDED. So we would title the article, Sell ALL your stuff before moving aboard.

love from ric&dee aboard Talaria

changing our world

Some people call it minimizing, others downsizing, but Ric and I are essentially re-ordering our world. We have emptied our 2800sq ft house and now live in our 42ft sailboat named Talaria. Talaria is the name of the winged shoes of Mercury or Hermes. The boat has 2 private cabins and one head. The galley has a double fridge unit and gas stove/oven. I made scones (without black bottoms) for Rick, Andy and Felice last Sunday morning.

The new owners of the house are so happy and have just formed a new family also, adopting their 11 and 4 yo foster children. It was nice to go back there the night they took possession and see their joy and excitment. It was also good to see the garbage men had picked up the 12 hefty bags of junk!!

Along with 6 trips to the thrift store, one garage sale, multiple listing on craigs list and ebay we are fitting nicely into the boat and a 10x6 storage unit. We plan to prune the contents of the storage unit further to 5x5 or less. Deena states ENOUGH pruning for now. I need a break from the ripping away of material possessions enough to nest into the boat. In reality it feels really freeing to lessen the material load. The cat (Snoball) is adapting and has 3 main sleeping areas. The first week she was on a hunger strike but has quickly recovered. Each morning she has to go out and prance around the deck a few times before I go off to work to get the gulls away from her territory. She checks out the sunsets also as you can see in the picture.

Ric&dee on Talaria