That sinking feeling you get when liquid pours out of equipment on your boat...

This is where our compass used to be. Matt was trying to remove it to fix the light. He unscrewed the only eight screws that were available (the engine guru worker on the next boat over confirmed that he thought those were the screws to remove). Apparently, those eight screws keep the liquid inside the compass (the screws to remove the compass were already gone).

And...we have ice

Which we will need because the kids keep injuring themselves. Mark is very good at assessing his medical needs when he hurts himself. When he hurt his toe he immediately screamed, "I need a Band-Aid!" After he fell off the rope fence and hit his head, he yelled, "I need ICE!"

Here is an "after" picture of the freezer. Matt insulated it from the inside (the decision to insulate the inside is a long story relating to some questionable remodeling choices made by a previous owner).

Alive and kicking...

 

We have been living aboard for a little over a month now. This is a life that Matt and I have been talking about for over a decade (with a solid 5-year plan that has taken about 7 years). So how is it you ask?

If you knew sushi...

Matt whipped up some great sushi on the boat. The fish was from a local place that had very fresh seafood--yay coastal living. Hopefully soon we can catch our own sushi fish. That's our new stove underneath the sushi. It's a fraction the size of our old stove but seems to do everything we need it to do.

King of kludge

We removed the fridge so we could reinsulate it. We found this "workaround" in the air conditioner plenum that someone put in at some point: a coffee creamer container as a hose coupler.

What about television?

Our old TV.

This is what we'll be doing now instead of TV.

Do you know someone who grew up not getting any sugar and is now addicted to it? That's what might happen to Conrad and Mark with television.

 

This place is a little too familiar now

A view from our dock. Behind the birdhouse is a
yacht you can buy for $6.2 million (reduced).

The guy that brought our fire extinguishers back after being serviced accidentally discharged the big one for the engine compartment that costs about $500 to recharge. He was fiddling with it, trying to get it just right when all of a sudden there was a loud hissing noise. He just put his face in his hands and stayed like that for 5 minutes.

Another day in paradise

A view of the floor of the galley with Laurent on the right. That's his
head underneath the floorboard in a space just wide enough for his head.
The next day they decided to just remove the floor board.

The post heading is what Laurent says many mornings as he starts his day, usually before 8:30 a.m. He is the project manager/jack-of-all-boat-trades in charge of fixing many of the things that need fixing on the boat. Laurent is very knowledgeable, competent, and charming (with an adorable French accent). And he and the Just Catamarans crew has done a great job so far. But every day that we see him is another day that the boat isn't finished.

Boat School

"Cherry" by Conrad (Kindergarten)

The other day, Conrad and Mark started begging to start boat school. That was strange. Kind of a Bugs Bunny duck-season-rabbit-season reverse psychology situation. We take them out of school so they want it.

Wait, I might need that later!

Leather bicycle seat.  Never installed for 23 years, but it could
happen next week. Not! Sold for a surprising amount. 

“The things you own end up owning you. It's only after you lose everything that you're free to do anything.” - Fight Club

To prepare for our move onto a boat, I spent several years selling and donating things left and right: eBay, craigslist, Amazon, and the Salvation Army were all familiar stomping grounds. I have minimalism in my blood and the thought of paring down our possessions to the essentials makes me happy. Matt, not so much.  Matt's take is that I'm somewhat insane. You can draw your own conclusions.

You can't scare us

Last winter.

This winter.

We are surrounded by cautionary tales. We heard that a liveaboard couple on one of the catamarans in the yard gave up the other day. They were on a model of boat that we were very interested buying. They just packed some bags and left their boat.

New Year, New River Walk

A pink bridge seems to take the Florida
pink theme a bit too far if you ask me.

I always forget that Florida is part of the South. Today along the New River Walk in downtown Ft. Lauderdale, we overheard the following conversation between two armed rent-a-cops who had just gotten out of a truck (imagine a heavy twang):