Aug
29
2010
Since s/v Convivia moved in next door, we’ve been trying to hang out. This is one sunny afternoon in the winter that’s been serving as our “summer” here. Waiting for our friends to arrive… Rolling down the hill… Sooooooo dizzy… Helping Ruby roll. Miles, in the background, has it down. Ruby headed off on her [...]
Tags: boatkids, living aboard, marina
Aug
17
2010
As I’ve mentioned before, several of our Marina neighbors stow their kayaks in front of our boat. In exchange for that, we often borrow them. Sadly, our friend Matthew sold his boat, and was giving his two-seater sit-inside boat to his brother, for him to use with his kids. Matthew came out a few days [...]
Tags: Emeryville Marina, kayaks, living aboard, Maintenance
Aug
15
2010
No, I’m not talking about being on a small boat with a big family. I’m talking about being in the Bay. Because we live on water, we keep thinking of this stuff we float on as the sea. But it really isn’t. It’s sludge and grunge and the effluent of the surrounding urban population. It’s [...]
Tags: living aboard, musings, San Francisco Bay
Jul
27
2010
Things are changing in the marina. If you weren’t from around here, or hadn’t been here in a while, you’d never know. There’s construction of new, lovely docks, there’s a new fuel and pumpout dock, new shower and laundry facility, and some pretty good stuff in the impromptu library in the laundry room. It’s subtler [...]
Tags: living aboard, marina
Jul
17
2010
Thank you, Freecycle, for saving my friend’s life. The story goes like this. A year or so ago, someone on Freecycle was giving away a windsurf board. Board, booms, sail, harness, the works. It’s a beginner’s board, so it’s huge and flat and stable and not at all sexy, but totally functional. We keep it [...]
Tags: kayaks, living aboard, marina, serendipity
Jun
20
2010
Lately, we’ve had quite a few non-boat folks aboard, and I’ve been all self-congratulatory about how adapted to boat life we are, and how far we’ve come in our knowledge. Pride goeth before the fall, yeah? Oh yeah. So we’ve been out and about a whole lot lately. Jason’s working like a mad dog at [...]
Tags: living aboard, Maintenance
Feb
07
2010
There’s an email list for parents of children who are considering cruising. We’re a funny and eclectic bunch. You get questions about Personal Flotation Devices (and why the heck can the UK create a fabulous kid’s PFD with integral harness and the USA just will not?), questions about homeschooling, questions about all the crazy details [...]
Tags: cruising, family, living aboard, musings, Sailing Kids
Dec
20
2009
Check the blog out over on ElementalMom.
Tags: family, living aboard
Nov
04
2008
Yesterday, a boat down the dock from us caught on fire, and burned pretty thoroughly. The hull might be salvageable, the contents are destroyed, and the owner’s dog, who was asleep inside at the time, died. We’re all pretty devastated. Jason and I talked about it last night, and while I was not going to [...]
Tags: fire, living aboard, marina, safety
Sep
03
2008
After getting my head handed to me on a yahoogroup for daring to ask about greening my galley and possibly replacing my propane cooking appliances with electrical, I was amused to see this article on gCaptain, “Solar Powered Ships“. Granted, this is commercial, not private, shipping we’re talking about, and the economies of scale are [...]
Tags: Environment, living aboard
Aug
22
2008
I was awakened this AM by a woman screaming. I figured it was someone goofing (which happens) until the words “someone please call for help! He’s trying to kill me!” penetrated my sleepy brain. I paused just long enough to pull on some pants and rocketed up to the deck. Where as promised, a young [...]
Tags: Emeryville Marina, living aboard, marina
Feb
28
2008
Long ago and far away in another world, when Jason and I first moved in together, in our search for rental digs (very very hard to find in Santa Cruz, CA), we settled on a place that I considered to be “cute and funky” and Jason, with his lifetime of experience in building trades, considered [...]
Tags: Jason, living aboard, Maintenance, progress, repairs, Upgrades
Feb
26
2008
A few weeks back, I got an email forwarded from the Berkeley Parents’ Network, from a woman whose family was considering a move like ours, looking for some practical, BTDT advice about making the big leap. We chatted back and forth, and set up a day to have them come sailing. Unlike our previous adventure [...]
Tags: guests, living aboard, Sailing, Talking Story
Feb
22
2008
Rather than spend this post whining about the fact that my long-awaited Birthday Sail plans have been put out of commission by another long stretch of rain and storms, I decided to go back and catch up on some of the material I’d collected over the warmer, sunnier, kinder days. For boat kids, life is [...]
Tags: art, family, living aboard, simplicity
Feb
07
2008
Whoot! I am so excited! My first ever podcast interview is live on Carla’s Miss Adventuring show. You can also access it directly from iTunes, if you’re so inclined. Carla is going to be turning her guests’s “Tips for Misadventurous Living” into a book somewhere along the line, and you can see my (and the [...]
Tags: Carla King, living aboard, Miss Adventuring, podcast