living aboard a small boat

Living aboard a sailboat is a unique and embellished lifestyle. We embrace minimalism and strive to leave a small carbon footprint. Our boat is equipped with solar panels that provide us with electricity, and we have a water maker but no microwave or freezer.

Living aboard starts early

Our day starts around 5:00 am. We begin by taking our dogs out onto the deck for their morning routine on the bow. While they’re busy, Gary starts the kerosene stove and prepares coffee with our French press. We love how it keeps our coffee hot while we enjoy it in the cockpit.

Today, we decided to clean the bottom of our inflatable dinghy. The growth from the water has been slowing us down, so it’s time for some maintenance. While I prepare a quick breakfast, Gary hoses off the bow and gathers cleaning supplies, towels, and snorkeling gear.

After setting up the dogs with an open hatch and fans to keep them cool, we load the dinghy and head to a nearby island. It’s usually popular with power boaters, but today it’s sparsely populated. We pull the dinghy onto the beach, unload, and start removing the growth by scraping and scrubbing. We take breaks by cooling off in the clear water.

Luckily, a kind young lady brings us cold water from her family down the beach. We appreciate her gesture since I forgot to bring any with us. With the dinghy clean, we reverse flip it, put the motor back on, and reload. We wave goodbye to the family on the beach and return to our boat, Angelsea.

Once back on board, we bring the dogs up on deck and receive lots of kisses from them. We grab two beers from the refrigerator and enjoy them in the cockpit. It’s then time for a short nap because, well, we’re old and we can. Living aboard has its perks!

After our nap, Gary and I work on our wall art website, blog, Instagram, and Facebook. This leads us to sundowners in the cockpit, where we discuss what’s for supper and play with our dogs. Our usual supper consists of meat and a veggie cooked either on our stove or our Cobb grill. We feed the dogs, hose off the bow once more, and clean up the dishes.

We continue working on social media, do some research, and check the weather for the overnight and the next day. We also take some time to brush and groom the dogs, followed by playing and chewing on bully sticks. The dogs take one more trip to the bow of the boat before we all settle into bed, usually around 10 pm.

To learn more about the adventures of Jack and Billy, visit Debs site on the care and feeding of dogs

Tonight the winds are strong and gusty. We have set the anchor alarm that works from GPS and tells us if start moving to far from where we should be. In the gusts the anchor line stretches and groans in the bow roller. Keeping us awake until we get really tired.

Dawn comes with the dogs asking to go up on deck. The cycle begins again. But today I am going to take my camera and see if I can get some photographs of pelicans to add to my wall art collection.

Living aboard can be very fulfilling but it also comes with inconveniences and hardships. Like when your anchor starts dragging towards the mangroves at 2am because of very bad weather. Usually have to run up on deck naked in the driving rain to set things right. Usually after we dry off and our heart rate settles down it’s 4am and we finally get back to sleep if the anchor isn’t groaning too much.

To see my photographic wall art for your home or office please visit here