Do you want
to live aboard a boat?
The adage “do as I say and not as I do” comes to mind.

If I mention to someone outside the boating industry that I live aboard a boat, I am generally met with one of two responses. One comes with a look akin to pity, as if I’d given my address as, “a cardboard box next to the Salvation Army soup kitchen,” followed by the word, “Oh.” The other comes with wide eyes, riveted attention and the phrase, “Wow, that must be really exciting.” I usually find a reason to cut short the conversation with the first group; to the second I reply, “It has its moments.”

I am currently on my third live-aboard boat. The first was an accident: During divorce proceedings my first husband announced he wanted all the furniture in our apartment. I said, “Fine! I’ll take the boat, the cat and the electric typewriter.” Things truly happen for a reason. By the end of that winter at the St. Petersburg City Marina, I discovered I was perfectly suited to living aboard, although that Islander 30 had a decided lack of storage space. When someone offered a handsome price for her, I accepted and moved ashore, but the experience was never far from my mind. ...

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