2 Years Before the Mast
01 November 2014 | Or 2 Years Back in the States
Capt Rich
As the rain came down yesterday in Morro Bay finding all of our long lost leaks, I had some time to think about the last two years. I had just rowed the kids ashore in the rain so they could head over to their friends dry and presumably non-leaky houses and by the time I rowed back to the boat I was wet from head to toe. Seeing the rain coming, I was smart enough to run the Honda generator for 45 minutes earlier in the afternoon to make 12 gallons of hot water and I sure needed it to warm my feet. (Note to self, socks and Crocs isn’t appropriate rain gear). We typically don’t have to row back and forth from the dock to the boat, but we had been putting off an outboard engine repair for months and when the 4th thing went wrong earlier in the week, we couldn’t just throw on a cruise fix and ignore it. The throttle cable was broken, the kill switch was dead, the spark plug wire on one cylinder was randomly falling out, and now that water was in the dry exhaust, it was time to act. Maybe we should have done something after 2 or 3 things went wrong, but there just never seemed to be the time with everyone’s schedules and in the back of my mind I knew what living on a mooring without an outboard motor would mean…rowing. Worse yet, rowing in a 4kt current!
It’s been 14 months now since we came back from Mexico and I’m sure more than one person has lost some money that bet we would have abandoned the boat long ago and moved ashore. If I could have gotten back to “dry” land without getting soaked again last night, this update could be different because I was done. There is no way to spin living aboard in the rain on a mooring in a positive light, but I guess it could be worse, it’s not snowing. Luckily we were greeted to a rainbow this morning as the rain stopped and now thoughts of moving ashore dried up along with the cabin top leaks. The diesel heater keeps the boat at 72 degrees and frankly without it, we would be looking for a place ashore. Being comfortable in the space of the boat isn’t a problem for us now on year 7. The small space. The lack of storage. Having two teenagers in a 500 square foot living space, that’s easy also. But being cold and damp would have been just too much to take. It’s funny what matters in the end to being comfortable, but both Lori and I agree that without the diesel heater we would call it quits and move ashore.
I don’t think we could have found a better place to continue living aboard than a mooring in Morro Bay. Sure a slip would have the comforts of shore power and convenience of stepping on and off, but the feeling we have out here along with the views makes this current situation not just tolerable, but immensely enjoyable. At this rate I see an easy two more years here…almost too easy, and that’s what scares me.