"Lordy, Lordy, what have we done"?

How did two people born and raised in Montana decide to completely change their life style and live aboard a boat? My husband, Gene, and I are still pondering that question.

In 1973, we moved to the DC area, about an hour from the Chesapeake Bay. We found that we were drawn to Annapolis and Baltimore and came to realize that we really liked the water. Our dream became a Holiday Mansion Houseboat. We thought it would be the perfect boat for enjoying the Chesapeake. Of course, it took us almost 20 years to achieve that one. Little things like two boys, house purchases and college educations made the realization a little slower than we thought.

In 1992, we finally got the Holiday Mansion and began to spend most weekends exploring the many rivers that feed the Bay, with family and friends. They often asked us if we ever thought about living on the boat. "No Way" I said. I couldn’t even think about giving up my house and all my "stuff" (Gene calls it Fru-Fru). And anyway, our Holiday was not set up for long-term living.

But as the years went by and retirement loomed on the horizon, Gene kept bringing up the subject of actually living on the water. I was still dubious, but a two-week vacation on the boat, down the Chesapeake to Norfolk and through the Great Dismal Swamp really convinced me. I found that I really liked getting up each day and heading to somewhere new, or exploring little water- side destinations. I slowly began to realize that my "fru-fru" wasn’t that important—being with Gene, enjoying our family, and having new life experiences was what life was all about. Bottom line is--life should be fun. Living aboard would allow us to see new places, meet new people and hopefully, I would get over being terrified in thunderstorms!

Our revised plan became to keep the houseboat for 10 years, and then to buy something bigger, probably used, retire, live aboard, and cruise the Great Loop.

And so began the search for just the right boat.

At the 2000 Annapolis Powerboat show we saw a kind of cute looking little trawler called a Great Harbour 37.

We decided to take a closer look and we really liked what we saw. Small diesels for economy, great living space, and the deciding factor—a shower that you could actually turn around in. Now that would be living large on a boat!

For the next 2 years we still searched, trying to find another boat that we liked better than the Great Harbor, and each year at the boat show we became more convinced that this was the boat we wanted.

So, how do we then proceed?

In May of 2002, we "bit the bullet" and put a deposit down on a Great Harbor 37 to save a building space for November of 2003.

We almost had to give up that dream in August, when the stock market took a nose-dive. Each month we went through a "Yes we can---No we can’t" discussion.

Finally we did some real soul searching and number crunching. Bottom line: we decided "life was short, we better cruise first," to paraphrase an old saying! We concluded that if the cruising budget got tight we would stay on the hook more, or I would start cutting hair on the docks! So we made the decision--buy new-- and do it now.

We put a For Sale sign in the Holiday window in the fall and got a few bites. But by the following May it had not sold. On Memorial Day 2003, we decided to try another tact and sell the house first, and pray the boat would sell in the summer.

Incredibly, once we made the decision to go ahead with that plan, things got a little crazy--the house sold the next day--but they wanted us out in 30 days. Okay, we could do that (she said with hope in her heart!)

That’s where things get kind of out of focus. We didn’t really have time to advertise an estate sale so we just stuck out some big signs on a Saturday, and people came out of the woodwork! They were buying faster than we could price things. Two weeks later we participated in the community’s Yard Sale and sold the rest of the "Fru-Fru". We still don’t quite know how we sold virtually everything (except for the special things that the kids wanted, or rather we wanted them to have!) found an apt. and moved, all in 30 days.

Did I mention that we also sold the houseboat during this time? No wonder it’s kind of a blur!

Thinking back, we must have been ready to change, because it was not as difficult as I thought it would be. I think it was harder on our eldest son, who remarked as he helped us with the yard sale, "It’s kind of like seeing bits of your life being carried off by strangers." Actually the kids are our biggest supporters, They are looking forward to boat visits, and we have made sure that the Great Harbor was big enough to accommodate visits from friends and family, especially granddaughters.

(By the way, don’t ever think you will make big bucks off a yard or estate sale-everybody wants a deal, and most of those things that you thought were so valuable turn out to have that value only to you. You have to look at it this way; any money you make is better than none, or a trip to the dump.)

So here we are --living in a one-bedroom apartment, surrounded by huge fenders, fold-up bicycles and other assorted live-aboard things that we are accumulating in anticipation.

I would actually recommend a transitional move to a small apt. as part of the process--It has allowed us to think about what we really need on board and get used to being comfortable, full time, in a much smaller space.

Waiting for the boat to be finished is the really hard part. It has given us time to reflect on the huge change in our lifestyle and about once a week to say "Lordy, Lordy, what have we done!" Then we laugh, and remind ourselves that we are off on a new adventure and this is only chapter one.

Our plan is to pick up the boat in Florida and bring it up to Baltimore. We will then head south to warmer climates for the winter and start planning our Great Loop trip.

I guess maybe all those childhood winters in Montana were our motivation.

Gene always said he never wanted to be where the temperature was less than his age.

I guess at that rate we may be cruising the Amazon in a few years!!

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