Living in the In-Between

Thanks to a post by Melissa over at Little Cunning Plan, I've been inspired to do a quick update on what it's really like around here.  You know, behind the scenes.


We are fully living on Luna.  We have the condo cleaned out - with the exception of another trip or 3 to Goodwill.  And all of my canvas sewing stuff.  And some boxes of stuff that we have to take to Alabama for storage...

We've been knocking out some serious projects and our girl is looking good and working well.  And while I've been working on documenting all the projects when I can, I let the random day-to-day life updates slip away.  And for me, that's really what this blog is about.  What is life like on a boat?  Or transitioning to a boat?  And one day, what's it like cruising around on a boat?  After all, we are learning as we go, so this is in no way meant to be an educational or instructional blog. However, if you learn as we learn (even from our mistakes), that is fabulous.

Mark is still working full time - and fortunately that is at a job he loves.  So he will keep on doing that until it's time for us to leave.  He's also working on boat projects on his days off.  And some evenings.  But mostly we watch Netflix or Sling in the evenings...

I, Jennifer, left the bakery that I started working at a year ago - while I was finishing up my Culinary Degree. I'm focusing on getting this boat ready to leave. Now that the degree is knocked out I don't really know that I'll do anymore trainings before we go.  But that could change.  I do love to learn new stuff.  Fortunately, there's a ton of new stuff for me to learn on Luna.  I am diligently working on a canvas project - using Strataglass and Sunbrella to create a dodger for our newly installed hard top.  After that, I will make sand-gnat-proof walls for the remaining sides in order to actually enjoy our back porch and amazing view.  We may still be tied to the docks, but that doesn't mean we can't thoroughly enjoy this life on the water.  That's the whole point, after all.

We have our condo on the market, as well as one of our rental properties.  I had to evict someone this summer. I took advantage of the house being empty and got it cleaned up and listed with a realtor a few weeks ago.  Now we just have to wait, with fingers crossed, hoping it AND the condo sell soon.  Although, I need to get that enclosure knocked out asap, while I still have all of that floor space at the condo for sewing...  The sooner we get rid of that condo mortgage, the sooner we get our bank account up where we want it before we set sail permanently.

The stress of keeping the condo and rental property "show ready" is a little much.  The rental is about 25 minutes away.  The condo is less than 10.  When we sell the condo and rental, we still have 2 more rentals to sell.  Those are rented, so we are not in a hurry to put them on the market - but we will have to pull the trigger on those sooner rather than later. Add to that all of the boat projects, on-going boat organization, jobs, etc - and you can see why we veg out a couple of nights a week with Netflix.

All complaining aside, we are truly loving this life.  We both enjoy the view, the people, the feeling of Less is More.  We are more active, minus Netflix.  We are both working on things we've never done before - in fact, Mark literally just completed his first successful soldering project in order to repair a bedroom light.  The canvas project was kicking my butt last week, but I'm getting into the swing of things, and getting over the stress of the cost of the materials.  If I have to buy more Strataglass because I screw up, I will.  It's still a tiny fraction of the cost that I would pay someone else to build the dodger.  And the skill will be more than worth it.  Our little blue Sailrite has paid for itself over and over and over again.

We are taking the boat out sailing or for an over-nighter here and there.  The weather is not really cooperating lately.  But I'm trying to work on my sailing skills. Reading how to sail just doesn't click for me.  I need to do it to learn it. And so we leave the dock when we can, even if it's just to go up and down, back and forth in the Wilmington River.

We'll get there.  One step/one project at a time.

And now to prove how much fun we're having around here, here's a little snippet of video I posted over on our Facebook Page.  I got a floating hula hoop custom built by Blind Cherry Creations, and here's my first try at hooping on my iSUP!