New Website: SailingLunaSea.com!

Guess what!?!  We have a new website!  Yes, we're transitioning from a Blogger-based site to www.SailingLunaSea.com

Here's what it looks like on a phone...

Why?  Blogger is free.  That is huge.  And you can buy a domain and "point" a blog to it, which is almost free - you just have to pay for the domain each year.  We do love spending as little as possible around here.

So really, why then are we "moving"?

• I want more freedom in my design options.  While I have not single-handed the design, I have definitely had more flexibility now that I am using Blue Host (to host the site) and Wordpress (to design the site).  

• We are getting ready to start filming our processes/boat life/fun around here.  Integrating an additional platform (Youtube) means we will likely have more traffic on the site.  I want an easy, clean, navigable site as we continue to grow.

• sailingLunasea.Blogspot.com vs sailingLunaSea.com - to us, the 2nd is much easier to remember!  If you are into blogs, sure, blogspot.blogname.com is easy enough to remember.  But if you are just Googling that one boat you saw a pic/video/heard about that one time?  We feel like a standard website format is just easier to find.  And we want you to find us!  

There will continue to be tweaks to the site for some time, I'm sure.  I had to download all the posts from here and transfer them over there.  In some cases links broke, or looped back to this blog vs to the intended posts in the new version.  Pictures are skewed, or missing.  Bullet points "disappear" into the ether.  It's been interesting, to say the least!

So go on - check out the website!  Let us know your thoughts.  What do you like about it?  Are you having trouble with any part of it?  Is it easy?  Confusing?  Loading quickly or too slowly (there are a lot of pics!)  And get ready - because this blog will soon be "pointing" to the new site!

Living aboard - Hello Spring! And a lesson on Boat Corrosion.

We are still here and still chugging right along.

We've finished most of our major projects and are just carrying on with our daily lives.  Work, boat maintenance, playing outside when it's nice and going to the gym regularly.

This week's boat maintenance included replacing the screen on the autopilot. It's been giving us some fits for a while, and finally pretty much blanked out.  So Mark ordered a replacement screen and decided to tackle the job himself.  It was either going to be an easy fix or a new autopilot.  Thus is the way of a liveaboard life...

Road Trip: Key West! Underwater Views

You might remember we headed to Key West for Birthday Week.  In fact, the last post was about the treacherous bicycle loop around the entire island.

We took our SCUBA/snorkel gear with us and had a blast exploring the underwater sights.  Here's a pretty brief video of our dives.

We went with a local dive group and, well, it was interesting.  We have been diving in a number of places - and the crew is usually nice, and always helpful. This group - well, they were nice.  And they hooked up/swapped our tanks for us.  But other than that, we were on our own.  We were given a brief description of the reef below us, and then tossed into the ocean to fend for ourselves.  

Road Trip! Circumnavigating Key West

Welcome to Key West - Gorgeous views everywhere you look!

The 2nd week of March, we headed out for Birthday Week (it's a thing) with a couple of good friends and an SUV full of toys.

Prepping to Sail: The Year of Yes

Andy, Lee and Mark - doing what they do best.

This year, as we finish selling off our properties and saving money to sail away, we are focusing on the life we have here.

This is our Year of Yes.

Living Aboard: A Guest's Point of View #1

If you remember, there were 6 of us on the boat for a week - family visiting to celebrate the New Year together.  We all had a blast.  But it got me to thinking...  My sisters had heard stories and read blog posts and seen pictures of the boat.  But was staying here really what they expected?  Here's #1 of 2 points of view on living aboard for a week (my responses/sarcastic comments will be in purple):

Guest Post #1 - Beth's Point of View on Staying Aboard

Betherine

Motivation

How do you stay motivated when you've got a long term goal?

Let's say you want to lose weight. That is a long term goal, right?  (well it should be! You didn't get out of shape overnight - so you can't fix it overnight.  But that's a lecture for another day)  Maybe you use a pic of your formerly-hot-self as your profile pic as a reminder that you can be fit.  Or maybe you put a pic of your not-so-hot self on the fridge as a reminder to make smart food choices.  (Our fridge just has a list of the foods buried deep in side - don't want to let that chocolate and beer go to waste)

What's It Like on a Boat in Winter?

Thanks to a rare, particularly frigid cold front that has descended on Savannah, and my last post, the question of what it's like on Luna Sea in winter has been coming up frequently.

What is it really like to live on a boat in January/February?  

Well, it's Winter. On a boat.

Too bad you can't convey temps via photo...

It is so cold. OK. So it's in the 30's (0-5 celsius) We've been here so long that we are acclimated. So 30F is flippin' cold.

Quiet = Busy!

It's been quiet in Blogland - and as usual, that means we have been crazy-busy.  So what's been going down around here?

These guys are ALL OVER the island!

1.  We spent 8 days in St. Thomas!  If you follow us on Facebook, you already know this.  If not - we had a fantastic time.  The USVI's feel very homey to both of us.  We can't wait to visit by boat!

St. Thomas!

It's that time again - travel time (aka December)!

For now, we go by plane...