Living Aboard - Evaluation of the First Week

[AdriftAtSea]

have you had a chance to try staying at anchor rather than the dock yet???

Finally got around to untying the dock lines today.  Short time out, but an important one.  Like John Madden often says, it's the first "points" that are the hardest.   

Hope everyone has a Happy Thanksgiving.  We have found we have TONS to be thankful for...and try to say so every day.

[Captain Smollett]

  Glad to hear you got out.  How long did it take to get ready?  Getting underway was a differnt game when we were living aboard.  Little stuff like the galley ware, and all the little every day trappings of life.

This time?  About 15 minutes, but MOST of that was clearing a bunch of junk out of the cockpit (spare  hose, old towels, etc).  We are trying to stay committed to the notion of keeping her ready to go.  I like Dave's suggestion to keep it less than 30 minutes.

I hear ya about the galley ware, tho.  B commented that THAT was her biggest concern...a 'vase' that's holding serving spoons and the like that does not really have a 'secure' place on board yet.

[Joe Pyrat]

Captain I moved aboard May 22nd and have been living aboard since then.  I outfitted KAHOLEE with a hot water heater a pressure water system, refrigerator and a gimbaled stove which includes a broiler and oven.  When I was just living onboard for a week or two the two burner stove and over the side baths were ok, but I felt that for the long run I would be more comfortable and happier with something more closely akin to a home than a camper. 

The things which are most different are, as you mentioned, washing dishes.  I use a plastic tub to wash in then rinse in the sink (I've got a total or 80 gal of water capacity in two tanks).  Hot water is not an issue but I need to switch on the heater when in port or I save the dishes until just after I'm done motoring.  The hot water heater keeps the water warm for a good time so I can actually wait until after dinner or even a bit later to do the clean up.

I have a cockpit shower with H and C water piped in as well as saltwater.  Showers are not too bad and clean up is fairly easy.

I have not used the oven yet, but I have used the broiler and burners.  I am planning a margarita pie for this weekend and some jerked chicken so the oven is about to get it's baptism.  I may try and do a Christmas turkey in it if I can find a small enough one.  I have a friend who uses a defuser on her two burner stove and does some real magic with it but there are only two onboard.

The refrigerator is a Engle unit with a lock down mount.  It uses about 2.4 amps and runs about 40% of the time which my two T105s seem to be able to deal with.  It will keep ice when the but the ice (cubes) eventually become a block.  I am very happy with it overall, much easier then a built in and it seems just as good if not better.

The head is a Lavac.  My holding tank is fit behind the head and of about 10 gal capacity.  I do use it quite a bit, on anchor and instead of making the long walk to the marina head sometimes.  The capacity does not seem to be an issue but more wold be better.

I have a propane heater for those cold days, but do not run it when I'm asleep.  It is nice when pulling in to an anchorage after a cold day.

I can enclose the cockpit both with windows and netting.  When this recent cold spell hit I didn't initially put the side curtains up but once I did I went from foul weather gear to shirt sleeves.  Should have done this earlier.  It also about doubles my living space and with your family aboard I'd think ti would be well worth the expense.

My Spouse is coming to visit so I'll get a better idea of how things work with two aboard.  The V-berth area is storage right now but I'll need to deal with that this week.  My friend on a CD 27 just moves things aft when he and his spouse go to bed.  This looks like what I'll be doing, but the moving things around seems to be the nature of the beast when living on a small boat.

That's all I can think of right now, your A30 will have more room than my Triton so you should be able to fit anything I have and have more room.   

Take care,