Day 132: Monday, January 14, 2013
Port to Port: Fort Myers Beach
Underway: 0:00 am Motor Off: 0:00 pm Miles Traveled: 0 Stayed At: Marina
First Things First: First time seeing a coconut float by during the outgoing tide this morning.
Mile to Mile: So what is it like living on a boat – especially one as small as Aurora. So far, pretty amazing actually. We have been really lucky with long stretches of nice weather and almost no bugs to worry about. Our house moves up and down with the waves and tides but it also can move to a warmer, dryer, quieter spot anytime we want. We bump into each other more than usual but the small space forces us to go outside and experience nature – not some manmade, air-conditioned, expensive-to-maintain sheltered experience.
When we were deciding whether we could survive on Aurora for a year we considered several things. First, we spent 10 weeks on Aurora with two kids and a dog and had the time of our lives. We only have to spend 5 times that amount of time on her this time. Five times amazing – sounds like it could be fun. We rationalized this trip by comparing it to other ways of living. For instance, Jess’ friend Becky is spending two years in Africa with the Peace Corps in a mud hut without electricity, no internet, no phones, no running water and pit toilets. This is better than that (although I’m sure she is having the time of her life on her adventure). We talked to someone who traveled the entire length of the Mississippi – most of it on a pontoon boat with a tent for shelter. This is better than that (although that sounds like a cool adventure too). And, of course, billions of people around the world live in terrible conditions without adequate shelter, limited food, dirty water and poor sanitation – and they live their whole lives in these conditions. This is, (sadly) much better than that. We are incredibly lucky by any measure. It ends up being all about perspective.
While we are definitely living a minimalist life – Cindy calls it “fancy camping” – we do have some creature comforts. We have lots of technology – a laptop, an Ipad, two phones, an Ipod, stereo radio, vhf radio, TV (through computer), internet access (at marinas and with phone hotspot), GPS (on phone and Ipad) and two cameras (plus two cameras on our phones. We cook on a propane cookstove out in the cockpit or on a propane grill mounted off the stern. We have a cooler for keeping some things cold (using ice) and lockers full of food. Our sleeping berths are a little squishy compared to our king size bed at home but we seem to sleep soundly almost every night. We have a porta-potty but, if we time our gas stops, shore visits and marina stops correctly, we hardly have to use it at all. Most people we visit with notice us because of the size of the boat but are more amazed by the journey. We can’t agree more.
