My impressions a week in so far

It's been over a week since we've been living aboard this little 30 foot boat and I thought I'd take time to jot down my impressions just for fun. Maybe down the road some of these will change, or maybe they wont. Only time will tell, I guess.

First things first. The small space doesn't bother me at all really. I've always found tiny living spaces really interesting - whether it's little capsule hotels in downtown Tokyo, or a tiny little maid's studio in an old building in Paris ... there's something to be said for finding creative ways to use space and to minimize what we think we "need". In all reality, there are around four different "sections" to the boat so it doesn't feel too small at all. In the back deck there's the cockpit where I've enjoyed the past couple days of sunshine, then there's the U-shaped galley area where meals are prepared. Next is the dinette/"living room" area where we (today) set up the TV just for fun (we don't watch much TV), and finally in the front ... my favorite place of all ... is the cozy, pillow and blanket filled V-berth where we sleep.

Rocking is almost non existent on the boat since we are in a protected marina. Last week there was quite a storm, and we could hear the boat tugging at her lines on the dock, the fenders squeaking a little when the boat pressed against them. But besides the sound of the rain falling on the deck above (no leaks so far ... knock on wood!) and the gusty wind, I fell asleep perfectly fine.

I've been taking showers on land in the marina's private-access shower/laundry facility. They're kept very clean (cleaned every morning) and they're totally private so you can take a shower by yourself and use the sink/toilet, etc without having other ppl around. On the boat, we have a flushing toilet, but the holding tank is very small so we only use this one of middle of the night emergencies. The other day we went to the pumpout dock and cleared our holding tank so it's empty again.

Things that take some getting used to:

1) No hot water. While I haven't been dying because of no hot water on the boat, I do like to wash my face and warm water is needed. Otherwise, I don't really "miss" it ... I haven't yet been in a situation where I've cried because our "H" tap on the sink is still cold. I guess in reality I DO actually have hot water - it's just 30 yards away in the shower facility. Luckily the water there is nice and hot.

2) Duck! Learning to move in the boat has been a funny experiences. After smacking my head on a hand rail or radio mount enough times, I learned real quick to move slowly and deliberately. The boat actually has like 6'2" of headroom inside the cabin, so we can stand normally inside - its just certain areas where you may have to bend down a little.

3) Not making a mess in the kitchen. While I think I've come a long way from being scared I'd starve since I didn't know how to cook moving into my first apartment in downtown Phoenix when college first started, I still have a ways to go when it comes to being clean in the kitchen. I can whip up a pretty good meal, but in the past that has involved multiple pots/pans, measuring things in different cups, etc. With a tiny sink and very limited space in the galley, I have to rethink what I cook. Washing a lot of dishes is not an option on board since water is limited. I took a hose from the dock and refilled our water tank today which feeds the toilet and sinks. Running large amounts of water would mean refilling the water tank really frequently and I'm too lazy for that haha. I'll just conserve water instead. "One pot cooking" is what I'll have to start thinking about. I also have a crockpot (which I'm using for tonight's dinner of my aunt's wonderful handmade wontons and vegetables in broth), as well as a rice cooker - I've seen some pretty creative "all in the rice cooker" meals, so this will be my new challenge.

Other than the above listed things, I can't really think of anything at the moment which makes me hate living in the boat. For all the things I don't have compared to an apartment, there are many more people in the world who live with a fraction of what I have. I might not have hot water, but some people don't even have water at all for miles. When I think about possibly doing something like Médecins Sans Frontières (Doctors Without Borders), I have to put into perspective that those kinds of conditions would be way tougher than this. I still have internet, a TV, running water, electricity, a heater, and warm blankets.

I also have a pretty cool new backyard:

If it's windy enough to sail in the bay, it's definitely windy enough for me to fly my little pop-open kite :)

Now that I have a Dahon folding bike, I can get around Emeryville a little faster. Walking was totally fine distance-wise (I walked a lot in Seattle, so it's no problem at all), but it does take a little while just to get off of the marina peninsula. With a bike, I'm in town within 10 minutes ... Asqew Grill, movie theaters, Trader Joe's, H&M, Barnes & Noble, etc are all within 10 mins by bike in the Bay Street shopping center. Today was my first run down to Trader Joe's by bike:

The bike folds even smaller (handlebars and seat post are not folded down in this picture), and the Trader Joe's cart is tiny, but the bike is still pretty compact!

I bought some vegetable broth and mixed veggies to throw in the crockpot with Yee Yee's wontons (thanks auntie!) ... and since Callie is coming tomorrow after her classes, I thought I'd buy some lemonade to make virgin arnold palmers to enjoy on the deck alongside our salad wraps (baby salad greens + pomegranate seeds + pesto + sesame dressing in a lavosh pita wrap). 

Sometimes I don't know how long I'll be able to do the whole live-aboard thing, but other days I really like the peace and quiet by the water and the quasi-isolation (compared to living in the city). Who knows how long this will last (I may break down one day and say enough, or we may adopt this as our lifestyle in different places around the world for the rest of my life .... New Zealand, anybody?), but life's an adventure and I have to put myself outside of my comfort zone if I want to really live and feel.

On the Boat!

It's been quite a while since my last update on Feb. 3rd and a lot has happened since then! Where to begin?

Well, earlier this month while Ian took a trip down to Berkeley to scout out some boats (some of which fell through, luckily), he came across this one in particular which was not necessarily "for sale" after chatting with the owner of Berkeley Marine Center in the Berkeley marina. Turns out, the owner of this boat was a UC Berkeley professor who had this boat for 7 or 8 years, but took a new job in New York City and was temporarily storing the boat at Berkeley marina for free (he was friends with the Berkeley Marine Center Owner). Seeing as the owner would need to pay for new registration fees and another month of berthing fees at the marina, he was interested in selling it quickly. Long story short, we had ourselves a 30 foot Catalina sailboat as our new home :)

Packing up what we thought would be essentials, we picked up our little moving truck in Seattle and began the drive down to the Bay Area at around 1am after Ian got off work.

As you can see in the picture, it was POURING the entire time from the second we left Seattle to until we arrived in the Bay Area. Windshield wipers were on maximum speed for the entire duration of the 14 hour drive, and it even began to hail and snow pretty hard in southern Oregon and northern California.

It took a few days to finish the last of the title transfers and paying taxes during registration, but it's all done now. Here are some pics of the boat (these are by no means glamor shots since they were just taken with a little cell phone camera, and these were taken before we had the boat repainted, lifelines repaired, and the interior all cleaned up). In any case, you can get a general idea of what our new home looks like:

At the boatyard waiting for work to be done: before sides were buffed all shiny and white again and new lifelines strung

In dry dock being worked on - lookin' good!

Bottom totally sanded down and repainted, hull gelcoat cleaned with solvent and buffed to a shiny, glistening white. Now being hauled back into the water

Had to sail the boat over from Berkeley marina to Emeryville marina - first time out in the water (although as you can tell it was cold and wet that day!)

Previous owner built custom dodger ... protects cockpit from wind when sailing and helps to keep rain out of the cabin even when the slats are open. New green mainsail cover as well.

Aft anchor (there's also another one in the front of the boat)

View of the cabin from the stairs leading down from the cockpit - like I said, not totally cleaned up yet .. pardon the mess! Galley (kitchen) directly to my port side (left), table with blue top is the dinette area, wooden hanging locker for all our clothes further back, and across from that is the toilet/sink, and then in the very front is the V-berth where we sleep.

Chart table for our nautical maps and navigation tools!

Pretty much a full galley ... only thing missing is an oven - well, I guess a toaster oven works all the same ;-). Otherwise, we have a fridge, microwave, two burner propane gas stovetop, sink with water filter on the faucet, icebox, etc. You can also see this big wood/plexiglass custom cabinet the previous owner built for extra galley storage (I now have all my dishes, cups, and teapot stored here). We brought our own crock pot and rice cooker on board so we are by no means roughing it ;-)

Starbord (right) side bench

Dinette area just in front of the galley cabinet ... table has another section that folds out and the dinette area has another bench (on the left side, out of the picture) that forms an "L" shape so 6 people can easily eat here. Table also folds down to lay flush with the bench, so with adding another cushion, it forms a double bed.

Toilet (behind wooden door on the left) and then looking into the V-berth where we sleep. I can totally stretch out my legs ! This is much deeper than it looks. Hatch open above for some fresh air and light.

Outside in the cockpit bulkhead: marine GPS, depth sounder/fish finder (to gauge depth of the water), knot meter for our speed, anemometer (to gauge wind speed and direction), Raymarine Autopilot for the tiller (to hold our course on longer voyages), and weather station sensor that sends information to the weather station inside in the dinette area.

That's all the pictures for now ... unfortunately it's been raining nonstop since we've been here so we haven't had a chance to sail out into the bay yet. However, we did move the boat from Berkeley marina to Emeryville marina where we now have a slip ($290 a month! So cheap!). For those unfamiliar with the Bay Area, Emeryville is a little town between Berkeley to the north and Oakland to the south, on the east side of the San Francisco bay. We are located just north of the eastern end of the Bay Bridge which enters into San Francisco:

As far as the Emeryville Marina goes, this place is so fun. Looking south to north on this little peninsula which sticks out into the San Francisco bay, I can see the cargo ship docks of Oakland, then the Bay Bridge into Treasure Island and Yerba Buena Island, then the entire San Francisco city skyline, Sausalito/Tiburon, Angel Island, and Berkeley.

The land surrounding the marina is all a public park with gorgeous, unblocked views of the entire San Francisco bay .... lots of people walking their dogs, jogging, etc. There are also tons of BBQ grills and picnic tables amongst the forested park areas, and here by the entrance to our dock is a pit for a large bonfire!

Our $290/month "rent" includes 20 channels of satellite TV (which we haven't hooked into since we don't really watch TV and we haven't mounted our LCD screen on the bulkhead yet), multiple channels of WiFi internet, laundry room access, private and clean shower stall access, electricity hookup, and water hookup (directly at our dock)

At first I was concerned this place would be too isolated, but we quickly learned that there's a free shuttle that runs from the marina through emeryville's downtown shopping area (lots of restaurants/shops), and then even to the Oakland BART station for a quick 10 minute subway ride into San Francisco. For my cooking fix, there's a Trader Joe's very close by (walking distance) and I can get everything from garlic naan and vindaloo curry to fresh fruits and sandwiches. Even closer (within the marina peninsula) there's an independent grocery that is a bit more expensive, but a great place for last minute items if I need.

Over the past couple days, we've pumped out the bilge, filled the water tank up, flipped on the water pump (we now have running water for the bathroom and kitchen sink, plus a flushing toilet!), and have our electronics (mini fridge, microwave, cabin heater, etc) all up and running. There are speakers for our sound system both inside the cabin and outside in the cockpit so we can play some chill tunes while we sail. All the lights inside the cabin are running (one of them is solar powered!) and we have a solar powered ventilation fan as well. Pretty fun.

Yesterday I also cleaned up some of the extra lines laying around in the cockpit and spent some time figuring out which lines lead to where .... I think we're all set to sail the next time the sun is out since I can locate and operate the mainsail halyard, main sheet, topping lift, jibsheet and jibsheet furler line, and other things.

Today, I'm enjoying some oxtail soup that my aunt cooked (thanks Yee Yee!), doing some laundry, and staying warm inside the cabin while I do my homework. Sunshine is coming towards this weekend, though, so hopefully it'll be our chance to head out.

Although there have been many times where I've bonked my head on a handrail or radio mount, I do have to admit that waking up gently and naturally to the sunshine beaming down on my face or to the sound of rain on the deck above while the boat gently rocks has been pretty cool.

New year marks my next huge adventure in life!

Happy Chinese New Year! Gung Hay Fat Choy, everybody! I'm supposed to eat noodles and fish today for the new year, so I just had Pho for lunch (hey, that counts!) and I'm going to try to find some fish to cook tonight.

With today marking the start of the new lunar calendar (year of the rabbit), I thought I'd take this occasion to announce my next new adventure in life ...

San Francisco apartments have been demanding huge security deposits despite my history of 3 different landlords in 3 different cities with 3 different utility companies in 3 years all willing to attest that I have never once paid a single bill late. Despite this, they're still hassling me for the equivalent of up to $4000 in deposit. Are you kidding me? Anyhow, suffice to say that after enjoying sailing so much these past couple months, we've been looking into sailboats some more. I guess I should be more specific ... I mean, actually living aboard a sailboat in the San Francisco Bay. Maybe 2011 could be considered "year of the sailboat" for me as well ;-)

Most peoples' reaction is shock but let me first put it into perspective: $1450/month for a tiny studio in San Francisco or $250/month for moorage (a slip to dock a boat in at the marina) after purchasing the boat? Add into that equation the fact that you can get a wonderfully decent sailboat for anywhere between $4000-$6000, and you really get an idea about how much money you can save with the latter option.

The boat we are currently interested in... maybe my future home? :

I don't even need to explain the complete joy of being able to move around whenever you want, sailing around Alcatraz, Angel Island ... up to the San Francisco ferry landing for the farmer's market 3x a week, or hopping down to Jack London Square in Oakland or the hip restaurants of Alameda island. There is absolutely nothing in the world like being powered by the wind with the water rushing below you.

People have brought up the fear of such a lack of space, but Ian said it perfectly: "Well if you're sitting in the back of the sailboat and you look up and there's nothing but open sky above you ... do you really feel like you don't have any space?" Nevermind the fact that besides below deck and the seating area/cockpit near the stern, you can also sit on top of the whole boat, really making the boat more like three layers. Finally, you also just learn to live life outside - picnic in the park, read at the library, hang out in cafes .... do something besides sitting in front of the TV. In urban planning I believe they call this using "third places".

We have a couple of things to check up on, but there is a boat that we are interested in at the Berkeley marina. It has excellent access to Berkeley (which itself is a cool town), as well as excellent links to the BART subway into San Francisco, or over to the north bay, or down to Oakland as well.

With that option in mind, we set out to sail here in Seattle again with our friend Kyle. This time, I really paid attention to learning all of the different ropes/lines/sheets and points of sail (wind direction, speed, sail angle, etc). He happens to have the exact same boat we're thinking about purchasing (same model and year), so it's that much better that what I'm learning to sail on, I will be sailing in the future as well.

Pulling up to the dock right in front of Duke's for happy hour in Lake Union (usually you never come into dock with sails up, but winds were so calm today it was okay). How cool is that ... pulling up to a waterside restaurant on your boat!

Kyle and Brad folding down the main sail

All dockside prep done, time to have some happy hour clams!

We'll see how all of this pans out of course ... it would make for a pretty interesting new adventure to blog about! My life on a 27 foot sailboat ... sounds pretty fun ;-)

[Update: 2-3-11, 7pm]: So we've officially made contact with the current boat owner, the marina, and a surveyer to have the boat hauled out of the water and inspected. Ian will fly down to Berkeley this weekend and it could very well be possible that by the beginning of next week we have a sailboat! Of course, if there is anything major that comes up during the inspection, it will have to be taken care of or we may have to keep looking, but I'm keeping my fingers crossed and knocking on wood that all goes well. It could also very well be that our first day upon arriving in San Francisco, we could take the parents out for a sail in the bay before the farewell dinner and their move to Japan the following day.

Anyhow, in other random news, I decided to finally get rid of my Thomastik Dominant strings on my violin and try something else. Everybody grows up playing on Dominant strings and they're great overall, but I wanted to fine tune some things. My violin itself is wonderful, but sometimes I feel like there's too much surface noise when I play, or perhaps that my sound is a bit harsh. So, I bought some new Corelli strings (from France) which are not as "bright" sounding as Dominants and a little "warmer". 

The turquoise and black winding on the bottom is really cool looking

After letting the strings stretch for a couple days and playing on them, I can say that they're much better! A bit softer, darker, warmer, and feel less harsh under the finger. They may not project as far as the Dominants, but I will sacrifice some projection for a lot more warmth in the sound (plus, my violin tends to project pretty far anyways). Since they're half the price of Dominants, this may be my new string of choice!

I guess that's pretty much it for now ... just chugging along with school. Ian's thinking about heading down to Berkeley to check out the sailboat this weekend so we'll see how all that turns out soon in a couple of days! Stay tuned...