Followers of our blog wonder what life is like for a family on a boat.  Being cruisers, we are only sailing a small fraction of the time so our kids are not stuck on a 37 foot boat going stir crazy.  One thing they love to do on the boat which gets some of their energy out is to swing on the bosun’s chair from the spinnaker halyard.

Hammock time is also nice.  They never just lay there and read.  The hammock is always a swinging when they are in it.

Cole is up the mast. Logan in the hammock.

Jumping off the bow of the boat and swimming back to the transom they can do when the current is not strong.

Laundry is a constant battle.  A bucket of fresh water on the front of the boat with a plunger is the best method we have found.  We occasionally make a trip to the laundromat for sheets or if the amount of laundry has gotten away from us.

Cole’s turn to do the laundry.

We also spend lots of time on shore hiking, beach combing, playing on the beach, walking around towns, etc.

Our days are not filled with idle time however.  There is always things to do on a boat, just like home.  We cook all of our meals and have to do all of our dishes by hand which is a process in itself.  The boat needs constant cleaning inside and out.  With four people living on a boat, plus friends coming over, there is always a battle with sand, salt and hair.  It is amazing how much hair we all shed.  it ends up on the floor and in the bilges where it is much more noticeable than in a house.  Everything we use needs to be picked up as soon as we are done with it or life becomes difficult in a hurry.  If we all left our things laying around like books, sunglasses, hats, life jackets, towels, sandals, dry bags, flippers, snorkels, wet swim suits, etc. it would be a complete, unlivable disaster!  Luckily Logan is the ‘pick it up police’ and keeps us all responsible for our things.

School takes a fair amount of our time as well.  Some days we get more done than others.  I am actually looking forward to the upcoming blow to spend a couple of days on the boat getting caught up.  Cruisers host a variety of classes on Chat & Chill beach.  One of the classes Logan & I took was sushi making.  We were both surprised at how easy it is!  Really!  We have been enjoying sushi on the boat ever since.

Logan learning to make sushi on the beach.

Logan & me with the fruits of our labor. Guess what we ate for lunch?

I hate to say it but one thing we have found comforting is the TV.  We do not use it often, but it is nice for us all to kick back and watch a movie from time to time.  Of course, watching a movie is not quite as simple as at home.  After we haul the generator out in the cockpit, plug it into the outlet on the boat and fire it up, flip on the AC power master and the port AC outlets, then we can turn on the TV.  When we do run the generator, this is also the time to charge all devices that we only have a traditional plug-in for such as the laptop, ipad, ipod, cell phones, sat phone and VHF.  We do not have an inverter on our boat so generator time is the time to charge these ‘regular plug in’ devices up.

View of Truansea from the top of our mast.

View of bow of boat from top of mast.

Wish we had time to do more posts but our access to town has been limited due to winter cold fronts coming through.  When we do have a few days of calm, we are filling up the water tanks on our boat, getting groceries, etc.  We also take these days to enjoy snorkeling, spear fishing and exploring the islands.  This afternoon another front is coming in and we are in for 25-30 knot winds tonight at 20-25 knot winds the following 3-4 days.   We are in a snug anchorage at Red Shanks, just south of George Town.

Fair winds ~ Christine