People laugh when they hear how we came to live on our boat. For years we had been dreaming of the day when we could retire, sell the house, and move onto the boat full time. We dreamed of untying and leaving on year long cruises to interesting new destinations.

It had not always been that way. When we married we saved our coins and built a house in the country. We expected to live in that house until the end. But as the years passed we spent more and more time on the boat. Eventually we began to resent the house and it’s neediness. I mean come on …do you really need your grass cut again? I just cut it 2 weeks ago! Ok, Ok, 3 weeks ago!

Like many of you we started with a small boat but eventually we succumbed to the dreaded disease referred to as Fourfootitus. The 28 footer gave way to the 34 footer; then the 44 footer; and eventually the 55 foot Plukebaum that we own today. Doing the math you can see that we had a bad case of it and the disease got worse as time went on. Compared to our 28 foot Carver the Plukebaum is palatial. People don’t measure boats by the square foot but we found the 400 sq-ft of living space to be more than sufficient. I mean good grief who wouldn’t be content with a boat that came equipped with luxuries like a washer, drier, and dishwasher. Outrageous I say … just Outrageous.

So it wasn’t too long before we began practicing retirement … well sort of anyway. Instead of going home on Sunday we just stayed at the boat and commuted the 1 hour to work. We joked that Every day is a Friday! On Friday you have to go to work but at the end of the day you head to the boat and hang out with all your friends.

The reason we had not moved to the boat before was that to live on a boat and still work the boat had to have enough space to store work clothes. Every time we talked about moving onto our 34 foot Pequod my wife would flippantly question So where would we store the ironing board? I know, I know. An ironing board? Really? Well it’s true. Try going to work all rumpled and frumpled and see how your career progresses. But Hey, the Pluckebaum has plenty of ironing board space.

While on a week long business trip I got a call from my wife. Somewhere in the conversation she blurted out “I want to move onto the boat.” Interestingly, when I shared the conversation with the two ladies that I was traveling with their first reaction was “What? She’s leaving you?” “NO. I get to go too.”

Anyway back to the story … She tells me that she doesn’t want to wait till we retire. She wants to sell the house now and move to the boat.” I hate to say this after all of the day dreaming and planning we had been doing, but I was a bit apprehensive. That was a huge step and I guess my natural resistance to change was kicking in. But that subsided after roughly 2 nano-seconds. “Sure, let’s do it.”

Little did I know but she already had an offer on the house. When I returned from the trip on Friday I walked into the house and was greeted by an empty living room. Hum. She is serious about this thing. She had sold the living room furniture. A stroll through the house proved the same was true with the bed room furniture. The king-size bed was gone and was replaced by a pallet on the bed room floor. Well at least we have a pile of blankets to sleep on.

Now before some of you get riled up at what appears to be a sneaky clandestine move on her part, she had been visiting her niece that week and during the course of conversation her niece commented that she wanted to move into our neighborhood so that her children had access to the good schools in our district. I guess my wife just couldn’t resist when she later followed with how much she like our house and wanted one just like it. My wife jumped at the opportunity. Well that meeting proved fortuitous for all of us. We moved out that Friday and our niece moved in a few days later, paperwork to follow.

We have lived on the boat for a number of years now and love it as much today as the day we made the plunge. Boating Lessons Learned: Don’t wait. Every day can be a Friday.

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