The other side of the story . . .

Time to clean the bottom of the dinghy

   Today, as I sit here in beautiful Panama City, I know some people must wonder:  why do we stay so long in one place?  what do you do all day?  is every moment loads of fun?

   One reason we sit for awhile places is David's work.  Fortunately, with the internet available almost everywhere, he can work wherever we are.  Periodically, he flies to his client's site, so the boys & I sit on the boat awaiting his return to move on to new places.  Meanwhile, we do schoolwork and explore.

   The interesting thing about living full-time on a 9 year old boat, is, like your house, after a certain period, mechanical items start to break.  We've had some frustrations the past couple months, because, despite all our maintenance checks and services we did before we left on the trip, part of our adventure has been - what will break today?  Then, how quickly can we get it fixed? get replacement parts?  We had a problem with our generator right after we started, but the water pump was just worn out. Fortunately, we met an amazing mechanic, who fixed it for now, until it completely completely wears out (we now have a replacement unit standing by).  One morning, I went to heat up something for breakfast, and our microwave/convection oven, which has served us very well every single day for 8.5 years, died.  Toilet pump & main water pump - you were worn out, too (replaced).  We understand, it is all about the timing.  These items would have broken whether we went on the trip or not.

   Along with these repairs, we seem to have had bad luck in our arrival in certain towns due to the weather (which they swear we brought with us!) - water turned off, marina pump-out systems down (we have 2 40-gal holding tanks for our toilets, so we use these pump-outs to empty the tanks.  We can usually go about 2 weeks), ice on docks, etc  It has made our "potty" situation interesting at times, as well as showering, and we have not been able to wash down the boat as much as we would like.

   All this to say - none of this matters!!!  To us, the most important part is we are together and traveling in our home to new places, or old favorites.  We love figuring out where we will go next, where we will stay when we get there, what we can do there, and the new people we will meet.  This is one of the many reasons we have lived on a boat for over 10 years.  We are living our dream, so we do not mind if there are a few bumps along the way!

Dispose of old oil from engines