Skip to main content

Spring Has Sprung, Outside the Loop, and Friends and Family are Coming out.

The weather has certainly improved over the last couple months, it seems nearly impossible to think it was snowy and frigid just 60 days ago.  We've planted a few flowers and plants on our "dashboard" and they are thriving.  We've done a bit of spring cleaning and are excited for summer.  We're in that part of the boating season that can best be described as a first kiss.  For boaters who store their vessel in the winter there is planning and work and dreaming about what the summer will be like.  Now is that time that the barn doors are opening, the trailer tires are being filled, the cranes are lifting boats in the water, and the engines are being fired up.  It's that anticipation of summer, not knowing how great it's going to be, not knowing if the weather is going to be warm and sunny or stormy and unfair.  Just like that first kiss, hoping for the spark, but unsure if it'll actually happen.

Green
For those of you who read our last post we have a LINK to the story that was done about us living aboard Cygnet by WGN Radio's show Outside the Loop.  Mike Stephen and Andy Hermann visited us a couple weeks ago to record the story and it aired on Saturday April 25th.  They did a great job of telling our story, so take a listen and get a feel for the sounds of our voices and the marina.

We've had our first visitors of 2015!  Colette's cousin DeAnne came to visit with her boyfriend Rashid as they cross the country from their residence in Telluride to visit DeAnne's girlhood home in Wisconsin and Rashid's stomping grounds in upstate New York.  We were lucky enough to have them stay with us for a few nights and they seemed to enjoy the tight accommodations aboard Cygnet.  We've had other couples use the forward stateroom before and they said it was fine, but we still worry that the bed is too small and the privacy isn't what many people are accustomed to.  They both seemed to be alright with it and we enjoyed having them here.  We were all talking about how strange it was that DeAnne is the farthest of all the relatives (other than Colette's dad Joe) but she was the first to visit and stay.  Time to change that relatives!  Alex, who is Colette and DeAnne's nephew joined us Tuesday night for some fun times aboard Cygnet and some great greek food at Greek Islands.  Joining us for dinner were our neighbors Tim and Laura who we'll miss terribly as they departed yesterday for their summer slip in Milwaukee.  We look forward to many other friends and family members coming to stay aboard this year!
From left Alex, Colette, DeAnne. Kevin is hiding.

DeAnne, Rashid, Laura, and Tim.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Welcome TV viewers! Yes, it's cold today.

Thanks for making the trip over to the blog today after watching the story on TV or online.  If you take a look around the blog there are lots of answers to some of the questions I'm sure a lot of you have.  We wrote a post about all the costs and I'm sure many of you will start there. Here is the video link in case you missed it. Knowing how cold it is outside this morning you may also want to know how we are doing. Yesterday when Marcus and cameraman Carlos came out it was 63 degrees inside the boat.  Well with the wind we had last night and the brutally cold temperatures it's a bit cooler inside now, about 54.  We have an alarm set if the temperature in the engine room goes below 40, which it did at 5AM.  We took one of the space heaters out of the living area and moved it down to the engine room to keep things comfortable down there.  Inside the engine room you obviously have the engines, which don't use antifreeze like a car, and can be damaged by the cold.  T

You Live On a Boat? You Must Be RICH! Nope. Here is how to live aboard for cheap.

We've written before about how many people ask us private things just because we live on a boat. Since our lifestyle is a bit different than most  people there seems to be an idea that we want everyone knowing about our financial lives and personal habits.  Here are some questions we get: How much does it cost? What do you do in the winter? How do you heat/cool the boat? Do you ever leave the marina? Why are you doing this? Do you miss your house? How do you shower? How do you poop? Those last two come up a lot more often than you'd think.  Let's face it, most of us are a bit crude. Kevin has spent a lot of time with "proper" people, businesspersons, met many CEOs of large global companies or other folks you might think are high class.  Most of them turn into 14 year olds after a few cocktails.  That's when the real questions come out.  A lot of people are just curious, and their curiosity can overwhelm their sense of society, privacy, and politen

Converting to Video, Let's Jump On the Bandwagon

  For six and a half years we've been living aboard Cygnet, a 42 foot Carver 4207 Aft Cabin Motor-yacht in Chicago.  We've also been writing this blog on and off and have been featured on local news and other programs.  We've had fun but it's time we transition to another format.  Originally we wanted to write about our experience and felt that a written blog was the best way to do it.  But times are changing and we've seen many boating channels on YouTube become massive.  We have no desire to become full time YouTube Vloggers but we know people like video.  They say a picture says a thousand words, what do thousands of pictures have to say?   See you on the Small Screen, Cygnet. We've seen the writing on the wall because many of you haven't seen the writing.  Due to us only occasionally posting, and other factors, our once thriving blog has dwindled into triple digit readership.  It's time to get people excited again!  By transitioning to YouTube we ho