Water We Thinking

  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 transiti...

Well it took almost six weeks to restore power to River City after the flood of Sunday May 17.  In addition it took almost two months to get internet back.  That's why we haven't uploaded any new videos, our iPhone hotspots work, but 4K video takes a whole bunch of bandwidth.  Now that we have the ability to upload at will here is the latest installment of "What I Did on My Covid Vacation." Enjoy!

On May 17, 2020 we had a flood.  River City, which sits on the South Branch of the Chicago River rose more than seven feet and the marina and building attached to it were flooded.  The building was evacuated but we on our boats were fine.  It took a few days for the water to return to normal but because the building was flooded we lost power and water. We've managed to get a temporary water solution by using the city pressure water from the spigot at the building on the weekends when they aren't using it for cleanup.  We also have a 250 gallon tank sitting nearby with water just in case we need it.  In fact as we write this we've been told we won't have availability to water for a few days at least.  Thankfully we have 150 gallons on board plus about 20 gallons in the hot water tank.  We can last a couple weeks if need be.  We've definitely upped our Solo cup and Dixie paper plate budget this month. Power is a bigger issue for us at the momen...

Summer is fast approaching and we're itching to get outside and see friends, go to restaurants and bars, and at least go to the lakefront but we're still under Shelter in Place orders in Chicago.  So what have we been doing for the last couple months?  Colette is working from home and Kevin is working on our home.  All those little things are getting done and some bigger ones too. After years of looking at a pretty bland bathroom we decided to spruce it up a bit.  We had such a small area to paint we grabbed a sample in a lovely shade of blue and Kevin began taping around the teak to give us a pop of color in the Master Stateroom Head.  So, how'd it go?  Take a look at the video below to see. Oh, and we have more project videos coming soon so subscribe if you'd like to see 'em.

"Bro, I just got this sick new bowrider, bring your girl down on Saturday and let's party" This is a very common thing to want to do, show off your new toy.  After all you probably paid a lot of money for your new boat and you want your friends and family to see and enjoy it with you.  Boating is very often a social lifestyle and it's fun to spend time with people on the water.  But if you're new to boating you need to take it slow.  Just because your boat says it can handle ten people doesn't mean you should take ten people out on your first trip.  Cygnet legally holds 42 people but we've never had that many.  We usually cap it at 30 and prefer under 20.  Our 22 foot SeaRay was rated for ten people and five was comfortable, six was crowded. Family on board, including the departed Beverly and Steve. Now that you've spent a few days practicing with someone it's time to take a group out.  If this is a sailboat it will actually make thing...

Owning a boat is hard work and expensive.  If you start out with a great boat it can be easier and less costly.  If you saw our last post about what boat you should buy you hopefully have some insight into what boat you want and how to make sure it's the right boat for you.  So now you've made up your mind on what boat you want, you have the model, size, and year picked out, or maybe you have the exact boat picked out.  Now what?  Take a Coast Guard Auxiliary boater safety course.  There are lots of options at different times of the year and the cost is negligible. Check it out at http://www.cgaux.org 1.  I want it, how do I get it? You found the boat, and you had a survey and sea trial and everything looks great.  If you don't have the outright cash to pay for the boat you'll need a loan.  Your local credit union or bank may finance you but there are specialty banks that deal in boat loans like boatbanker.com or Google other...

Recently we were contacted by a reporter for the New York Times about a story she was writing about people living aboard boats in cities where the cost of living is high.  She interviewed us and the paper send a photographer to snap some lovely pictures before the article went live.  It's an interesting read if you like to know how other people do the same thing.  One thing we've learned through out the years is that there are many ways to do the livaboard lifestyle.  Check out the article HERE . Courtesy New York Times We are now entering our sixth year of living aboard and we've done a pretty good job of updating Cygnet and keeping things in good working order.  But 2019 is going to have to be the year of maintenance.  Wherever you live there are always things to do.  Little jobs that need to get done and get pushed off until they become bigger jobs.  Cygnet is no exception and there are things we've put off for too long that we'll need to...

If you read THIS previous post you know we wrapped Cygnet this year in white plastic instead of our usual translucent.  This was a mistake.  It wasn't our choice, the guys who do this only had the white available and we went with it to keep Cygnet out of the ice and snow for the winter slumber.  We were a bit concerned about less light making its way inside the plastic and not getting the greenhouse effect that normally helps tremendously to keep us toasty warm in the cold months.  Well, we were absolutely right.  By using white we effectively kept the sun and the warmth created by it out of Cygnet.  With a new method of routing power to our heaters and a slew of new heat units we thought we'd be nice and warm but it turns out we were worse off this year than we've ever been, including our first winter in 2014/15 where we didn't see temperatures above the mid-20s the entire month of February. Cygnet Burrito. We had a couple mornings where the outsid...

We blame Canada.  Don't misunderstand, Canadian people are just fine, but the country they live in is a harbor for Old Man Winter and his ilk and this just can't go on anymore.  Every time we turn around there is something migrating down from Canada and stealing OUR heat.  Do you know what this bitter cold does to people?  Millions of American Dollars lost in productivity and millions of AMERICAN WORKERS stayed home from their paying jobs to avoid this migration of cold weather.  It has to stop. What we propose is a border wall to keep these migrant weather patterns out of OUR COUNTRY!  Sure we have natural barriers in some places that can help (thank you Lake Superior) but the only thing that will keep these unwanted patterns out of America is a Yuuuuge wall that they simply can't get over.  We've talked to Justin Trudeau (swoon) and think he'll even pay for it!  In the meantime we will set up a Go Fund Me page to buy every Lasko fan available...

We've talked a fair amount about what we do in winter to prepare Cygnet for the coldest months and to help keep us warm as the temperatures dip to inhumane levels.  When someone new hears about our lifestyle they still most often ask about what the winters are like, how it's possible to live on a boat through sub-zero temperatures.  If you're a regular reader you know a lot about how we prep and cope, but this year we did make some changes which have been good and bad.  One of the issues with preparing for the cold is we often can't change what we've done halfway through winter, the weather doesn't allow it.  For example the tape we use for closing off openings in the hull and for sealing up windows doesn't stick well when the temperature is below 50ºF (10ºC) and the nearly constant Chicago wind means removing or adding plastic sheets can be a challenge. So what did we do different this year?  The number one difference is the plastic wrap on the outside ...

There are many aspects of living on a boat that people are curious about.  We've tried to write about many of them here but in all the time we've lived aboard we have never gotten one question that we think is actually an important one.  "What is it like to live at a marina?" Maybe there is a reason nobody asks, they just don't really care, or maybe they don't know that they should be asking that question.  You don't know what you don't know.  So in this post we want to give you an idea of what it's like to live at a marina. Sunrise at 31st St. Harbor. River City Let's face it, a marina is a floating trailer park.  Some folks may argue with this since you have the freedom to take your boat anywhere, boats are more of a recreational object than a trailer, some boats cost more than the collection of trailers in most parks, and boats are just cooler than a single-wide mobile home.  Maybe the analogy would be better to compare a marina...