Water We Thinking

Now into our first winter living aboard we were invited to the annual River City Marina Rat Party. Every year in the beginning of December those of us brave or dumb enough to have a boat in the water through the winter (and some of the summer folks) are invited to a party in the marina to celebrate our curious way of life.  The party is more of a boat "crawl" where we start on one boat and visit all the others with a finish on the largest of the winter dwellings owned by Dr. Doug.  This year we had a great turnout, we invited a few non-boating friends to join and everyone had a great time. Night and Day  The evening started with a cocktail aboard Cygnet as our friends arrived, then we en-masse went to Castaways, owned by Captain Pat to join the rest of the crews.  On a calm and relatively mild early December evening it was packed.  Castaways is no little runabout, it's a big boat, about the same size as Cygnet, but it was packed to the gills with our nei...

Above is the view from the Harrison St. Bridge just blocks from our marina.  The rounded building on the right is River City.  Beautiful evenings like this reaffirm our decision to move to the river downtown.  We're enjoying exploring our new neighborhood and all it has to offer.  The changes to our day-to-day living do not just stem from living on a floating vessel.  They also come from the neighborhood we live in, the loss of parking in a garage outside our back door, the lack of a basement to store our bikes in.  We are figuring out solutions as we go.  We found a parking space to rent in a high-rise apartment building right across the street from us, with space for one car, a motorcycle, and maybe two bikes hanging on the installed wall rack.  We're also testing out locking bikes up on our swim platform.  This is a more convenient spot to grab and go, but then we have to move them when we want to take the boat out on the water.  ...