Water We Thinking

Rather than write a bunch of crap that nobody cares about we've tried to be selective in what we post. Sometimes it takes us weeks or even months to come up with a good post.  Sorry we don't communicate more often, but after two and a half years living aboard Cygnet things are starting to become pretty routine.  Right now fall is upon us and we are getting prepared for the winter.  We've been fortunate this year in that the weather has been quite amazing with mostly sunny days and very mild temperatures.  Here it is November 7th and the high is 70F (21C) with not a cloud in the sky. Amazing for Chicago in November.  Sure it can get that warm at this time of year, but it has been like this for weeks! Colette waves hello on a beautiful day. Some of you might notice we've started to put metric measurements for distance and temperature in the posts.  For those of you who think you might be the only ones reading this little blog you should know that we hav...

I came across this similar blog called Luv'n the Regal Life  which originally was written about a couple's adventures on their weekender Regal 3760 boat.  The blog is now about their life aboard a Carver a bit larger and quite a bit newer than ours.  They have just crossed the two year mark of life aboard and as we are at the one year mark we thought it was interesting that this couple who we don't know is experiencing many of the same things we are at nearly the same times.  They got a one year jump on us, but many of the experiences, frustrations, projects, and joys are the same as we have.  I find these folks interesting because judging only by a couple photos on the blog they seem to be about the same age as us (Kevin just crested the hill and Colette is a ways behind him).  You can find thousands of live aboards with silver (or no) hair but trying to find ones under the age of 50 isn't as easy.  Sure we are around, but it's not like we always run ...

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 hav...

We've been on WGN TV twice ( Original and Followup links) and Your Chicago Podcast  and now this Saturday we'll be on the Outside the Loop program with Mike Stephen on WGN Radio!  We don't see this attention as any sort of reflection on us, but more the situation.  People seem to be in two camps about us (and the others in the marina) living aboard a boat year round in Chicago.  Either you think we are just crazy and can't understand it, or you love it.  Our one year anniversary of living aboard is fast approaching and as the weather heats up it's becoming clear as to why we are doing this.  It's just awesome!  Yes it sucked for two months in the winter but that's over, at least for the next nine months, and it's been great living on the water in this mild spring we've had in Chicago. So What's New? We are still in the process of getting the stereo and entertainment system up and running.  We've been talking about it for a while but i...

Hello and welcome! Many of you have come to check the blog after seeing the video on WGN or Facebook, and we're glad you did. Here is a LINK to the update video in case you missed it. Please explore the blog and check out the great information we have up. Feel free to ask questions, comment, tell us we are crazy or awesome, or whatever! Here are some links to posts we've written that you might find interesting: HERE  is a post about the cold and problems we've had this winter. HERE is a post about some of the updates we did to Cygnet when we first got her. HERE is a post about what is costs! HERE  is a poop ular blog we wrote about the problems we've had with marine plumbing. HERE  and HERE are posts that show a good idea of the type of problems and maintenance involved. HERE is an interview Colette did on Your Chicago Podcast. It's full of information if you have the hour to take a listen. There is more to see, so explore and have fun.  Ask...

LINK to WGN update story. http://wgntv.com/2015/03/04/update-on-couple-living-out-chicago-winter-on-a-boat/ It turns out the story Marcus LeShock did on WGN Morning News about us living aboard in the Chicago winter was quite a popular one.  If you haven't seen it, check it out HERE .  They have had viewers and even some of the staff of WGN asking Marcus to follow up and see how we survived the 3rd coldest Chicago February on record and the 5th largest blizzard in recorded history.  Regular readers here know we had some problems but if you want to see for yourself watch WGN News this Wednesday March 4, 2015 and you will get an update!  Marcus came out this morning and asked us questions about how we are making it, our marriage and how it's holding up, being local celebrities at the boat and RV show, and how Cygnet is doing. Marcus was able to get an interview with one of our favorite neighbors, Dr. Doug too, so you will see another perspective from someone doing...

First we must apologize for not blogging in a little while, we've both been relatively busy with work (Colette especially) and just plain lazy about writing. On January 17 we spent four hours working the River City booth at the Boat Show .  We did the 10-2 shift which gave us some time afterward to explore the show with our good friends Adam and Holly and their lovely daughter Claire.  In the beginning it was a bit slow, but quickly it filled up and we grabbed people walking through to talk about River City.  Now, let me say that River City isn't perfect, it has some problems here and there, but overall we really like it.  Mostly we like the location and the fact that you can liveaboard year round.  So we put on our happy faces and told people about our "neighborhood." If you were one of the people that stopped by I hope you gained some great information from us and learned more about the marina, if you didn't make it that's too bad because we had a gr...

Not even 48 hours after we bragged on TV about how great it is to live on a boat in the winter in Chicago, Kevin arrived home to a powerless boat.  It was 38 degrees inside and there was no power to anything other than the A/C circuit.  If you read our previous blog Power Hungry and All Wet  you know we lost power earlier this year and we traced it to a faulty power inlet.  We have two power inlets on the boat, one that supplies our "Shore" power and runs the fridge, lights, battery charger, stove, and all the other accessories on the boat, and another input that is solely for the A/C units.  Our A/C units (which also do reverse cycle heating) were still operational.  Kevin tried messing with the electrical panel after noting the main breaker had been tripped.  He turned on the main, but whenever he switched on any individual circuit the main would trip again.  After inspecting all parts of the boat for a short of some kind it wasn't long before t...

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...