Both kids are book worms, which is more of a challenge for Kinsley than Zoe when it comes to life and storage on a boat. Zoe adds to her Kindle regularly but Kinsley, solidly in the picture book department, needs more physical books aboard. She’s a huge fan of Mercer Meyer and Richard Scarry, as well as anything involving boats, beaches, or seals. We visit the library often but have a collection on board as well.

It took until February for the snow to arrive. We’ve had flurries, heavy slush, fluffy snow, freezing rain. The shrink wrap does well at keeping itself clear. Most of our wrapping is steep enough that, as the snow piles up, it just slides off. Two areas, above the door and across the boom over the cockpit, are less steep because we opted for more headroom. When the snow begins to pile up I put on mittens and head up to bounce the snow off the plastic from the inside.

I had my concerns, as we packed up our house and pulled Zoe out of school, about how we would do making friends along our travels. My whole family makes friends deeply but slowly, not necessarily the best fit for a traveling family. We settled into the marina, got to know other kid boats, and had fun playground dates, but still spent a lot of time on our own.

That’s right, winter is cold around here. I work hard all summer to forget that fact. With the weather finally turning seasonable I’ve been working to adapt our daily rhythm to fit the season.

Today was the first time in a long time that I was really reminded that I’m living on a boat. We’ve been here long enough that I don’t notice things like the size of our home or the way that I twist just the right way to pass through the hallway to my bedroom, and perform a different twist on the way back. We’re in a fairly protected spot and on most days the movement of the water is slow and quiet and you barely notice it.

What do you get when rewiring a boat for the third time? Spaghetti.

Alex has been slowly replacing old wiring throughout Goblin with the goal of eventually updating the entire electrical system. This weekend we installed a new battery charger, which meant another round of tackling spaghetti.

I pulled out the kids bathing suits the other day and discovered that they were already wet. Eew. Warm boat, cold ocean, hello moisture. Over the past few days Alex and I have gone through every cabinet on the boat looking for signs of condensation.

Boston decided to provide us with a taste of warm holiday weather this year. No white Christmas here, instead we celebrated in t-shirts and bare feet, entirely unheard of for Boston. We spread out our celebrating over three days, all very low key.

If you spend any time with us this month you’re sure to hear Kinsley asking, “is it Christmas yet?” I think a quiet day has me answering, “not yet,” only a dozen times.

I find myself being asked, often, what it’s like living on a boat. It’s not an easy question to answer. After all, how would you answer if I asked what it’s like living in a house? I think I know what the question really means, how is it different, what makes it exciting, but it’s still hard to find words for.

Boat life is a lot like living in a very small apartment with no right angles.