We live on the water, we swim just about every day, we watch fish and crabs from our dock, but if you ask Kinsley what she wants to do for the day, she’s likely to request a trip to the aquarium. I’m not complaining at all, I bought our family a membership on our first visit and it has more than paid for itself in our first month here.

You know that moment when you realize that you desperately need to make a trip to the grocery store? The refrigerator has katsup, olives, and half an inch of milk, the cereal box has two crushed tablespoons of stale flakes left, and your only produce is a bruised apple. You stop and think, should I head out now? You check the clock to make sure it’s not an hour before dinner. Maybe you check to make sure the traffic isn’t going to be too bad and that you’ll be able to make the necessary left turn to get home again.

Four people, two cats, 42 feet of boat, maybe 350 square feet of living space. Before moving aboard we comfortably filled a four bedroom house. We dumped, donated, and gave away possessions, we put some treasured favorites in storage, and looked at the pile of goods we felt we needed. Then we did it again. And again. Still too much stuff. It’s a good thing Goblin has so much storage space, though learning to use it well is going to take us some time.

Our move is complete, at long long last. Nothing like a series of last minute complications to add unnecessary stress to an already anxiety producing time. By Wednesday afternoon we were fully and completely out of the Shirley house. This was delayed with last minute well water treatments and hours of vandalism trash clean up, but still, it happened. Huge thanks to Alysa for entertaining the kids, shoveling trash, and equipping us with a vandal deterrent vehicle. There is no way we would have made it out without her help.

Despite the list of projects that need time and attention before we can call Goblin our home full time, I want the kids to get used to her as much as possible before our official move in day. I’m planning as many overnights as possible over the next couple of weeks to get all of us used to the neighborhood, the boat, and the challenges of living on the water with two kids.

High on the project list, and most relevant to this adventure, is that Kinsley doesn’t yet have a bedroom. Until that’s finished, Zoe and Kins are sharing the v-berth. They are both small, there’s a lot of space up there, it should work out fine temporarily.

Sunday was, at long long last, sailing day. The past two weeks have been crazy with the end of the school year, a friend’s wedding, final rigging work and re stepping the masts. Add to that tossing together everything we might possibly need for a first sail. Keep in mind, we bought this boat with it on the hard and right after she hit the water we pulled her masts out. We’ve owned Goblin for eight months and our first time sailing her would be a full day trip from Catamut to Boston.

Alex and I spend the night aboard in order to make an early start. The tide would be with us for passing through the Cape Cod Canal starting at about 6 and getting stronger as the morning went on. With my parents watching the kids, we wanted to get underway as early as possible, to make a more reasonable end of the day. Our estimate put the trip at anywhere from ten hours to much much more depending on the wind and how many problems we had to deal with along the way.

Alex and I have a long held mantra, everything always works out in the end, just not according to our plan. This is holding true with Goblin as well.

With Goblin floating in the Atlantic, Alex and I are more motivated than ever to get everything crossed off our lists. Alex is working through a long list of projects to make Goblin into a safe, effective vehicle for our adventures. I’m building my long list of projects to make Goblin into our home. He crosses off servicing winches and checking chain plates, I stare at storage and bedding. We’re coming at Goblin from two very different angles which makes for interesting discussions of what to prioritize.

When we first walked through Goblin, one of our big concerns was storage. Would we be able to fit our world into this little boat. How the heck would we store all our clothing? We just redid the kitchen in our house, how in the world could we shrink down to the tiny galley? Four people, books, clothes, hobbies, food, tools…

We just found out this morning that the boatyard launched Goblin today!  She’s hanging out on a mooring without us.  Now, if only they would splash their launch as well so we could get to Goblin.  Guess we are bringing down a kayak next time.  Alex needs to add a coat of bottom paint to Wren, the wooden sail/row boat he built a couple of years ago.  Once that’s done we can at least row to Goblin until the launch is running.

I can’t wait to see her floating.