Welcome to our first blog entry!Â
I figure this is a great time and place to tell a bit of my own story!
I am a mom of two boys (4 year old and 20 month old).Â

My husband and I have been living on a boat for the last 7 years in Vancouver, BC.
In 2019 we set off with our sailboat to sail from Vancouver to Mexico with the plans to come home via Hawaii and Alaska.Â
But covid had other plans! We decided to hunker down for a few months in the Sea of Cortez in Mexico to see how things unfolded. And in the meantime, we found out we were pregnant!Â


Covid made everything very uncertain but one thing we knew for sure was that I needed to be home by the 12th week in our pregnancy.
Our pregnancy journey hasn't been a smooth path. Â
I have been pregnant 5 times, given birth three times and I have two sons (our first son was born too soon at 16 weeks).
We eventually came home in June of 2020 via land without our sailboat and had to find ourselves a new floating home. We spent a week doing a road trip around Vancouver island looking at new boats and finally decided on a 42 ft.1977 Trawler powerboat named Rebel 1 to make our home.Â
She needed a bit of work which we got to straight away but our baby decided he wanted to come extra early (24 weeks) which was very scary and had us living in Childrens Hospital by our babies side in the NICU for 91 days.
We brought our son, Gunnar home on December 9th of 2020. That was probably one of the most heart filled and relieving Christmas’s Ive ever had. Although, strange since it was still thick covid days. I actually kind of liked the quiet calm of the holidays with just us three in our snug little boat. Â
We had a Christmas tree that we named Treesa, short for Patree-sa. We had tons of presents that friends and family had brought to us while we visited outside.Â
Our small under 2lb baby has grown into a lively, energetic, and joyful 4-year-old boy! We are eternally grateful that he bravely overcame challenges and is now a happy, healthy, beautiful little boy.
Since then, we had another baby boy! Oscar! My pregnancy was, at times, stressful and worrisome and we were monitored very closely. But in hindsight, was just your standard text book pregnancy. He even came right on his due date!Â
So now we are a family of 4! Both our boys are such miracles in their own ways.
Last summer my husband took parental leave and we spent 2 months floating all around the coastline from Vancouver all the way up to Desolation Sound. Although we have experience adventuring on boats, never had we done it with children. We have thoroughly explored every place weve been to. Hiking to lakes, swimming in pristine warm summer waters, watching pods of whales and dolphins off our bow, catching epic sunsets, and foraging old abandoned homesteads to replenish our produce stocks. We made pies from apples picked from old orchards and made roasts with rosemary found at what was once old front yards of the homes. It was really cool to envision what the places we visited would have looked like when they were operating as a homestead. Â
When we are at anchor and off grid we run off of a generator if we need to, but mostly we generate enough power with our solar panels and we use a gas stove and bbq for cooking. We try to reduce the amount of "stuff" we have on the boat simply because we dont have room but also because we like to live minimally. We dont have a microwave, we dont have a toaster (we toast on a flat cast iron pan, we have a small RV sized fridge and freezer and we boil our water for baths and dishes when we are not on the dock. We have a no device rule when we are out on boat adventures (although our children rarely watch shows anyway). But we are committed to experiencing being off grid and making memories rather than being "connected" to the outer world.
We live on our boat all year round. Summers are spent exploring islands and coastlines and our winters are spent on the dock connected to power to keep warm and dry. In our marina we have access to laundry, water, power, showers (although we have a shower on our boat). On the dock we have box gardens for strawberries and herbs in the summer months. And the marina has our own community garden on the seawall at the top of the dock where we also have a plot. This year we grew pumpkins for the kids to carve this halloween.Â
The community here is really special and unique. There are people here ranging in age from 3 months - 92 years old! There are a few other young families living here as well. There is every walk of life here including doctors, lawyers, librarians, scientists and engineers. Everyone looks out for each other. My neighbours water my plants when im away and I return the favour if theyre away. Our kids high five people on the dock as we pass by and play with the older kids catching fish and other sea creatures off the docks. Every year we have mama seals that give birth to a few pups on our docks, obviously feeling safe and comfortable enough to do so. It's really special. We feel so grateful to be part of such a beautiful community. This type of lifestyle offers us so many advantages like giving our children an unreal rich childhood experiences, community and connection, the best waterfront views of mountain ranges and sunset or sunrise vistas, and incredible affordability. My husband and I only ever daydreamed about the possibility of me being able to stay home and care for our children and living here allows us that possibility. We havent had to stress about daycares or whether or not someone is taking care of our children the way we want them to. We have been involved in their growing every step of the way instead of having other people raising our children while weve had to make money to pay off a mortgage. We love that so much! Of course we also day dream about having a piece of land somewhere some day, and that will come, but for now, we are taking full advantage of all this lifestyle has to offer.
Living on the boat does come with a lot of challenges too. Especially an old boat like ours. She needs lots of love and maintenance which my husband does all of. She leaks, she smells like an old boat, the space is small, our kids learned to climb before walking because our stairs/ladders were too exciting, we have to pump our poop tanks, we have to fill our water tanks every week, she isnt insulated so when we are in the dead of winter, she can be extra cold and frosty on the inside!!! hahaha but it's mostly fun and character building! Â
We have a 5 year plan to stay living in this arrangement and then see what we should do next. Maybe get another newer and younger boat? Im sure our boys would love to have their own rooms. Living in this small space with a family really does make you question how much do you really need? How many toys do kids really need or can we just go outside and play with what nature has provided for toys? Do we really need 8 ft ceilings or a normal flushing toilet? Do i really need a 15 minute long shower? etc etc. It's amazing how something as simple as having a bathtub can turn into a luxury item when you live without one for so long.
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