T minus 365

It’s time.

Our departure date has been set:  June 2011

We got approved to live aboard Wondertime at our marina this past week.

We gave notice to our landlords that we’ll be out of our rental house by July 31st.

Our empty storage unit lies waiting for us to fill it up.

The stack of plastic crates grows, filling up with that which is truly important to us.

There’s a permanent box sitting on the sidewalk outside our house with the words “Free Stuff” on it.

The piles for ebay, Craigslist, and the Goodwill grow every day.

By the end of next month, two parents, two little girls and two ancient cats will be living aboard Wondertime.

Originally, our plan was to stay in our rental house for two full years, then move aboard a month or two before heading down the coast to Mexico next year. But as our project list gets slowly checked off and the boat bucks flow out of our cruising fund it has become clear that the only way we’ll be able to pay for all the “needs” and even a few of the “wants” we’ll have to pare down our monthly expenses. The most obvious place to cut back being our rent, gas, water, garbage and electric bills. Since we’re paying the marina bill anyway, it only makes sense to pile everyone on board and save a whole lotta cash every month.

But maybe we just miss living aboard.

It has been nearly four years since we’ve lived afloat and we’ve missed our watery life every day. Of course, with two young children having a nice big bathtub, washer and dryer, dishwasher and well, room, has been pretty nice. But as we’ve spent more and more weekends aboard this past year it’s been hard for all of us to pack up Sunday afternoon and leave Wondertime to head back to our land life.

So, it’s time. Time to be water-dwellers again. Time to get rid of all this ridiculous clutter that has come into our lives over the past four years. Time to simplify. Time to live under the bright full sky with the horizon in view. Time to watch the sea birds and fish every day.

Time to float.