Reviewing the (our) month of August.

Reviewing the month of August.

Cheri and I loaded up all of our “material belongings‘ and left Maine on Monday August 1st. We left our land life for a life on water, a liveaboard cruisers life. We made our way from Maine to Chicago for a brief visit with family and friends then on to Slidell, LA.

Once there we unloaded our belongings in a storage unit and started our liveaboard life. It was a wonderful 11 days. Being on the water, sleeping in a boat, the marina, and especially the people!!!! In just a few days we made lifelong friends. What a wonderful experience.

Then Katrina…. In order to keep my wits about me I am looking at this as a Soul Cleansing Experience…

There must be a greater purpose to all of this. Nothing happens for no reason, there is a purpose to everything. Maybe for us,, this is a way to shed the last of our land life and cast off on our liveaboard life. I mean, all of our “material belongings” the remaining attachment to the land world was put into the storage unit. That is all gone now,,,, we have nothing, no material attachment to our past. The slate has been wiped clean.

Kind of a re-birth if you will. We have a new sense of perspective. As I repeatedly state - life is a journey. Continuing on the journey of life is the important issue. So choose, make a decision, continue on, wherever the journey takes you.

Why? The journey of life is endless….

Rob

My Thoughts

I can not begin to tell you how I feel at this point. I am just able to put my random thoughts down in black and white.

First, Thank God for friends like Bink and Mikey. They have been incredible through this whole ordeal.

Second, The hotel we have called home for the last few days has been wonderful. First they reduced our rate by $30 a night, then they have put on dinners and benefits for us. They made life a little nicer for us during our ordeal. They have been just fantastic!

Thirdly, I am grateful to have my family safe and sound. I am sad that our home is uninhabitable but at the same time we could have been hurt or worse. We are all safe and sound!

Our Home 

The Aftermath

Well here we are 2 days post Katrina. The news gets a little more sad everytime we hear it. Here are pictures of our home!

Our home is still floating but is significantly damaged. Jonathan and I will probably be getting on a train or plane and heading to Chicago to Grandmas house until we get things straightened out with the boat.

Louisiana

We were just down in the lobby of the hotel and met people who are from the same town we are.

There are so many people here from the New Orleans Area........

Our thoughts and prayers are with everyone touched by this nasty storm!

Katrina

THIS IS HER!





Well we have been on our boat for exactly 2 weeks and we have been hit by a major catastrophic hurricane named, "KATRINA"

We left the marina on Saturday to avoid the chaos when everyone else decided to leave on Sunday. We drove to Vidalia, LA and stayed in a Comfort Inn there for one night because that was the only room they had and they only had it for one night. So many evacuees are here.

We are getting our news from our dear friends Mike and Bianca who are safe at their children's home in Baton Rouge.

We heard from Bianca yesterday that our boats are floating. Probably some damage but unknown to what extent. One boat on dock 3 broke loose and after crashing into other peoples boats along the way it finally sank. Our thoughts and prayers are with everyone.

We are not sure when we will head back to our home as all the area is flooded and not passable at this time. We will keep in touch with Bink and Mikey and hope for the best.

The Move

Our home made it to the marina on August 15, 2004. Ross our hired Captain stayed on the boat Monday night and we moved onto her lock, stock and barrel on Tuesday.

I must say the pictures are deceiving...........Boy, its a good thing we like each other! ;))

We have so much work to do on her but she feels like home and that is what we want!

In 2004 we started planning and dreaming of a different lifestyle.

To be more to the point a liveaboard lifestyle, simple yet different every single day.

We are Rob, Cheri and Jonathan our little skipper. We decided to buy a sailboat and live aboard it.

We looked for many months trying to find the perfect boat. When we finally stopped looking for perfect we stumbled upon her.........She is beautiful!She is 36' long and almost 12' wide. There are 2 bedrooms, a bathroom with a tub, a kitchen, living room and dining room combination