I can not tell you how many people give me funny looks when I tell them I live on a boat. In their heads, it does not add up. “Where do you sleep? Is there like… a kitchen? Aren’t you afraid of sinking? OMG how much stuff did you have to get rid of?!” In retrospect, those are actually pretty decent questions but we never really put much thought into the little things that seem to make peoples heads spin. So, with that said we asked our Instagram followers to send us all their questions so we could answer them in a video and we got some great questions! I will answer our favorites here:

      1. Why do you live on a boat?

Why do you live on land? All sass aside, we chose this lifestyle because we were sick of renting and didn’t necessarily want to commit to one location forever. On a sailboat we are able to call anywhere we go “home” which I think is pretty neat. This lifestyle will allow us to see the world from quite literally the comfort of our own home. It is also a simple lifestyle, we only take what we need and most importantly we are able to see how our choices effect the environment. We think twice about what we use to clean our boat and what we throw away because we literally see the affects of pollution on the ocean everyday.

      2. What are your sailing plans? 

We have been discussing this a LOT lately. We would really like to casually “race” in the TransPac or PacCup in 2020; both are regattas which sail from Long Beach to Hawaii which takes about 14 days. Some boats are in it to win it, where as we would be only semi-competitive. It would just be a cool experience to meet new people and make like-minded friends that are doing the same trek we are. From Hawaii, we are thinking about sailing to Alaska. Crazy temperature change, am I right? We want to see Alaska before global warming completely changes its environment, plus have you seen the incredible photography that comes from there?

      3. What are your favorite parts of your boat?

Woohoo! I love this question. For me (Marissa), my favorite part of Avocet is our galley. There is so much counter space for baking, the fridge is the biggest I have ever seen on a boat, and I love the way it is set up. It is pretty much mid ship, which is rad because I love entertaining and feeding people. A close second on my list would be our Aft Cabin. Chris and I really wanted a boat that had an aft cabin so we didn’t have to sleep in the V-berth. Our cabin has 2 closets (both mine… thanks Chris!) and 4 drawers. We also have good airflow from our hatch and port light which is always a plus. Chris’s favorite part(s) of Avocet are our new rig, which features a tapered mast which prevents the mast from pumping in high wind. He also loves the amount of lazaret space, our deck and of course our huge cockpit. Chris basically likes all of the technical perks of our boat. Go figure *wink*.

      4. Future Projects?

Ah, are projects ever done? I feel like there are ALWAYS projects… I suppose that is just the joy of boat ownership. In all seriousness we do have a couple big projects on the horizon. We need to varnish the whole interior since, as you can see, our whole freaking interior is teak veneer- which is awesome when it is taken care of! However, the previous owner did not keep up on the teak maintenance as much as we would have liked, but its nothing some fresh varnish can’t fix. We will also be raising our pilot berth so it will be a bit-smaller-queen size bed rather 2 twin bunks, making it perfect for a couple to stay the night aboard. The last “major” project we will be doing is making a stall shower in our head. Our head (bathroom, for you land lubbers) is a “wet-head” as of right now, which means EVERYTHING is made to get wet and wipe down after a shower. Wet-heads are great, but since we have the space for a stall shower we are making a stall shower. It will be small, but we will basically be reconstructing a whole half of the head. We will definitely be taking pictures and videos during all these projects so stay tuned for those!

I hope that I was able to answer a few of your questions! Check out our video for the complete Q and A. As always, thank you for reading and following our adventures of boat ownership. Until next time, Cheers! ~ SV Avocet Crew