We have rented our house for two years, starting July 1st, 2015. This is huge step forward for us and our plans to live aboard our St Francis 50 catamaran, SV Aphrodite.

This gives us a hard move date for June 30th, 2015. Where we’ll be living as of July 1st, is an unknown.

If you are a friend or family member, perhaps we’ll be sleeping on your doorstep, or in a tent in your back yard. And, I’m only half joking.

A move date of June 30th leaves us just 13 weeks to pack up our house and sell, store or give away all of our belongings. Meanwhile we are continuing to take sailing training, doing our taxes, and managing the refits on our boat.

So where do we start?

Today, my husband and I spent much of the day researching the items on our refit list, and shopping for materials for our boat. We bought black dock lines, Polyform F7 fenders, and put in an order in for a Charles isolation transformer.

The Charles isolation transformer means that we are less likely to electrocute ourselves, especially if we find ourselves at a marina with an iffy power supply. It also allows us to Soft Start the electrical components on our boat, without blowing a fuse. And, finally, it means that we will have continuous power to the boat, even if the marina power is being drained by other boats around us.

We are leaning toward a Glendinning shore power cord retractor. A part of me is repelled by the idea of putting in such a fancy contraption. A push-button, power cord retractor seems more geared to the blue-haired, RV set, but it means that one person can single-handedly reel-in the 60lb power cord if we are at a marina. This leaves the other person to manage our four children or some other task on the boat.

My husband and I are both visiting the boat shortly, but separately. We would have liked to have visited the boat together but we couldn’t line up childcare for our four-year old twins, Henry and Karen. We felt that the twins were too little to be on the boat right now as we don’t have any child-safety components in place.

I’m visiting the boat this weekend in Florida with my eldest daughter, Betty (9). And, my husband will visit with our eldest son, Paul (7), next week.

While in Florida, I plan to clean the boat, learn about the boat components in a more hands-on way, and meet with Pat Reischmann who is advising us during the refit process. I’m excited to sleep on the boat for the first time.

Stepping aboard holds some drama because my husband has tied it up purposely a bit further from the dock than normal. It is a good thing that my daughter is ultra thin because we might have some trouble opening the sliding door into the saloon at the moment, and we’ll likely need to call my husband to turn on the power for the first time.

I will be sure to update my blog with some pictures. Betty and I leave for Florida on Thursday morning.