This week Fred was in Paris for work, so not having anything tying me to the house I packed up the dogs and headed to the boat.  My schedule for the week included two job interviews, plenty of applying, and some sewing I needed to finish up.  Everything I needed fit in the car — but just barely.

My nav table turned out to be a really great workstation.

So here are my first impressions of many of the daily activities I needed to do aboard this week compared to what it’s like doing them from home.

Job interview– This was surprisingly easy. I left my suit in the car and just changed right before I left.  I already had all of my paperwork printed and ready, but that would have been a small obstacle as we have no printer aboard.

Cooking– I had no issues at all cooking aboard.  I didn’t do anything fancy, but then it’s just me.  I did end up buying this amazing Magma cooking set.  Not because I needed it though but because it was on sale.

Provisioning– This was a much bigger issue.  Being aboard more than a weekend made me realize that if I was to live aboard it would mean going to the store every other day or so.  No freezer means fresh meat, and small fridge means limited supplies.  This also translates into me not buying only what is on sale in bulk therefore higher cost.

Dogs- The dogs were amazingly well behaved, but walking them was a big chore.  I needed to walk them four times a day for about 30-45 minutes each time in order for them to be tired during the day on the boat.  I was also all sweaty after each walk.

Clothes– One thing I noticed with my longer stay was that it was a lot harder to tell what clothes were clean.  A $1 hamper I purchased at a garage sale on Saturday should solve that problem though.

I’m really glad I spent this week aboard.  I was pushing hard for us to move aboard before this and my experience this week will make me take a second look.  I really enjoyed being in the marina and hanging out with my friends in the evenings.  I also loved sewing and working in the boat.  The hard work of dog walking and constant trips to the grocery store though are making me think staying in the house for a bit longer might be nice.