The kids and I went to see a 74 year old 56' pilothouse ketch a few weekends ago. The Hubster is the "boat expert" so we went with the express purpose of checking out the living space. The kids took this idea very seriously. They tried out every berth on board--all 9 of them.

Dmitri, the current owner, has had this boat for 30 years. He's used her as a family fun ship, a charter cruiser for kayakers and as a liveaboard. He's spent more time on her than off. The last year he was undergoing cancer treatment and has to downsize to a smaller vessel. He's also relocating to the West Coast, and taking a ship this size through the canal would cost ~$40K. He has a 35' catamaran in Seattle and left for there a few days after introducing us to this ship. It wan an introduction, too--the ship has a definite personality. She felt very warm and welcoming to us, literally and figuratively. I can see living here.

We did have one little oopsie when we were getting ready to leave. K (bottom bunk) hesitated a bit when stepping from deck to dock, and nearly fell in. Luckily I was holding his hands, so I hauled him back up on deck before he hit the water, but he was pretty shaken by it. He cried a bit and didn't want to get off the boat. I told him that obviously the boat didn't want him to leave either, since she'd pulled away from the dock to keep him on board. Eventually we all managed to make it back to dry land and head home. K's requested a gangplank in the future. I can't say that I blame him.

Hubster will hopefully have some time to go up and look as the ship with us before he leaves on business again. I hope we can make this work.