Living the Dream

We picked up Luv'n Life IV on Saturday morning and moved her to our new home. While we aren't completely unpacked, we no longer have to climb over boxes and can see a majority of the floor. I'm also proud to report that I have a little bit of extra room and may be able to purchase a few new items of clothing.

Here are some views from my new home:

The Raw Barge restaurant should be opening at the marina sometime this summer.

 

The kitties are adjusting well to their new home. They don't seem to notice the slight rocking motion. They haven't been anywhere near the water yet so life jackets haven't been required. 

We celebrated with a home-cooked (boat-cooked?) meal Saturday night including a 2003 bottle of wine that we purchased in Italy in 2008.

One fun note about the new boat -- the "hourglass" refresh symbol on our GPS makes it look like there is a hurricane up ahead.



Galleys and Goodbyes

To start with the second part of this post's title, we (hopefully) said goodbye to our Regal 3760 today. She is on the market and we brought her to the Bay Bridge Marina for the Bay Bridge Boat Show this weekend (anybody want a boat?). With any luck, she will sell quickly. Today was bittersweet as she has been a great boat. Mother Nature knew we needed one last good ride and she gave us a warm, sunny day with few waves and we were able to send her off with a good bath.

As many of you know, our boats have been named Luv'n Life and we've always had Regals (hence the reason for the blog name). A friend recently asked if I was going to change my blog site now that we own a Carver. To answer simply -- no. I'm just redefining "Regal" to mean a way of life.

Now on to galleys... For my non-boating followers, a galley is a kitchen on a boat. Our beautiful Carver is still out of the water while the shipyard waits on trim tab struts. So, while we weren't able to move onto her yet, I was able to spend some good time arranging my new galley. Keep in mind that I've gone from this...

To this...

 

Before moving out of our house, I sold and donated a lot of kitchen stuff. Have you ever looked in the back of your kitchen cabinets? How many baking pans do you have that you've never used? I also put my china and crystal in storage a) because there isn't room and b) because highly breakable items like that do not belong on a boat (with the exception of two crystal champagne flutes that will be very carefully stored for special occasions). I am happy to report that I found room for everything! And there is still space left for food.

There is one part of my galley that has me a little concerned. How on earth do I fit everything I need in this refrigerator and freezer? Tips/thoughts/ideas are greatly appreciated!!

The previous owners of the boat left behind many kitchen items and I had fun deciding what to keep. While totally cheesy, these plates may be fun for deserts:

So, yes, I kept the fish plates. They also left behind regular plates, bowls, and glasses so I don't have to go shopping anytime soon.

Since she is out of the water, I was able to take a fun picture today.

Our 2002 Ford Explorer next to our 2003 Carver 466.

Before any of you say "Wow! Your boat is huge!!!" please take a picture of your vehicle next to your house. :)

We Did It!

We sold our house and bought a boat big enough to live on (most of the year). Check her out:

Carver 466

We picked her up on Saturday in Kent Narrows and brought her to Baltimore. My husband is a fantastic captain and he navigated the Kent Narrows Drawbridge like a pro. This is the first time we've had to request that a drawbridge be raised for us.

After successfully navigating the channel out into the Bay we celebrated with mimosas:

And I took over the helm for a bit:

Many thanks to our boating friends, James and Sandra, for joining us on her maiden voyage.

We'll be moving onto her next weekend and I'll be sure to post pictures once we figure out where to put everything we own. In the meantime, enjoy these pictures of our cats who haven't been to the boat yet but have already modeled their new attire:

Tigger

Latte