We moved aboard Calypso for the third time in our lives on Friday afternoon, April 16, 2021. This time, it was just us. No dog, no kids. It felt a bit surreal.

We’ve been house sitting for friends at a house just about 3 miles from the yard where the boat is since late November. The last days of March disappeared in a blur of packing, stashing things in storage, trips to the dump, and cleaning. Sounds a bit like the first few days of August and the moving out of the Charlottesville house. How we could accumulate so much crap in just a few short months is a bit beyond me.

On April 1 at 5:45 am, we locked the door and hopped into the van for the drive to Texas. Jeremy’s mom lives there and has been largely isolated since early March of 2020; we were looking forward to an extended visit with her that would also involve no boat work. Sure, house maintenance projects and some attic cleaning, but for close to 2 weeks the only work we did on Calypso was to order a rivet gun and decide on the right height for the new mast winches.

After another couple of days on the road, we arrived at the boat at around 3:30 in the afternoon. What were our first steps to moving aboard? Like, for real. The day we physically move ourselves (and our stuff) onto the boat and sleep and cook aboard?

1. Install the fridge. Calypso’s fridge looks like a relatively large cooler, though it is powered by either 110 or 12 volts and is extremely efficient. It traveled with us to Houston mostly because we had a few goodies in it from the River House that we didn’t use up before we left and didn’t want to throw away. Installing the fridge involved emptying it, hoisting it up to the deck, schlepping it down the companionway, and fitting it onto the slider. Then put all the food back in. Figuring out the best use of space in there, and finding the right-sized containers for food, will be an iterative process that will definitely involve lots of the tricks Carolyn has in her excellent book “Storing Food Without Refrigeration”. Our old fridge was far less easily accessed but was a bit larger. Part of filling the fridge included putting in one of the bottles of bubbly from under the floorboards. Crabcake Friday AND our first night aboard? Bubbly is DEFINITELY in order!

2. Put clothes away. We’d ruthlessly downsized our wardrobe and the items we think we’ll need for summer weather fit where there’s space for them. There is a large bag of cool-weather items that aren’t going on board quite yet: I need to find really large ziplock bags (got any recommendations?) that will act as vacuum sealed bags so we can deep-storage things like sweaters and extra blankets.

3. Go to storage to unearth essential galley equipment, like a pot and a baking tray, a bowl and some plates. The kettle is still awol as is the can opener. Bizarre. But at least we can cook dinner and boil water for coffee in the morning!

4. Make cocktails. Take a walk down the boatyard to the water’s edge, sipping and talking and just smiling.

5. Make dinner. Eat dinner down below, music playing, toasting each other every few minutes. Sure, a table is now inching its way up the priority list, but honestly? Who cares!

6. While I’m doing the dishes, Jeremy sets up our bunk. Turn down service at this establishment is top notch.

Ahhh. We’ve moved aboard!