Celebrating 3 years of living aboard

O

outbackbill

Member
Today marks our 3rd year of living full time on our 25 foot cruiser Blue Days. It has been a grand adventure, and we have been to some beautiful places. We head north each Spring and return south in the Fall. Some of the places that we have enjoyed are the coast, rivers and lakes of Maine, Chesapeake Bay, the Intracoastal Waterway from Florida to North Carolina, Isle Royale National Park and the Apostle Islands on Lake Superior, the upper Mississippi, the Rideau and Trent Severn canals, and the coast and rivers of Florida.

We have no idea how much longer we will continue our nomadic lifestyle but we haven't been west of the Mississippi yet and are tentatively planning to go to Alaska in 2017.

We want to Thank all of the people that make this web site such a wealth of information. We would especially like to thank Bill and El of Halcyon and Jim and Joan of Wild Blue. After reading your stories we knew how we wanted to start our retirement years.

Bill and Becky Smith
Blue Days
 
Sounds like you are having a wonderful time. Nice to know you are "out there" in your C-Dory :thup

(Don't suppose you have a blog or etc. you'd like to share?)
 
Hit up Lake Michigan and Door County some time. Lake Powell's and Mead are great as well. So are the San Juan Islands. I hope to spend a little more time at gatherings in the west the next few years as well. I'd also like to learn a bit more about the Eastern Lakes. Any recommendations from your travels? Colby
 
Definitely, don't miss the West with its wonderful systems of lakes and the northwest oceans. Lake Powell should be on your bucket list along with the cour d elane and pondere (I know, I'm too lazy to look up the spelling. They are the two huge north Idaho lakes). Also the snake and Columbia rivers. Flaming Gorge, and Even Lake Meade. San Francisco bay and dozens more. I wish you long life and safe boating so you can do it all.
 
Bill and Becky,

Congrats on your 3rd anniversary! You have had some great adventures and the waters out west will provide many more.

Many people dream about the lifestyle you two are sharing! :thup

Best wishes,
Jim & Joan
 
Bill and Becky, Seconds on the Congratulations, and what a great anniversary to celebrate. Are you on the water full time, or are you trailering some of that time as you move north or south? What a great story you must have. Would love to hear more about it. A thread here would be good, or links to that blog that Sunbeam mentioned.

Harvey
SleepyC :moon

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Harvey....Not only do they have good stories but they have put together little photo booklets of their adventures. They got passed around at the last St.John's gathering and we really enjoyed them. There is nothing like some pics to go along with the story!

Bill and Becky.....Can't believe it's been three years already. What is it about retirement that causes time to speed up anyway??? Congratulations on living your dream and the best is yet to come as you head out west and north. A blog would be cool but for me a thread on this forum would be my choice since I check this site most days. Enjoy the Keys and look forward to seeing you again, on land or water.

Becky....You owe me a pic of the back of Bill's truck :-)

James
 
All the memories of Blue Days happenings came flooding back with your anniversary announcement.

Bill, you could write a book on fish caught around the US. Wait until you land your first BIG fish out of the Pacific.

Becky, we'll expect a book on "projects" completed while being a First Mate aboard a C-dory.

Cheers,
Hank and Pat
Meri Aura
 
Thanks for all the positive comments.

Sunbeam, we have talked about doing a blog but don't want to commit the time. We do post pictures with captions regularly on Facebook and Instagram. They can be seen on Facebook at Becky Ogilvie Smith or Instagram at BBSMITH4.

Colby, we enjoyed getting to know you at Hontoon. So far our favorite eastern lake would be Moosehead Lake in Maine.

Harvey, we generally spend a week to ten days on the water traveling mostly at hull speed. We average about 20 miles a day leaving lots of time to kayak and fish. We anchor out most of the time in protected coves. In between boating trips we land camp on the boat. We like state or national forest campgrounds or state parks and usually stay at least two days to have time to explore the area and resupply for the next launch.

James, it's always a pleasure to see you and Betty. Thanks for mentioning our picture books. For anyone interested it's an app called chatbooks. For every 60 pictures that we post they mail us a small picture book that's perfect for sharing.

Bill
 
Bill and Becky: Congratulations on the 3 years! It was so great for Marie and I to spend a bit of time talking with you all at Hontoon. Bill is one A ! fisherman. We saw lots of serious fisherman, with 0 or a couple of fish, Bill would casually slip off and bring back a mess of very nice fish! What a great couple!

Even got a ride in the fabled truck!

I am going to have to 3rd or 4th, the suggestion that you all need to follow the seasons, Birds and Fish out West. One one in the inland passage does not do it justice, plus the 4 to 5 month season, seeing all of the sights along the way....To be included are both sides of Georgia Straights, around Vancouver Island, Around Queen Charlottes, and around most of the Major Islands of SE AK.

So I predict another 4 years at leasts of living aboard!
 
Congratulations on the three years, and many more. Your thoughts of western cruises (and off to Alaska) are enticing lollipops on the horizon.
Keep on cruising and enjoying life. Hooray! El and Bill
 
Bill and Becky
Three years go fast when you are having fun......so just keep having fun! We always enjoy the times when we get together and visit with you. Just make sure if you go "Out West" be back to Hontoon Island the first week of March for the gathering.....after all you are a Charter Member! We're packing for a St. John's trip now. Then off to the keys the following week. Are you still down there?
God bless........Tom and Joyce
 
Bill said:

"....Thanks for mentioning our picture books. For anyone interested it's an app called chatbooks. For every 60 pictures that we post they mail us a small picture book that's perfect for sharing.


Bill, please, would you care to post more info on that app, maybe a link the specific one, and a bit more about how it works. It sounds wonderful. I agree, I'm not the blog posting type, and love doing pix, so that might be something that would work for me.

I found this explanation of what it is.

And I found this link to make a book.

But all the pictures look to be square. There must be more to it. you must like it. Do you get to decide what gets cropped off your picture, or do they just take what is in the middle? More info please.

Harvey
SleepyC :moon

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Congratulations Bill and Becky! The best part of owning and operating a Cdory for the past 10 years has been meeting and making friends with wonderful people like you. Keep going and we hope to meet up with you on the water again sometime soon.
 
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