I'm superstitious, so I'm not going to say that this is our boat.  This is ALMOST our boat.  We are just a day or two away from making her officially ours. And here she is!  Our almost-boat is a Mason 43, built in 1981 by Al Mason, a designer of bluewater sailboats.  (Bluewater means they are built to sail in open ocean, so basically they can sail anywhere in the world.)  We love Masons for their classic design, woodwork, and sturdiness, and we literally searched the world for one for sale that suited our family.  Travis flew to BVI to look at her last month and fell in love.  Then the rest of us saw the videos he took and we fell in love, too.

It's such a crazy feeling to look at these photos and think...this boat will (probably, most likely) be our house for the next year or more.  We will be leaving our mountain home of 3000 square feet to live in a floating home of 250 square feet.  Our Telluride home has four bathrooms.  Our boat has one tiny head with a shower that's just inches away from the toilet.  Our Telluride home has a brand new washing machine and a dryer.  Our new home will have a bucket and a bunch of clothespins.  The house we live in now is near thousands of things we know and love.  Our boat will bring us to places we've don't even know exist yet.

Yesterday I packed up our Christmas decorations and I realized that it might be a very long time before I unpack them again.  It was a surreal feeling.  Little by little we are boxing and storing our Telluride lives, getting ready in our heads and hearts for our journey.  Hello, 2016!  Let's GO!!!!