Welcome to the
Liveaboard Candide Website!
Since
August, 1999, I've maintained a Web site dedicated to my
experience living aboard a 38' Hans Christian Traditional
sailboat named Candide. The site has
received some 80,000 visitors since its inception.
Certainly not as impressive as some of those pornography
sites out there, but a number of which I'm very proud!
During this time, I've received
hundreds of e-mails from people who dream of living
aboard. I've dispensed information about air
conditioning, auto pilots, teak care, and slip fees.
The site went for nearly two years without an update, and
people spoke their minds. Update the site!
More pictures! More stories! Your voices have
been heard. So here's the brand-new site complete
with new text and photographs.
Two years ago, I decided to
obtain a unique domain name for the site. My
original thought was to secure "candide.com,"
but this name was already taken by an organization called
"The People Locator" (curse them!).
During Christmas of 2000, my
sister came for a visit and stayed in Candide's aft cabin.
One morning, I went into her berth to retrieve a pair of
shoes and realized that I'd forgotten to remove my
dinghy's oars from their normal storage place. They
were still on the bed, and my sister had been sleeping on
top of them! "Sis!," I said, "You
don't have to sleep with those oars!" For a few
seconds, she had a confused look on her face and then
burst out laughing. It took a while for me to
realize what she found so funny.
I then realized that I had found
the perfect domain name for my Web site: "SleepingWithOars.com."
I've come to accept that fact that I'm no longer living a
normal lifestyle. I don't have "next door"
neighbors, they're "next hatch" neighbors.
I don't have windows, they're "portals." I
t
seems rather silly to call a bathless lavatory a
"bathroom," so I refer to it as the
"head." There are a thousand other
little differences about my sailboat-based lifestyle, and
I'm proud to say that I "sleep with oars!"
Maybe you're thinking about
sleeping with oars, too. When I first considered the
lifestyle, I was filled with countless questions; How does
one purchase a sailboat? What types of things make a boat
a comfortable home? How much boat can a guy like me
afford?
Unfortunately, this information just isn't readily
available. Fortunately, the Internet is a fantastic
place to find information if you know where to look.
I composed a letter listing my questions and posted the
message to several Usenet newsgroups devoted to the
sailing community. Within a few days, I had plenty
of helpful advice which I'm happy to share with you along
with my own comments and observations.
So...click on the links to the left to find out everything
you ever wanted to know about the process of moving aboard
a boat. And please,
e-mail
me with your thoughts and comments! Please let me
know how you found my Web site, whether or not you're a
liveaboard, and any suggestions you may have on improving
the content. I make it a goal to answer every e-mail
received.
If you happen to
live in the Jacksonville, Florida area and would like to
stop by to see first-hand what it's like to live on a
sailboat, please ask for an invitation to visit! At
my current marina, there are more than 60 people who live
on their boats. A very special community has
developed around the marina, and I'd love to show you how
great it is! In the words of Voltaire's Dr. Pangloss,
this lifestyle is truly, "the best of all possible
worlds..."
One last
point on this home page. My sister who, by sleeping
on top of my oars, has been a bit miffed that the old site
didn't include a picture of her. "Hey, I
helped you name the site, and you don't even have a
picture of me on it!" she recently said. So, in
loving tribute to my sister (who is alive and well in
Philadelphia), I hereby post not one, but a few pictures
that truly captures her spirit.
Please click here to see them!
Please e-mail me at
robert@sleepingwithoars.com
©
2007 by Robert Doty
