Our first year in, I wasn’t quite ready to let it all go. It was in essence, my first time living on a boat (outside of when I was a toddler and my parents had a boat).  I still liked the feeling of having our “land home” just in case things didn’t pan out on the boat. It was a comfortable anchor to know that if I was wretchedly sea sick or just didn’t enjoy myself, that there was a Plan B, somewhere to crawl back to and hide in the comforts of a motionless home.
    When we left Canada we purchased a shipping container, like the ones you see on trains and cargo ships, tetrised all of our belongings into it, and left it on our friends acreage next to their storage unit. Once again, a huge thanks to them, they have all our material belongings in a metal bin in their back yard. We parked our beater of a pickup truck next to it, found renters for our house and sold our car. The ties were cut and it was time to jump in full force.
   People, for some reason, are often full of questions when they see a younger family living on a boat and it often seems to comfort them, and also myself, to remind them that we still had a house back in Canada. Over our three years aboard we have returned to Canada twice, once for a short visit and the second for the birth of our second daughter. Both times our house was being rented out and so we ended up staying with friends. And every time we would return back to the boat we would feel that “this is our home”. Our comfort was now in our rocking floating hideaway. 
   We have found it to be a bit of a hassle owning property abroad because if there were any problems or the renters needed help we were always bugging our friends to go check in on the place on our behalf. And have we ever had “renter issues”. Everything from petty roommate squabbles meaning half the rent was owing, to full on uncontrolled parties to where the helicopter police showed up. Yes we sure do know how to pick em. But finally we were in a good place, we had family renting it out and no more hassles. We had considered selling it but most people told us that if it was being rented and in essence paying for itself why let it go.
   Finally this year we came to realize that we no longer feel the need to have the house as our safety blanket. Our home is here. The house was causing us more worry than benefit. If you are sitting on a beautiful white sand beach and all you can think about is whether the renters got that plumbing issue fixed, it’s time to sell. And so we have hired a realtor, a friend and old coworker, and are hoping that the house sells in a timely manner. With that money we will either prolong our sailing adventure or use it to buy property elsewhere, to fuel the dream. As much as that house was our safety net now comes a relief in knowing that soon we may be completely free of any landlocked attachments and free to move about…where ever. If you, or anyone you know may be looking for a home in Edmonton, Canada, send them up way, our cruising fund could use a boost.