Oswin the Sailboat

Oswin the sailboat arrives

After a year of enjoying the company of my craigslist roommates, I figured 24 was a good age to live on my own for the first time. However, finding a reasonable studio apartment in Seattle was difficult. Not only was it competitive, but prices were also soaring as tech companies expanded in the city.

I hoped to find something both affordable and close to the people I wanted to see on a daily basis. But the second I put down a $1000 deposit on a 340 square foot studio apartment, my stomach turned inside-out.

I wasn’t ready to fork over $1000 a month just to live in a small space on my own. 

A drunken conversation along the lines of, “you got to beat the system by getting a boat!” I have two wonderful friends who brought their sailboat from Wisconsin to Seattle for their living situation – something I would never have thought of otherwise. After a few stays on their boat and enjoying the freedom it offers, I asked myself, why can’t I do this?

The answer was that I could. A slip at the Marina was only a couple hundred a month and the price of the boat is the equivalent of making a car payment. Financially, the plan was as sound as the Puget (sailors only speak in puns). My lifestyle would change, but only for the better.

I had my doubts leading up to the purchase:

Can I really go without an easily accessible shower?

Positive spin: I would never have to clean a shower again.

Will the ice box (instead of a fridge) be too small and inconvenient?

Positive spin: I will eat healthier by buying my food as I need it.

Will the moisture build-up in the winter be too much?

Positive spin: I will buy the biggest dehumidifier I can find.

In the end, the benefits of living on a boat outweighed the negatives and I finally decided to adventure on a 28 foot sailboat.

Since I have no sailing experience and the boat was located about an hour drive west of Seattle, I had the owner and his friend Wolfgang sail it over to Shilshole marina.

Prior to meeting them, my intelligent boyfriend suggested I get a few homey items to bring aboard after the owner left (i.e. an expensive candle, sunflowers and of course, champagne).

I arrived to the marina just as my sailboat effortlessly glided into the marina slip. Although it was technically gray and cloudy that day, I remember it as sunny and beautiful.

Pop! Went the champagne and the sailboat was mine.

Stay tuned for more stories of Oswin the sailboat and my new lifestyle in Seattle, WA.

---

The name Oswin

There is a sailboat superstition that if you rename a boat, the boat will sink. Luckily, my sailboat was nameless, which meant I could name the vessel.

Those of you who know me, understand that the show Doctor Who shapes my life, as any whovian would admit. Naturally, I decided to name my sailboat in reference to an adventure seeker of space and time.

I settled on Oswin. A sassy, independent, character named Clara has the name Oswin when we first meet her, trapped in a dead spaceship, baking suffles. My sailboat is its own version of a spaceship and although I do not have an oven, I thought Oswin would perfectly sum up my future experiences.