M/V Perfect Fit: All about Moondance

Many of you have asked about living aboard, navigation and safety issues. We have had no safety issues at all. I do have a shotgun on board, but it is safely stored. We have a "talking first aid kit" used by flight EMTs, and both of us took first aid courses. Getting use to living in less than 1000 sq ft has been easy. We simply do not need a lot of stuff. A boat always needs more storage space, however, and Moondance is no exception. All boats are compromises. Many aft cabin boats extend the aft cabin to the width of the boat (Sundeck models) at the expense of no walkaround. When docking and locking through, we chose the walkaround in lieu of a wider aft cabin. With just the two of us most of the time, it is helpful to be able to walk from the front to the back of the boat, ergo the name walkaround. That leaves us with a smaller aft cabin, with less closet space, so Alexis has appropriated our third stateroom as her closet. We have three staterooms and two heads. Many of you wonder if we are at each other's throat. No, we are not. We are probably closer than ever, having to rely on each other often. Alexis drives 80% of the time, while I plot navigation. I dock and do the locks and issue commands that are largely ignored. Lately, while hopping from city to city on the ICW, Alexis has taken over navigation and driving, as I tend to skip towns, she wants to explore. I piddle in the engine room, keeping things working (or breaking them, and hiring people to fix them). So we really do not see a lot of each other until the end of the day, just like at home. So far, it has been a great experience and neither of us have thought about breaking out the shotgun!.

There are narrow locks and fixed bridges on the Loop, so the max air height has to below 19' (we are 18'6") and width 22' (we are 15'6"). Our length over all is 50'.

Below are some pics of our gear and living area. If any off you have specific questions send them to me, and if appropriate, I will try to answer!

On top we have a VHF radio for communications with other boats, bridges and the Coast Guard, depth gauge, and spot light control. Below, auto pilot, I pad and MFD (multi function display). It shows various screens, including charts, weather, radar, AIS and rear facing camera. The I pad has an App associated with Active Captain (the trip adviser for boaters). It shows anchorages, marinas, navigation hazards, etc, all from other boaters, with comments, ratings, etc. A very useful tool.

Active Captain. Green dots are anchorages, yellow hazards, and red marinas. Click on a dot and the info pops up. Active Captain is free on the Web, but the App is not.

We have paper charts and guidebooks as well.

The yellow ditch bag is full of safety stuff if we have to abandon ship in a hurry. The life jackets are inflatables, and are more comfortable than the red ones. They automatically inflate if you fall in.