If you want to live onboard a boat, you have to make choices. Indeed, it is impossible to bring all of your earthly life on the sea. Daniel and Anna left Sweden less than a year to embark on their Lagoon 380 from Croatia, to live a blue water cruising life. Among the choices they made,one was to bring Vera, their dog on board. Here is Vera’s opinion on life on board:
In the beginning I found it both difficult and a little bit scary to live on-board this new floating house of ours. To get inside our new house I have to walk over a narrow plank. It´s actually really tricky because the plank is hanging over almost a meter of water, and in the beginning I got so stressed I often missed it and fell into the water. This was before Daniel taught me how to swim so I just sank like an anchor.
Well, on-board our new place is pretty cool. I have one of my favourite spot under the table in the “living” room. The table works both as a meal place for humans but also as a roof for me when the bloody thunderstorms are all around. I don´t know why but it seems like they are around a lot more here than back home.
My two humans live downstairs in one of the basements. I can´t go down there because the stairs are way too steep and I am not built for mountaineering, but sometimes when the thunder comes Anna takes me down so I can sleep with her. I guess she is also afraid and uses me as protection.
Outside I have many great places to hang out at, and because this boat is a lot wider and more stable than other boats I can move around all over the place. My neighbor in Croatia, a Golden Retriever from Germany, is living in a house called mono-hull and he can´t move around at all when they are out at sea, so I am really happy that we have what they call a catamaran. I even have my own shower in the back so that my humans can scrub me and clean my feet if they are dirty.
In the very front of the boat you will find a big trap. It´s a net with big holes in it that connects the two hulls together. My stupid humans often sit around there as if it was a nice place or something, but because I am a lot smarter than they are, I stay away from that scary area. I almost fell overboard and into the sea once in Croatia when I was chasing a stupid dolphin. After that incident Daniel decided to put a NET all around the place to protect us from the dolphins. This really made my life safer and also it was a nice feeling to put that lazy bastard Danny to work, hehe… It took him two days to finish the job.
During my time at sea I have developed new interests and hobbies. Don´t get me wrong: food is still my main interest, but there is one other thing called fishing that I really enjoy. I can sit around for hours and hours staring at this amazing thing that the humans call a “fishing rod.” I don’t really know what it does yet but Daniel throws something into the water, which is full of colors, and sometimes the thing starts to make a strange noise. Oh Jesus I love that sound! I love it so much that I also start to make all sorts of strange noises. The “rod” brings you food out of the water. It looks almost like a rabbit without feet or ears and it smells funny, but man it tastes good!
So far on this boat I have visited more than 8 countries and sailed more than 2500 miles, so I think I have earned the right to be called VERA THE SAILOR.