In October 2012, my husband, Ron and I started talking about a way to change our lives and move somewhere we both have always loved - the beach. In California, that means unless you are a multimillionaire or hit the lottery, you are out of luck on that score. We were tired of using more than half of our income for a mortgage payment, for a huge 3000sq ft house in the desert with a lot of upkeep on 1/2 acre, and only one 10yr old child left in the nest. We talked long and hard about motor homes and boat living. Buying a boat and a mooring (two anchored floating balls in the harbor that you tie your boat up to, that you theoretically own that small spot of ocean), lots of people do it, and because we still needed to be in Southern California for my husband's work, made the most sense. We decided to start praying to God about opening doors for it all to happen, and most importantly, agreed that if doors were closing repeatedly, we would know it wasn't meant to be. Within a few weeks of that conversation, my husband found a mooring for sale in the Newport Harbor, where we had visited many times, and absolutely loved the area, very close to great schools and awesome weather. The gentleman that owned that mooring was willing to take a trade of a vehicle and some cash in payments, which was awesome. So, we put our Bobcat tractor up for sale, for probably the 6-8th time, praying this time, it would sell. Very quickly, maybe within a week, someone came and dropped a huge chunk of cash for it, and just like that, we had an open door! So we purchased the mooring in Jan of 2013, started looking for a boat the 3 of us could live on, had enough room for us to function and kind of feel normal. The man who sold us the mooring had his boat up for sale as well, but when we looked at it, while it was an awesome boat, decided it was too much of a project for the price he was asking. As we shopped for boats, we realized that this wasn't going to be an easy task. Most,( in fact ALL lol) were far away from the desert where we lived, the ones we liked were out of our price range, and time to physically look at every boat we could afford quickly became difficult. I think it was maybe about 6-8 weeks of looking, before my husband came across that same boat owned by previous mooring owner, still up for sale at a huge price reduction. After seeing what was out there on the market, and the big price difference, we decided to take another look at that boat. It was a 49ft trawler style boat, with 3 cabins( bedrooms, the master cabin has a king sized bed, the other two with bunks) , a decent size galley (kitchen), many levels, an awesome wheelhouse (where you steer the boat from, and had a sleeping berth as well as a big table to sit around). Yes, it needed work - neither of the 2 showers worked, only one of the toilets worked, no hot water, no refrigerator, had charging problems, among other issues, but the engines ran, had space for all of us plus guests, and we still had time to get our house ready for sale before we planned on moving, anyhow. By then, the owner just wanted to sell it so he could move out of state, and again, was willing to trade and take payments. We became owners of the boat "Seabird" in April of 2013, about 6 months after we started praying about moving.
Next was the house! Getting the house ready for sale, was no small feat, but we were motivated! Our plans are not always God's plans, though, and after opening so many doors for us to get the mooring and the boat, I was quite confused when just a few weeks (May 2014) after purchasing the boat , my husband fell 20+ feet out of a tree (he's an Arborist) and suffered a severe lower tib-fib break of the left leg. The ortho surgeon told me that this type of break was the kind they normally amputate, but that he'd made his best attempt at repairing it, and might need further surgeries down the road. Oh, and 6 months before he'd be able to even put weight on it and ditch the wheelchair and crutches.
Since the boat needed so much work, as well as the house, it was tough to split time and money, between the two. That and having a handicapped husband, kind of slowed things down. My husband is one of those guys that needs to be asleep, or doing something, at all times - and staying off his foot was a huge challenge for the both of us. He works harder than anyone else I've ever met in my life, and doesn't understand the word quit, but staying down just wasn't in his DNA. He found ways around that leg of his, even if it meant scooting on his butt to get down into the dingy (small boat we use to get to shore and back from mooring). With the help of some people, we started working on the boat while he was off work with this injury. We got a lot accomplished, but no where near ready to move onto, but by late Oct, he was back at work, and and put the house up for sale in November of 2013.
In December 2013, the 18th to be exact, the orthopedic surgeon told us that my husband's leg wasn't healing, they suspected an infection in my husbands bone and that the metal holding it together needed to be removed and start over. The other option was to amputate. We were reeling, with the news, and all of our plans came to a grinding halt. My husband asked the surgeon if we could wait a month before having the surgery, so figure out what we were doing, and he said yes. Over the holidays, as we tried to figure out how my husband could take even more time off work, we were just stumped and stunned. How could we possibly start all over with recovery?
We made it through the holidays, and folks, I couldn't make this up if I tried. Seriously.... What happened next is almost unbelievable, even now, after living through it for the last 10 months. On January 2nd, 2014, less than 2 weeks after a surgeon tells us he needs another surgery, my husband was getting into the drivers side door of his truck at a repair shop when a passing driver lost control of his vehicle, came across 2 lanes of traffic, hit my husband and then totaled 4 cars & a motor home. A friend with him, called me to come down - since it was less than a mile from our house, my 2 daughters (one of whom is an EMT and the other my 9yr old) and I hopped into the car and followed the fire trucks to the accident scene. The wreckage of so many vehicles was horrific, and as I raced through the debri trying to locate my husband, I remember the frantic feeling of disbelief and shock. As I reached the paramedics working on my husband on the asphalt, he was laying almost underneath a car and they were cutting his pants off his legs, both of which were very obviously broken. He was shaking from shock, and bleeding from his hand, but he was talking and coherent, and told me it was going to be ok. Our 9yr old was right with me, and witnessed her daddy laying in the road. In hindsight, I probably should have made her stay in the car, but I just wasn't thinking straight. She still has nightmares about it to this day, 10 months later.
Our older daughter rode with him to the hospital since the police told me I couldn't leave until I had a tow truck coming for our truck, which was totaled as well. After that was dealt with, my little one and I headed to the hospital.
He was stable, no head injuries, but my Lord, those legs.... Both needed surgery. The right leg - the good leg, would need some metal and screws. The already broken left leg, that wasn't healing and was infected? That leg was freshly broken up above the old infected break. So, with a new break, an old break that didn't heal, and a bone infection, the very first surgeon that came in said amputate. We asked for a second opinion, and they sent this rock star orthopedic surgeon in to chat with us. He asked if my husband was willing to fight to keep that leg, willing to have several staged surgeries, 9-12months in a wheelchair, and still maybe never walk the same? My husband replied, "you don't know me, but I'm a fighter and I'm tough, just save my leg, Doc!"
I'm going to condense this, because I feel like I've told this story too many times, but he had 4 surgeries & 2 big straps of metal & 50+ screws , 6 months of 24/7 IV antibiotics, a ridiculous amount of drs appts, nurse visits, home health care, rehab, meds, hospital beds & my bed in the living room, and wheelchairs. His leg is healing, we had the time to finish the house and the boat, we opened escrow in August on the house, he went back to work in late September, WITHOUT crutches or a wheelchair on his own legs, and we are about 11 days into our new adventure!
Since a lot of this wasn't about living on a boat, some of this feels like word vomit to me, I'll probably edit a lot of it out. But I felt like maybe some of you needed to hear the story of how we got here.
Next, I'll write about the struggles and challenges I've faced moving from a 3000sq ft house into a 49ft boat!
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