About a week earlier, I opened up a fortune cookie that read...
The irony of receiving this "fortune" was it was absolutely not telling me something I didn't already know. Unbeknownst to anyone else, GR and I were toying with the idea of renting a house with a dock. See, you wouldn't think in "the Venice of Florida" it would be very difficult to find a slip however, I beg to differ. We've used a variety of ways to search for dockage including but not limited to:
These resources are ones that I rattle off almost daily to those seeking aquatic accommodations. To be more specific check out "bridge height clearance" and use the term "live aboard" in your search to weed out the gorgeous yet, unattainable.
In order to understand our decision a little better there are a few things you should know. If you have been following along please forgive the recap. We have lived in Fort Lauderdale for about a year and a half; in that time we have "parked" in three vastly different settings.
- "The House of the Sun"* - This was a small two story, short term rental building that mainly catered to vacationers. Located literally a stone's throw from the ICW just North of the Sunrise bridge it had space for 5 boats. Live aboard was okay and they provided a laundry room, a shore side restroom with shower, a pool and BBQ area as well as a parking space. This place was super convenient and was essentially empty most of the time.
- "The Pier"* - Staying at the "The Pier" made life at the dock seem like a vacation with ample parking and ALL the amenities one could ask for including, Pool, Spa, Hot Tub, Laundry Facility, Taxi Stand, Gym, and three Restaurants.
- "The Dirty South"* - The yard, located just off the infamous State Road 84, offered us a safe haven during hurricane season to complete the work we were knee deep into on Felicity. Although, we lived aboard at the yard, we actually only lived aboard while she was floating, once we hauled out we escaped to a nearby hotel. The yard was a Do-It-Yourself, services were reasonably priced and several craftsmen conveniently offered services on-site. As much as we grimaced as we trudged through barnacles bits to reach our floating oasis, the people there made our stay that much more enjoyable.
We live on a boat. Isn't that proof enough that we LOVE change? After our "release" into the "wild" we decided to seek out something unlike our past situations. Each one of our previous docks had wonderful and less than attractive qualities that we wanted to both emulate and eliminate. Now we were armed the perfect list in which to find our new "home".
- A dedicated parking space
- A side tie
- A wide berth (we are 15' 6")
- A space for storage.
- Room for the cats to roam
- Privacy
- A common area, to host guests
Why wouldn't we have the best of both worlds? I mean it's not easy living on a boat. I mean the day to day living, the get up and go to work daily grind. Isn't the only reason people put up with life on a boat is that someday they plan on really living? Throwing off the proverbial chains that tie and sailing off into the sunset? Our lives aboard are misunderstood and oftentimes scrutinized. Trying to find the "perfect" dock was proving difficult. This is how our search for a "House for Rent with a Dock" began. We've pretty much covered every square inch of this town in search of new restaurants, hardware stores, specialty shops, kid play dates and random bike rides. We'd meander through neighborhoods and dream of the homes, scoffing at the ones that didn't have didn't have dockage. "It'd be perfect if..."
We looked at several places before deciding on the one. We have several things planned for the next several months and we will be sharing, of course! For now, we have officially moved out of Felicity and although, it feels quite strange (yes, I was land sick for a few hours) Felicity is still our main goal and focus.
BUT, no matter where we are, home truly is wherever our boat is.
* - The REAL names of these places have been changed.
