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Ever since ProBlogger ran an article about the places people blog from and included a photo of my “Blog Headquarters”… a sail boat.

I have received a heap of traffic and comments. Thank you ProBlogger and all those who left comments and sent emails, it is really great to make so many new friends. To those who wanted to know a little more about how I go about this great lifestyle I have included some details below.

Athena, my boats name, is a 30 ft Sparkman and Stevens designed sailboat, built of fiberglass. I keep it moored at a marina very close to a channel which leads directly into the Pacific Ocean on the Gold Coast which is on the East Coast of Australia.

Our climate here is termed as sub tropical and is similar to the climate of say, Miami or Southern California.

From my mooring I can sail directly out into the ocean or alternatively I can meander up mangrove surrounded inland waterways to a large inland Historic bay area called Moreton Bay. Moreton Bay is famous for it’s historic whaling stations, unique sea life and is a great diving areas.

WHAT DO YOU DO ALL DAY?

I sail most days, and am joined by my wife and son whenever they can extricate themselves from their land based constraints, and in answer to those who inquired, Yes, we also have a “normal” home on the Gold Coast.

Most days on board Athena, are spent drinking bucketloads of freshly brewed coffee, made on a spirit burner, listening to classic audio books, painting, drawing, photographing, and more recently Blogging.

ONBOARD BLOGGING

To blog, I take an older Dell Laptop (older because the salt air is far from kind to electronic gadgetry) and it has a u.s.b. wireless thingy that sometimes picks up a signal, and sometimes, when in Moreton Bay, I am forced to call into small island based townships and hook up there.

I recharge batteries, as infrequently as humanly possible, by running the boats engine, each recharge gives me about an hour or so of computer time, so I have had to learn to prepare posts in advance then “one finger type” fairly fast.

MAKING MONEY

My painting and drawing is currently my major source of income, and is expanding quite rapidly. It’s always a bit of fun trying to move a 6 foot canvas and all the stuff that goes with oil painting around 30 ft sailboat. However, recently the pen on canvas works I have been doing, are proving very popular both locally and to private buyers, who know of my quirky style, in Europe. (all additional exposure gratefully accepted, hint, hint. I would love a couple of U.S. agents)
For these artworks I work on 12” x 18″ canvases which are far more conducive to my “onboard” lifestyle. Plus, there is something very satisfying about turning a 25 cent biro pen into something people want to buy and hang on their limited wall space, and often spend the next few years, from time to time, writing to you about.

I will be posting the latest ten, done for an exhibition, of these on my site HERE today.

YEAH… BUT IS IT FUN?

So is this a lifestyle I would recommend to others…

Only if you want to be entirely happy… only if you want to spend real “quality of life” time with real people and enjoy the rich depths of family, friends and life.

What price do you put on sharing the sheer thrill of having a school of more than a hundred dolphins play around you for hours, with your family?

What price do you put on having a huge whale and its baby calf swim up to your boat, then mere feet away, roll over, look up at you, then thrust itself clear out of the water, drenching both you and your boat, whilst you sit gob smacked by the awesome power. Not to mention the spectacular sunsets, balmy breezes and intense evenings of highly competitive scrabble.

You could not entice me to give this up for all the Trump towers in the universe… (besides, I would never suit the “comb-over”)

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