Life on a boat: Minimalists, nature lovers make themselves at home on the water

OLYMPIA, Wash. — Bob and Shari Buelt's waterfront home is a study in elegance.

The floors are gleaming mahogany, tasteful paintings decorate the kitchen walls, and each room has a wonderful view of Budd Inlet in Olympia, Wash.

And the home rocks everyone to sleep at night.

The Buelts and their two daughters, Sydney and Annie, live aboard S/V Pearl, the family's 49-foot-long sailboat.

"We've lived on the water for almost three years now, and we love it," Shari Buelt said. "It's just a simpler life, and we don't have to pack when we go on vacation. We take our home on vacation with us."

Living aboard a boat — once the domain of crusty old sailors and "Margaritaville" wannabes — is now common at many marinas in Washington's South Sound. In fact, being a liveaboard — the term for people who have abandoned land for the water — has never been more popular.

Swantown Marina has 73 liveaboard boats out of 650 slips, said Nancy Jones, marina services coordinator. Numbers aren't available for marinas on private tidelands, but an estimated 900 boats out of about 8,500 boats moored in marinas that lease state tidelands are full-time homes, said Jane Chavey, state Department of Natural Resources spokeswoman.

Life for such liveaboards is simpler by design, and that design also includes simpler finances.

A house mortgage — and property taxes — are history, although some liveaboards do have boat payments. Liveaboards do have to pay for electricity and water, but their pumpout fee is included in their slip rental. Swantown slip rental varies from $5.76 per foot of boat to $7.58 per foot, Jones said — creating a bottom line much smaller than a mortgage.

And liveaboards don't have a lot of room, so they don't spend a lot of money on furniture or anything else that could clutter up a small space.

SOME TRADEOFFS

Most liveaboards say living a quieter, less materialistic life — and being close to the water — is what lured them into living on a boat.

Bob and Shari Buelt lived in a nice Portland, Ore., neighborhood, but they dreamed of living on a boat and cruising to the South Pacific.

"I work for the airlines," Bob Buelt said. "And job security hasn't been great since 9/11, so we started reconsidering how to live more simply, and to live our dream."

Living the dream meant selling their home, furniture and most of the stuff that people collect over a lifetime, buying their boat, and moving to Swantown Marina in Olympia.

Eventually, that also means making that dream of a two-year South Pacific cruise a reality.

"Mexico, Hawaii and New Zealand," said Sydney with a big smile.

It's easy to untie the boat and take off for new spots. The Buelts spent 42 days cruising last summer.