The author has a philosophy of living very different from that probably the majority of the people not living in a 3rd world country. I can’t decide if living in/on a boat with no liability insurance is inspirational, crazy or irresponsible. I would be worried every time we even came close to another boat. And yes I understand that many insurance policies have rules that actually can (and probably will) make you sail your boat when you feel that you shouldn’t. That said I did enjoy this book, Annie and her (now former) husband decided that they wanted to live and voyage the world in a boat, 34 foot double-ended dory with a two-masted junk rig of the schooner style that they built themselves. Then they did what they had to do to attain that dream. Few people have the determination to do what they did. We seem to be addicted to our iPods, wi-fi , cable TV and Starbucks (ok they started before any of these things were available but you get the idea).

She gives reasons for the layout of the boat and why it worked for them. She talks about some of the mistakes that they made, how they plan their food buying, how things are stored, why they chose the type of sails they did. They lived on a boat for over 20 years with very little income so she knows her subject well.

This is probably the closest to how I would like to live if/when we decide to buy a boat, very simple. Except I am not giving up my computer or iPod, and I most certainly would want some kind of electronic book reader, one has to make sacrifices for small spaces after all, and I am not giving up books even if I don’t have room to keep paper ones.

DS ( )