Friday, June 3, 2011

The S.S. Mary Jane (Living on the high seas?)

The Awesome Houseboat That Weed Built | The Awl:


Image via The Awl


There was a raid. There was a merciless beat-down at the hands of plain-clothes cops who never identified themselves. There was an eye-opening weekend spent on Riker's Island ('I was absolutely the only white person there. But it was totally cool. People were good to me.'). And then there was court. After lawyer's fees and criminal fines, David had to sell the buildings he owned at a loss and spend his savings. But he kept his own house and the boat he'd been working on.

Now he's been working on the boat for four years. It goes in the water next week. The plan is to live in it some and rent it out some, and eventually, retire on it, maybe in a warmer clime. The boat has four solar panels that give it all the power it needs, but relies on tanks for fresh water and sewage. David owns a little aluminum boat, an open affair, barely more than a rowboat with an outboard, that he will use as a tender, as the houseboat is made for deeper water. Ultimately, he hopes to use this little skiff to tow his house to a port where he can have it crane-lifted onto a larger vessel and carried south, maybe to the Caribbean.
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