Life As Live Aboards

Dolphin Spirit

Have you ever wondered what it would be like to live on a boat with the freedom to chart your own course, traveling when and where you choose in the comfort of your floating home? It’s a dream-come-true for Anne and Don Whipple, a California couple that moors in Port Ludlow for part of every year.

As guest bloggers this week, the Whipple’s share a bit about what keeps them coming back to Port Ludlow year after year.

Boating has been a big part of our lives since the early years of our marriage. We spent nearly 30 years houseboating, skiing, jet skiing, and fishing on a small Northern California lake. Our retirement dream was always to live aboard a boat and cruise. We envisioned ourselves exploring the historic waters of the Intercoastal Waterway–generally known in boating circles as “The Great Loop.”

Anne Whipple

As sometimes happens to plans, fate and a good friend intervened! Shortly before we were ready to put our California home on the market and set off to follow our nomadic dream, we were invited to join a friend on his boat to cruise for a week on Puget Sound and in the San Juan Islands. We were smitten! We thought this was the most spectacular area we had ever seen!

Don Whipple

When our home sold a few months later, we decided to return to the area to see if it was still so magical. It was! Perhaps even more so!

We have been living aboard “Dolphin Spirit” in the Resort at Port Ludlow Marina since spring of 2004. We have met many wonderful people here and are active members of the Port Ludlow Yacht Club. We felt Port Ludlow was home from the very first time we saw it. That good feeling surfaces each time we return, whether from our summer cruising aboard Dolphin Spirit or our RV travels south in the wintertime. Port Ludlow is home.

And, as Dorothy said, “there’s no place like home!”

Anne & Don Whipple