Welcome to Blue Turtle Trawler! My name is Kim and I live in southwest Florida. My husband Randy and I both love to spend time on the water, whether kayaking, scuba diving, surfing or fishing, the beach and the ocean is our favorite place to be.
Randy and I first got the idea of living aboard from my parents who were, at the time, living aboard their trawler, Island Time. We decided that we didn't want to wait until we were retired to buy a boat and cruise. We wanted to enjoy the freedom of dropping the dock lines and leaving shore while we are still young and very active. So, a little over 8 years ago, we bought a 1974 40' DeFever Passagemaker. We've slowly been fixing her up and upgrading things and she is really looking amazing.
We both still work full-time and have a 17-year-old who goes to school, so we can't cruise full-time yet. We take advantage of every long weekend we get and cruise either north to Cayo Costa or south towards Marco. Eventually, once the boy is grown, we'd like to cruise full time. For now, we are happy to be near our favorite place — the water.
I own a graphic design and web design business, called Blue Turtle Graphics, which I used to operate out of my home. Now it's operated out of the boat. Luckily, I can work anywhere as long as I have an internet connection!
This blog is about our journey of living aboard and working full time, while still finding time to cruise. We've got over 8 years of living-aboard under our belts and have learned a lot, but we still have much more to learn, which I plan to share here. I hope you enjoy!