About Kim & Jim O'Connell

"Quit your job, sell your stuff, and live on a boat!" Science has shown that the husband is more often the crazy half of a couple. Not so in the case of Kim & Jim. This quit, sell, live mantra has taken ahold of Kim and won't let her go. As many will tell you, Jim is easy and and happy as long as Kim is nearby. This blog is our attempt to chronicle our adventures as we transition from dirt-based drugery to aquatic heaven and beyond. 

Jim's love of all things watery began at a very early age. Boyhood memories include using an abandoned oil drum as a raft in the swamp behind his house to the illfated purchase of a commercial lobster boat just after graduating from high school. In his early 50's Jim acquired what a friend laughingly referred to as "At best a boating project, if you squinted really hard!" It was on this very vessel that he wooed the fair maiden, Kim.

She left her old story behind and entered into her "Happily Ever After"...

I am not the same girl I used to be. I am changed. I am Happy, Joyous and Free.  Being with Jim has brought many "firsts" into my life. Boating and learning that I am a capable first mate, has been one of my favorites. I can't tell you how proud I felt the first time I tied the lines right or the first time I hooked the mooring ball in Catalina!  As I move forward to our Happy Destiny, I am both a bit apprehensive and at the same time "giddy" as a school girl.  We are going to live on a boat, and go on a journey of a lifetime. What that means is that I will leave my children and grandchildren behind for awhile.  I will trust that my God will watch over them as we go. I will let loose of material things and learn about what it means to be free.  I am ditching the high heels and party dresses for shorts and flip flops. I will wear a ponytail and be just fine if I get rained on. I will fish. I will learn to dock our boat and throw the anchor. I will be as courageous as my mother was and use all the handy skills my father taught me. 

I was never a "boater". It just wasn't the lifestyle I had. Jim has taught me that I have what it takes and I have come to love what being on a boat has to offer.  I am overjoyed when I am out on our boat, and I can't wait to see what our next journey together will have in store.  

Individually we are one drop.  Together we are an ocean.