Going Sailing with Your Dogs

A liveaboard life, complete with dogs

To sail or not to sail, that was the question. Fed up with urban living and its hectic schedules, unimaginable traffic and soaring property taxes, my husband and I were desperate for a change. We had saved enough money to retire early, provided we sold most of what we owned.

Our dream of sailing off into the wild blue began with a cross-country trip in a diminutive pop-up camper, a test of how well we could endure confined spaces and how the dogs would adjust to travel. At the time, we had three rescues: Kismet, an elderly Tibetan Terrier; Roxie, an active middle-aged Border Collie/Corgi/Heeler mix; and Chance, our “foster failure” Bichon Frise. We dubbed ourselves “3 Pups in a Pop-up” and spent months promoting pet rescue while camping our way across the U.S. and Canada.