Blind on Board
By Tiffany Taylor & Lisa Rowell
Let’s live on a cruising sailboat she said. Let’s do all of the maintenance and repairs ourselves she said. I had no idea what that meant a handful of years ago, but now living aboard our Outbound 46 blue-water cruising boat Luna Moth full-time, I have a much better idea. Almost three years ago my partner Lisa and I sold our old boat and purchased this one to be our forever home in fun places where the wind (and 75° F) may take us. Clearly the current bay area weather is not living up to what the brochure said California would be like. Here are some highlights, hopefully for your reading pleasure, of some of the over 200 projects we have completed on our floating home, with some thoughts of mine as a blind person, new to sailing, and living on a boat.
One of our biggest and most recent accomplishments on the boat was installing the system for solar power. This involved a lot of Lisa’s background knowledge and interest in electrical work and electronics to build a system of controllers and wires and connections to the panels and installing them in our “garage”. Who knew we would have a garage on a boat. This is really the work room which is most needed if you work on a boat and have All Of The Tools. I have never seen so many tools. Lisa also developed a great display on her phone and computer to be able to monitor the solar and battery power. The idea for the future is that Lisa will develop a program to make the display accessible to me on my BrailleSense notetaker.
suspended from the boom, as she swings it onto the boat.
Some of the other big quality of life projects we completed were: customizing a Purple Mattress to fit our birth, redoing the cushions in the saloon seating, mounting our grill on the aft railing (I need my grilled foods), and installing a new stove so I can cook more often. Cooking on our old stove was like dicing with death as it gimbaled uncontrollably, had to be lit with a match, required hotwiring to light the oven, and had mounts well on their way to breaking in half. Not really that great for a blind person or a seer. Additionally, we took on some major operational tasks like replacing the running rigging, replacing all the anchoring gear, building a fuel polisher, cleaning the diesel tanks, fixing numerous plumbing issues, cleaning up the electrical, and repairing the leaking propane system. Almost every project involves either a new set of skills, or dealing with a part that’s no longer available, or both.
mounted on them with wires neatly typing them together.
As a blind person living on a boat there have been some challenges for sure, but we are learning with every new job that pops up how to make things accessible. BAADS has been a great resource for me to learn sailing without all of the ablism prevalent in most sailing spaces. I am learning how to make identifying things on the boat more accessible, when possible, by using things like braille, tactile dots, and audio labels on products that pair with an audio pen where I can record product information. This is helpful because it doesn’t require internet access as do many of the apps for identification on my smart phone. One of the considerations when traveling on a boat is the lack of internet which can make access tricky at times, but I am not letting that stop me from finding solutions.
disconnected, and a wind generator.
I have been reading all the accessible sailing books I can on NLS Talking Book Library, Kindle, and Audible as well, as there is a great lack of accessible materials on boating and cruising. When we approach projects, Lisa describes what needs to be done and we work together to make sure I understand how to build something or what part is what with descriptions and hands-on experiences.
This is just a sampling of the things we have been doing to make our life afloat functional, comfortable, enjoyable and accessible.
If you would like to follow along with our journey, please visit our blog at: https://svlunamoth.com/
written March 15, 2023 by Tiffany Taylor and Lisa Rowell