Words & Photos By: Kimberly Goodman
Our family chooses to live a unique lifestyle (well, our kids don’t really have a choice yet since they are 4 and 2!) – six months out of the year (November to April) we cozy up as landlubbers in our house in Kittery. The other six months (May – October) we move aboard our 43’ Trawler, P/V SALT NEST; docked on Badgers Island Marina (under the Memorial Bridge) and floating on the great Piscataqua River. Yes, this means having to move a family of four twice a year from house-to-boat and boat-to-house, but we wouldn’t trade the experience of being on the water for anything. It is the best backyard anyone could ever ask for.
As adults, my partner, Justin and I both have salt water in our veins and couldn’t imagine living on land full-time. There is nothing better than the smell of the salt air (sometimes tinged with the smell of fresh bait from the local lobster boats docked directly behind us). We cannot get enough of the incredible view of the river with its mighty currents, its stillness at slack tide and the life and commerce moving up and down the river. There is constant activity from boats of all sizes, there’s always action at the Naval Shipyard, and the sunrise cannot be beat rising from over Kittery Point. Being aboard our boat home on the Piscataqua is the best waterfront living you can ask for – the river twists and turns all the way down towards the ocean, an incredibly powerful force that reminds us to respect the power of water.
The river is TV for our children. If we are down below in the cabin and hear the cry of the Memorial bridge indicating a lift, our kids race above deck to see what is coming up (or down) river. When we hear the “toot, toot” of the tugboats there is an especially frantic scramble to get up top for the “big ship coming”! The kids sit on the upper deck and watch the seagulls, cormorants, and herons all fishing for their meals on the rock ledge at low tide. They particularly love the ducklings that paddle by our stern swim platform – in fact one of our son’s first words was “duck” and “fish”! My daughter’s mission in life is to uncover all the tiny crabs that hide under the rocks at the edge of the shore.
This past season my family took an interest in fishing (well, the four-year-old at least). Our boat neighbor, an avid fisherman, was always sharing his catches with the kids – primarily striped bass – before he released them back to the water. There are many nights we lie in bed with our back hatch open and listen to the fish jumping (they can create quite a ruckus!). We realize how fortunate we are to live this lifestyle – that all this ocean culture we observe and interact with every day will thrive so long as our waterways and oceans remain clean. Our hope, as a local Kittery family, is that our children will continue to watch the Piscataqua River as a learning laboratory, as a thriving and healthy environment for everything that lives within it, on it, and around it.
This post was graciously authored by Kimberly Goodman & Justin Kelcourse of the Kelcourse & Company Real Estate Team at Keller Williams Coastal Realty and proud Every Drop supporters
#EveryDropMatters
