Goblin is beautiful. I thought so from the first moment I saw pictures of her. I love her black masts and trim and now that her black dodger is up she has a very distinctive look. Inside she’s just as lovely. There’s so much beautifully maintained wood, walls and floor. It’s a little like living inside a tree.

When we moved aboard, I knew I wanted to make our home feel not only beautiful but also personal.

So many boats are decorated with a nautical theme, sailing flags or seashells. I’ve never really understood that. You are on a boat in the water, why do you need to decorate with even more nautical theming? It’s a little like decorating your Maine cottage with trees and moose. Just step outside and enjoy the real thing rather than staring at your moose pillow.

I decided to build on the beautiful wood and my own love of the woods. There won’t be a lot of deep forests on my sailing adventures so I decided to bring the woods with me. With suggestions from some fantastic friends I searched through Etsy for vinyl decals of leaves, vines, and trees. My favorite was a wall sized design of dangling vines, meant to be placed along the ceiling and trailing down to the floor. Great idea, except I don’t have one large wall.

Once the decal arrived I cut it into pieces and began taping them all over the salon to get a sense of where I wanted them. It took about three hours to cut, place, and apply the light green and then about two more hours to layer on the dark green. In the end it was absolutely worth it. Now the salon is green and growing with some birds mixed in for color. A bit of our land life to travel with us.

Zoe chose monsters to liven up her space and we spent a happy couple of afternoons placing then throughout the v-berth. One or two happened to sneak out to surprise visitors by tucking themselves into closets and cabinets.

Finally, we added tentacles. Two for the refridgerator compartment, one from the engine room, and another reserved for the bilge. Why? Um, tentacles, why not?

A few photos, a painting of the kids by one of my favorite people in the universe, and this boat is home.