The Little-Known, Sustainable #Vanlife Alternative No One Is Talking About

Pages from the Solovays’ travel scrapbooks — Photos copyright Michael and Amy Solovay.

TL;DR Summary: I’m a slow traveler who’s journeyed 5,000+ nautical miles with my eyes on the horizon and the wind in my sails. In this article, I share some of the reasons I became a liveaboard cruising sailor, and I explain why I think #sailinglife beats #vanlife.

This is a page from one of my scrapbooks. The photo at the top of the page shows you the view from the cockpit of the vintage wooden sailboat, Typhoon, that my husband, Mike, and I used to live aboard. In the picture, Typhoon is facing Isthmus Cove at Catalina Island. I used stamps and scrapbooking supplies by Prima, Hero Arts and 49 & Market to create the nautical imagery you see on the lower half of the page. Photo and scrapbooking layout are copyright Amy Solovay; all rights reserved.

Fact Checked By: Michael Solovay

Amy Solovay aboard Typhoon with Catalina Island in the background. Photo copyright Michael and Amy Solovay.

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These days, it isn’t just the lavish homes you see pictured in Architectural Digest that are priced out of reach for growing numbers of ordinary people.

Nowadays, according to the analysts at Harvard University’s Joint Center for Housing Studies, many renters can barely afford to pay their rent. People in this situation find that it’s not an option to buy any house, even a modest one. In general, home prices have surged higher than Americans’ incomes.

And furthermore, the numbers of homeless Americans have reached record highs.