Welcome Aboard - The Salon

What exactly is a salon? Originally it's a a fancy French term for reception hall or living room. The Encyclopedia of Nautical Knowledge defines a salon this way: “In a cargo and smaller passenger vessels, the main cabin, or that serving as a dining-room, assembly room, etc.” Some say salon, some say saloon. Tomato, tomahto - you get the idea.

On our boat and most cruising sailboats, it's the main living space that serves as the living room, dining room, play room, office, guinea pig ranch, craft area, homeschool space, and anything else we do from day to day.

This is the view when you walk in the sliding glass doors... (photo taken in spring time)

To the port side of this main table is the computer area and mess of plugs. You see the breaker panel, marine radios, radar, and stereo too. And if course, the guinea pig.


The wide counter to the far left above (and where Zach's bum is planted below) is the freezer (the top opens up). And where Zach's legs are dangling lies the 3 steps down to the galley.

That main table has storage underneath, so aside from the toys spread across the back window ledge and out around the room... all of the rest of the toys Zach has are under the table.

Somewhat organized in to baggies. But this is IT as far as toys go. With the exception of dress up clothes in his bedroom and a handful of stuffed animals on his bed... this is the entire toy collection.

To the right of the table is our calendar and map and the stairs that lead to the Book Nook and Zach's room.
The salon gets messy FAST because it's also the place where laundry is sorted, dirty dishes are abandoned, and stuff to be put away waits for a home.

If you dropped in completely unannounced, this is a more realistic view of what we'd look like. But being such a small space, it cleans up almost as fast as it get messy... so the chaos is short lived.

So this little space is where we spend most of our indoor time. For a sailboat, it's pretty spacious and very comfortable. For a "house", it's pretty darn small. It's all a matter of perspective, but we feel like we have more than enough space.