Working 9 to 5: Mountain or Central Time?

A boat by definition, is a hole in the water, into which money is thrown. This is the reason why we continue to live and work full time on Nymeria.

Justin has worked remotely as a Software Engineer from our house in Durango, CO for a number of years before we decided to start traveling. He was used to getting up and walking across the hallway to start his day. I, on the other hand, commuted during the school year to Aztec, NM where I worked in an elementary school as a Speech-Language Pathologist. I was quite fond of my 45 minute commute to and from work to be able to gear up for and decompress from my day. We both enjoyed our cushy, rolly chairs, multiple monitors and endless and reliable internet. And oh, how things have changed since moving onto Nymeria. 

Justin continues to work as a Software Engineer for his same company based out of Denver. He’s down to one screen as he works from his laptop from the Navigation Station. I made a job change to do speech therapy via Teletherapy with a clientele of students in New Mexico. I’m working from the table and the port settee (couch) which gives me more rooms to spread out. As a bonus, I also get to use our TV as a second monitor which is very helpful when one screen is always taken up with students on video. While physically working from Texas on Central Time with our clients/employers in Colorado/New Mexico on Mountain Time, we have both come up with methods for making sure that we are on time with our meetings and daily schedules. 

Since we have very little storage space and very high humidity on the boat, we’ve pretty much stopped keeping paper copies of work materials or documentation on board. Everything we do is either scanned into the computer and removed from the boat or created on the computer and ultimately stored in the “cloud.” When paper is needed, we have it in an airtight container tucked away but easily retrievable. Justin is used to working in a “cloud-based” environment but I’ve had to transition all of my therapy materials to online or scanned activities or iPad apps. This cuts down on the waste but can create technical problems when a system decides to fail. 

Speaking of technical problems, they happen and always when you are least expecting them. Our most critical technical issue, other than the inevitable hardware failure, is the Internet. One of the prerequisites we had when looking for an RV park for the camper or a marina for Nymeria was the availability of good and reliable internet. We have been fortunate on both counts to have had our internet be included as part of our monthly rent and not have to purchase our own, which would be quite an expensive and a cumbersome process. We’ve had decent and workable internet at the marina and they are currently working to upgrade everything. This has caused some outages but they are getting better about telling us when they are turning things off so that we can prepare. Luckily, when the internet is out, we can switch to our Google Fi hotspots and not break the bank. We’re still waiting on Justin’s man crush Elon Musk to finish his Starlink Broadband Service so that we don’t have to rely on land based service in the future.

We’ve had some struggles with hardware failures as well. Justin’s work computer failed and a replacement was quickly sent to minimize his down time. And my old iPad decided to stop connecting to the app store and was quickly replaced by a quick trip to the neighborhood Apple store. We’ve both been trying out and testing new software and strategies to make our jobs more productive and easier all around.

Overall, we have been very fortunate to be able to continue to work in our chosen professions while still preparing to travel. I know that I could talk at length about the pros and cons of working remotely, but overall the experience has been a positive one. As we inch our way closer to leaving Texas, we continue to weigh our options for employment while we travel. Until then, Nymeria will happily continue to serve as our tiny floating home and office.