Lake Life: Home, home on the water

There’s one word you have to embrace if you’re going to live a lake lifestyle: slow. After all, that’s the only way you can guide an almost 90-foot boat into a slip. It’s also the best way to enjoy the luxury cruisers that dot the Tennessee River and Chickamauga Lake.

“The slower, the better,” says Steve Barnes, boat captain for Bernice and David Sale’s 87-foot houseboat. “You want enough speed to catch the breeze. A houseboat is more laid back. It’s not like being on a motorcycle,” he adds with a laugh.

Coming aboard the Sale’s air-conditioned boat is like walking into someone’s living room, replete with plush white carpet and drapes. The galley, as kitchens are called in the boating world, is larger than many found in brick and mortar homes. The warm wooden cabinetry provides ample space for a full-sized refrigerator, stove, washer and dryer, ice machine, trash compactor, spacious island and six-person dining table. Bernice, who loves to cook, lists the kitchen as her favorite place in her floating home.

“When you’re on the water, you usually have a lot of company,” she quips. Her husband would list the fly bridge as his favorite spot – a spacious, covered top deck that can hold about 100 people. They’ve no doubt tested its capacity during one of their many trips to Knoxville for a game or parked in a local slough during a fourth of July weekend. With a full-sized grill, wrap-around bars with ice machine and sink, stereo, lounge chairs and ceiling fans to stir the breeze, it’s not hard to imagine a good time.

Fellow weekend warriors Reneé Haugerud and John Murphy along with their sons, Jack, 12, and Thomas, 10, are also part of Chattanooga’s luxury lake community. The family uses their 59-foot yacht as a floating hotel during big summer weekends, namely Riverbend, or even as a small cabin they can sneak down to when time allows. They too subscribe to the “slower is better” mantra.

“I don’t think you can measure the amount of enjoyment you can have in a boat by distance you travel,” says Murphy. “Some of the best times you have are just sitting in the boat and enjoying the natural flow.”

And you are sure to travel in style. The main living area, or salon, features wrap-around leather couches and a flatscreen TV that raises and lowers into a cabinet with the flick of a switch. And while concessions are made for boat living such as compact refrigerators, freezers and stove in the galley, the details are nicer than many people’s homes including custom-cut Tempur-Pedic mattresses and cedar-lined closets in the bedrooms. The master bath even features a shower/tub combo – a rarity among watercraft. In fact, the only part of the vessel that resembles a boat would be the bridge, or top deck. And because it features a grill, ice maker, sink and built-in cooler, it’s where guests spend most of their time.

Sometimes Renee and John will load onto their boat and never leave the slip. Docked at a local marina, many of their “neighbors” will do the same, sitting in folding chairs on the long stretch of shared dock. The scene resembles neighborhoods of yesteryear, when people would gather on their front porches and shoot the breeze – made only better since they’re hovering over a lake.

Both families are part of a larger lake community that relies on the relaxing benefits of water – seemingly a million miles from board meetings, power lunches and long work days. The journeys they take on their boats may be short, but the experience is out of this world.