Living on Cloud 9

Most homes don't have names and even fewer have anchors. That's why people always grin when they discover that for Clyde Snyder, home sweet home is a fisherman's floating fantasy -- his beloved boat, Cloud 9. And surprisingly, Snyder swears the Noah jokes aren't getting old. "People always laugh Now we know where to go when the rains come to Yuma!' '' he said, chuckling. "Oh, it's all been positive. People always seem to get a kick out of it." Snyder, a winter visitor on his virgin voyage to Yuma, hails from the boater's paradise of Port Townsend, Wash., but holing up inside his hull isn't anything new. Snyder has been living in Cloud 9 full time for the past four years. The only difference is that when he decided to come here, there was no room for him at the proverbial watery inn at Martinez Lake. So Snyder's going dry dock it for a while. Now, instead of gentle, rocking waves, Cloud 9 rests solid and still high upon its trailer parked in a dusty space at Gila Mountain RV Park in the Foothills. It's been home since Snyder arrived here in November, back when the park was less crowded and the big boat's presence really stuck out like a sore rudder. "People always wave and say things like Nice boat!' and such," he said. He explained that after shelling out quite a bit of cash for the boat and a huge Dodge Ram truck, he figured that buying a camper would just be a waste. Besides, he'd already spent weeks living in the boat during long expeditions and found the setup to be cozy. "I just thought I'd see how life went and what happened. And it's worked out pretty well." The Bayliner 2859 is 26 feet long and is designed to sleep six -- but just for a day or two. "But with one guy actually living in here full time, there's not much room left!"