Lauren has a preoccupation with boatlife. She was living off the coast of the Florida Keys on the day Hurricane Katrina rolled through in 2005. Had it not been for the coastguard's visit, she and her neighbors would have been none the wiser. Living out there, one is disconnected from primary media venues. Lauren grew up the daughter of back-to-the-landers in rural Vermont, in a tiny shack with no electricity. Later she found herself part of an offshore band of renegade houseboaters, the only female in a group of wizened, tough older men. Now with a sunk boat in the Atlantic, she is currently scheming the building of a longer-term offshore residence, as well as a jaunt halfway round the world on a catamaran next spring.