Houseboat residents are sheltering in place on their docks, holding float-up concerts in the middle of the water and boating out onto the San Francisco Bay. Here's how they're living through the pandemic.

Raylene Gorum on her Sausalito houseboat.Raylene Gorum

• When the San Francisco Bay Area shelter-in-place order became active, residents kicked off what has become a 2-month — and counting — confinement period to their homes.
• For residents who have made houseboats their home, the living is easy, albeit small.
• Costs are lower, the company is superb, and the sweeping San Francisco Bay is their backyard.
• Here's how two houseboat residents have made the sea life work for them — and how they're handling the pandemic's impact on their lives.

When the San Francisco Bay Area shelter-in-place order went into effect on March 17, houseboat resident Amy Heiden thought one thing: "We have the best-possible-case scenario," she told Business Insider.

She lives on a houseboat with her partner just northeast of San Francisco and has spent the last two months living life as usual, for the most part.

So has Raylene Gorum, a resident in a Sausalito houseboat community just north of San Francisco.

"You get community, you get stars, you get this fresh air, you get decks and parties, which is great, except that you can't want to have space or things," Gorum told Business Insider. "Those are the two limitations."

Living on a boat may come with small confines, but that also means having the beautiful bay as a backyard, which can come in handy when the pandemic and stay-at-home order-induced cabin fever begins to creep in.

Here's how houseboat residents are faring during the pandemic — from holding socially distanced float-up concerts on kayaks in the middle of the water to excursions out into the bay — as thousands continue to shelter in place.