8/13/07
It was just like yesterday, 2000. Mike and I had a smaller sporstfisherman at the time. We had caught more than our share of fish over the years so we began to just start to hang at the boat. Fishing was kinda getting boring. The last year we had her we didn't take her offshore one time.
We'd go down to the marina, cook dinner on her on Saturday with an outside Coleman stove and stay the night. It was almost like camping out but it sure was fun. On Sundays, we had to go back to the house, mow grass, pull weeds, edge trim the drive, on and on. Yuck!
Then one day a local man at the docks, Hank was his name, said to us. "You folks stay on your boat as much as I do mine, why don't ya just move aboard"? Hank lived aboard his sailboat there too. So we looked at each other and said, well why not?
We tried to do some research but the Internet was of no help. No liveaboard sites back then. We could not find anybody who knew anyone that lived aboard so we were basically on our own.
So we made our plan.
- Set a date by which we will have made the move
- Start looking for new boats
- Have a monumental yard sale
- Take good stuff to relatives, kids etc.
Well it happened. The house sold within 2 months.......oh my, too quickly. The boat sold soon after. We began looking at boats and right away knew what style we had to have. We went to marinas all over just looking.
The yard sale went over very well. You'll never know just how much crap you accumulate and never even miss it when its gone. We took the good furniture and items of value to relatives for their use and safekeeping.
So there we were, no home, no boat, no stuff, no new boat, and we were holed up in a small apartment where you could hear the guy up stairs getting frisky with his wife the walls were so thin......I kid you not.
Well the date was set - April 1.
The house had sold, the boat had sold and we had about 6 months to find a new boat.
Now the boat shopping was the fun part. We had done our research and knew that a sundeck model would offer us the most enjoyment. Mike had to have twin diesels, I wanted 40 foot or longer, a generator,and a sundeck for those afternoon bar-b-ques. We knew where every available sundeck in the eastern US was and had compared each of them on the Internet. Now I do advise doing your research and boat comparisons online before you start calling brokers. Time is money to a broker and you don't want to get in the way when you have no clue what you are looking for. You want to have a good idea of what you want to start with.
We visited marinas all over Florida, Georgia and SC just window shopping to be sure, talking to owners everywhere. We spent the better part of 6 months doing that.
January 2001
Finally the real hunt was on, we had about 6 boats identified that would work. We had not seen any of them. A few phone calls and we were on our way to look at several potential boats. Daytona Beach, Stuart, Jekyll Island were a few places we visited to look at boats.
Now I want to caution each of you readers to be very careful if you consider buying a boat directly from an individual without going through a broker. The owner of the trawler we looked at in Stuart was trying to sell it himself and had no knowledge about abstracts of titles, documentation and such as Mike was If you buy your boat that way and are not familiar with the process, you may give your money to someone for their boat only to find out months later that there is a lien on the boat for thousands. Now that lien is yours to pay off.
In addition, I suggest you use a broker to help you buy your boat too. Mike and I looked at a boat and the other broker had not told Mike about the damaged flooring in the salon from large 30 lb. dogs with sharp toenails jumping from the stairs. It looked as if someone with an icepick and been in there. If you use a broker to help you find your boat, the broker will uncover those problems before you do, saving you tons of time and perhaps money looking at boats you will not like.
OK, I had to give my husband a plug.. :-)
February 2001
Ok, so Mike found this trawler online in Ruskin Florida, below Tampa, where all the tomatoes are grown. He called and spoke to the listing broker. One thing led to another and we were on our way to Tampa to look at another boat, man this was getting tiring.
Well there she sat, a pretty thing and we knew almost immediately that she was the girl for us. An offer was made, accepted, a sea trail was conducted and she was ours a few weeks later.
We were excited and rented a car to drive down to Tampa the day before picking her up. The night before we got her, we provisioned as we were going to spend the next few days underway coming across Lake Okeechobee.
We left Ruskin early the next day in a howling wind and made our way down as far as Cabbage Key. Thats an interesting place.
The next morning the wind had calmed and we continued on past Ft. Myers to the lake. We made the locks and proceeded to Clewiston, halfway across Lake Okeechobee where we spent the night. The next day we had a long ride across the beautiful lake to Stuart.
The next morning my parents arrived to accompany us the remainder of the trip back to north Florida. My Mom and Dad were always big boaters and this was to be a treat for them. The next 4 days were great, the weather cooperated and we had no issues to speak of. We stopped in Titusville, Daytona, St. Augustine and finally Jacksonville.
We put the boat on the hill in Jacksonville for a bottom job and a few other minor matters. And here we are, many years later.
Mary
PS - We beat our target date by 1 day, we picked up the Patrica Ann on March 2. Check her out here, Patricia Ann.
