Fears

Before we left Colorado, I was laying in Bear's bed with her, talking about my fears of the trip, letting her know being nervous is a normal feeling when so much is changing and there are a lot of unknowns. I listed some out to her, in random order- fear of the kids getting seasick, someone falling off the boat, the kids getting bored and not having enough to do, running out of food, sunburns, and I told her there were more, but I couldn't think of them at the time. She told me she wasn't nervous.

First overboard was claimed by Dixie (Bear and Ben's dog) on our second day at the dock. I was making the little kids' bed with their new sheets and Ben was outside working at the stern of the boat. The kids had Dixie on the dock and Ben told Bear to make sure she had Dixie's leash on her. Bear called her back over to the boat and she quickly learned how little legs, like Dixie's, are not a good match for going from the dock to the boat and vice versa. Dixie jumped to the boat, but jumped where a railing was, missed the boat, had already passed the dock, and fell into the water between the two- without her life vest or leash. Shrieks from the kids alerted Ben to pull a cold pupsicle from the water by the scruff of her neck. Guess who doesn't allow Dixie out of the cabin without her life vest anymore. Bear. Fear #1.

While we were at the dock, we had a lot to do. Mechanical stuff gets taken care of by Ben, while the house and kids things belong to me. I was unpacking, making beds, doing laundry, organizing the fridge and 3 freezers. Ben was ... well... doing a lot. I can't even tell you all of the things he did in the engine rooms, in small crawl spaces that I thought I'd have to call to get him cut out of, and on the deck. I continue to be thankful that he started his college education thinking he wanted to become a diesel mechanic. All of that one year of college and 2 prior years of vocational school loaded his brain so that it's all second nature to him. Needless to say, we were busy. The kids were bored and we didn't let them bring any toys. TV can entertain, but only for so long. They only packed a journal, school workbook, and stuffed animal each. Fear #2.

Due to where we bought our boat, we had to venture a little bit in open waters to get to our next waypoint. During our sea trial and visit in May, we were in the boat on the water for a total of 5-6 hours. I never felt sick. I chalked that up to this vessel being a catamaran. Once we reached the Atlantic, the water started getting choppy. From the cockpit, it didn't look like we were riding big waves, but they sure felt big to my stomach. I started feeling sick 11 miles in, but thought I could handle it. It was only approximately 20 miles, so only 9 to go- we were more than halfway! I was wrong. I stood up, walked to the gunwale, rode it out for a bit, heard Ben tell the kids, "There goes Mommy," and then came back in while being told by Roo, in an angry voice, "Mommy! You can't do that! You'll kill the creatures!" I told her it made me feel much better and that the creatures were excited to have such delicious poppyseed muffins for breakfast. Luckily it was just me. Everyone else had their sea legs from the getgo, and it only took me that one time to get it out of the way. (Update: Moose joined me in this on day 3.)  Fear #3.

We never technically ran out of food, but there were several times when Ben or I told the kids to stop eating because we needed food on board. This resulted in 2 Target runs and a Stop & Shop visit to be sure the food we stocked up on before we left would in fact, still be there on our journey south. Fear #4?

Little did I know that I'd have to face a lot of my fears within a 40-hour window at the start of our trip.

En Route

Cross country road trips are not for the weak (marriages). We do these types of trips a lot. There has been at least one every summer and there has yet to be a trip where I don't get yelled at for being a bad navigator. In fact, I've been told in the past that I need to come for a ride-along in a fire engine so I can hear what proper instructions and navigation sound like. 

What does this have to do with your boat, you're asking. On our journey from Broomfield, Colorado to South Kingstown, Rhode Island, we covered 2,005 miles in 30.25 hours. The first day wrapped up in Portage, Indiana after 1,068 miles, with no big stories. We played a lot of movies, ate even more snacks, and even had a few naps (not by the driver). It was by far the best travel day we have ever had with the kids and we told them that, despite our worries about having 3 kids share one tablet. All of our stops were efficient and productive, with only one or two impromptu stops to take care of basic kid needs. Could we ask for anything more? Besides a repeat of the day, nope.

Day 2 was far from a repeat. It started out drizzling. Not pouring, so that was good, but it was wet enough for the kids to quickly understand what 100% humidity is and the way it makes our (my) hair so much prettier (frizzier). Ha! They kept asking if it was going to stay like that and stay that hot- it was about 80°. All I really could say was, "Well... yeah..." and, "This is part of the reason why we live where we live."

Our drive kept us on I-80 all the way through New York. Google Maps and Waze were competing for the best route once we hit New York, but Google Maps won because it loaded the alternate route options quicker in the end. It had us cross the Hudson on the George Washington Bridge- a pretty cool double-decker bridge, minus the fact that the lady in the toll booth had us pay $66 to cross it on the top level with our one extra axel (the U-Haul trailer). Cars pay $16 and she said our truck alone would be $44. Ben said she probably classified us as a semi.

Wanting to capture several things, (like the New York State Sign, the bridge, and the looks on the kids' faces when they saw the big city, bridge, waterway, and everything for the first time), I made sure my camera was available on my phone and the navigation on the Google Maps window was still visible. See the image below to see how my screen was set up. I told Ben, "It says we take exit 1 C-D after we cross over the bridge," thinking that I covered my bases.

Looking down at the river below, Moose spotted a boat and we told him that we'd be cruising down there and under the bridge we were on, in just a few days. He was surprised and excited. (It turns out we misinformed him- our route took us another way- but we will be on that part next summer or the year after.)

On the other end of the bridge, exit 1 appeared much quicker than I anticipated. I repeated out loud that we take exit 1 C-D and thought to myself that I successfully navigated and took my pictures, but I was wrong. To my right was exit 1 and the next sign said exit 2 and looked like it was right there, so thinking that exit 1 would branch off into A-B and C-D, I told Ben to get off at 1. I looked at the map and saw "Rerouting..." and knew I was in for it. It= Carters driving their truck with slide-in camper and U-Haul trailer adventure in Manhattan, of course.

Oops.

That was wrong. My bad. I should've been solely focused on my navigation duties. In my defense- the kids' reaction was priceless, I got some blurry but memorable pics, and I missed the stinking New York sign anyways. Did I learn my lesson? Probably not...

Exit 1 led us down to an intersection with, thank God, a red light, and no lettered exit in sight. Ben had some choice words for me and my navigator skills that I chose to ignore while I quickly tried to find our way to I-87 among the streets in the West Bronx. Luckily, Ben spotted a sign that pointed to the I-87 truck route, so we turned left and followed the directions to get us back on track to I-87 while avoiding the outside lanes which had an obscene amount of people double and triple parked on the street. The new route took us under the EL train (thanks, Momma and your Brooklyn roots for the proper terminology) while introducing our kids to really awful drivers, some of which were on motorcycles or scooters with Uber Eats bags on their back luggage bar. (I don't think I'd ever order that while in the city after seeing the conditions they have to drive in... or I'd tip them really well.) I rolled my window down to be sure to get the full NYC experience- sights, sounds, and smells.

Once we were on I-87 I could almost breathe again. Google Maps had us en route to I-95 by way of some parkways. I was busy reading signs and making sure to avoid more of what we had just been through. I read a sign made of lights to Ben, "You are overweight. Take the next exit." He said he didn't care and we kept going. I was confused about why the truck's weight would matter. After a while of looking at overpass heights, I wondered out loud if we were short enough to clear them. Turns out the truck clearance with the camper is 11' 6".

Fast-forward a few more exits and I saw the sign again, only this time I realized I read the last one wrong and it actually said, "You are overheight. Take the next exit." Looking ahead, the next bridge clearance was 10' 4", so Ben quickly got in the right lane and took the next exit. We pulled over to get a look at the map and get us to I-95, avoiding the parkways. (Does anyone know how to input height restrictions into a mapping device? I know it's possible to avoid tolls or avoid highways, but haven't seen it for avoiding short bridges. This would've saved us the second rerouting in New York.) Ben found a route and put my phone on the dash so he could see the map and keep it out of my reach. I said he put my phone in timeout.

If you've ever tried to drive somewhere against your GPS's will, you know how obnoxious it is. We listened to and ignored the Google lady reroute us countless times, "In 1,000 feet turn left on... Then turn right on..."

I-95 appeared quickly and, thankfully, didn't have any low bridges. We knew we were in good company when we saw several semis on the highway alongside us.

Now, of course, there are two sides to every story. Here's Ben's story- painted with broad strokes, but obviously mine is more eloquent and detailed, right 8B?

Just after the George Washington Bridge, Lisa said I had to take a right on Exit 1D, I think. So she's busy taking pictures, like normal, and Exit 1 popped up and I said, "Is this the exit?"

She said, "1D," and I was like, "Well it says 1, and the next exit's 2," so she said to take a right.

Then we ended up in Manhattan driving under the Elevated Line and Lisa could navigate us back to the route, so I ended up driving through Manhattan and trying to get on a parkway. We're 11 and 1/2 feet tall and we get almost to I-95 and there was a sign saying too tall use this exit now. There's a blinking light and everything. There was a bridge that was 10' 4" and we would have lost the top foot of the camper. Very similar to the cabin story on the way to Carterado when we hauled it there. I hit that exit and we had to drive through Yonkers. Maps couldn't figure out how to navigate to I-95 so I just ended up looking at the map, finding our way, and then we got on I-95 and went to Rhode Island.

----- (End of Ben's perspective)

At an interstate service center, we were stopped for fuel and potty breaks when a random guy walked up to Ben, who had just started pumping fuel into the truck, and asked him for some money to get his teenager's car some gas. When Ben said no, the guy asked if Ben could finish pumping the gas into the truck and wait for him to pull up his car for a few gallons. Ben told him it was diesel so it wouldn't do him any good. He mentioned needing help getting his keys that were locked inside his car. Ben said he'd hate to bust his window open and then watched as the guy walked to his car, opened the door, and drove away.

The rest of the drive was uneventful as the apologies were spoken and the kids fell asleep once we crossed into Connecticut on I-95 (and wound up missing the photo of the Connecticut sign as well due to my phone being in time-out). We exited I-95, got onto Hwy 2, then US-1 and I navigated us directly to the parking lot of T's where we stopped a little before midnight, parked, slept, and waited for the 7 AM opening so we could eat our delicious breakfast before boarding the boat with the kids for the first time.

What's the Plan?

Ben and I took the Florida Boating Safety Course and passed it back in April. It is required that people much younger than us take it, but we decided it would be beneficial knowledge to have. One of the biggest points in the lessons was to always have a float plan. Reviewing feedback from all you lovely readers through comments, texts, and general questions, I realized I've failed to let you in on the actual plan!

We leave Sunday morning. Sunday. As in 5 more days. What?! My living room is excited for the trailer to arrive on Friday. This is what it looks like and has looked like for the past several MONTHS- of course, we have been adding to it, little by little to get to this point. The box of boxes goes to the curb on Friday- this is what has been collected from shipments over the past two weeks. Dang that every-other-week recycling business...

Thank you to all of our incredible neighbors, family, and friends who will be staying at, working on, spying, or looking after our house while we are on this journey. Oh, and if you happen to pass by the house, give us a wave on the camera!

Being a teacher, I have the summers off. Now that hasn't always been the case, as I typically take classes all summer long, but this year I finally reached the maximum credits beyond my master's degree. Hooray! Ben's work shifts are on for 48 hours, off for 96 hours, but one of the cool things about being a firefighter is that he can set up, what they call, trades. He asks around for anyone who is able to fill his job for a 24-hour block. In exchange, he will work a 24-hour block for them, a different day. Therefore, they are trading days. Back in April, Ben got all 16 shifts covered that he'd be missing from June 8th to the beginning of August. He has paid some of these back already, but most will be paid back after our trip ends.

Sunday we drive. Monday we drive. Those of you unfamiliar with our Epic Carter Family Road Trips might be wondering how we plan to entertain the kids for all of this 28ish hour drive. Well typically they have their tablets (or back in the day, they had a portable DVD player) to watch endless movies on, which keeps them quiet and entertained. That was the plan for this trip, up until about 3 weeks ago when Moose decided to see if we were kidding about the hammer not being a good stylus for his tablet. So, we will take our family hotspot tablet with some downloaded Disney+ movies (choices for this trip: Moana, Tangled, Cars, Raya, Onward among others) and hope for the best. 

Ben thinks we will arrive in Rhode Island sometime on Tuesday. Then we have Wednesday and Thursday to unpack the camper and trailer, return the trailer, and load up the boat. I'm expecting some necessary shopping trips will take place, and of course, I'd like to stop at T's for some more of that delicious food. Ben's dad and step-mom fly in on Thursday, so he will pick them up from the airport and they will drop him off at the boat. Then they will drive the truck and camper down to Sebastian, Florida which is where our boat will live from August until next summer.

Once we're on the boat, our plan is to head south to the Florida Keys. We're planning to stay overnight (for free) in the Hudson Bay with the Statue of Liberty, as well as make a few pit stops along the journey down. (There are a bunch of places we want to see between Rhode Island and Florida, but we plan to start America's Great Loop next summer and will plan out stops and attractions for that next year.) It should take us 1-2 weeks to get to Florida. In addition to the Keys, we want to check out Dry Tortugas National Park, Biscayne National Park, and possibly make a trip to the Bahamas. Ben's first shift back to work is August 7th, so we have to be back by then. Any stops between June 10th and the first week of August is anyone's guess!

Survey Day, Take 2

Our trip to Rhode Island (the smallest of the 50 United States) was very productive! Ben and I flew into Providence and stayed in Narragansett- which, by the way, is the cutest little town and you should go check it out. This trip was booked solely for viewing the boat, but it turned out to be a mini-getaway as well, and we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. 

We stayed at The Shore House, which is a cute little cottage-style hotel (with probably only ~20 rooms) right at the sea wall. Even though we arrived at the hotel and didn’t fall asleep until after 1:00 AM (EST), we were up early and decided to venture around, thinking we’d be able to see the whole state before heading to the boat at noon. We ate breakfast at T’s. I had a Shrimp & Grits Benedict that is already on my list of things to eat when we return in June. Ben had The Big Rhody. Stop & Shop was in the same area, so we loaded up on snacks and bevvies and set out for a drive along the coast. Driving along Ocean Road, Ben’s route weaved us in and out of the coastal neighborhoods while I checked Zillow and announced what the houses go for- anywhere from $600K to over $1M, occasionally there'd be a tag for around $100K which always turned out to be a plot of land. Our route dead-ended at the Point Judith Lighthouse, which is actually a USCG station. We parked, got out, and walked around the park before hopping into the car to scout out Summercamp, the ‘02 Endeavour Trawler Cat 44 we had come all this way to see. 

Since we had our surveyor already lined up and ready for Friday, we spent Thursday on the boat with the owner. He and Ben went over everything from stern to bow- high, low, and in between. I spent my time sketching out the cabinets and writing down measurements (galley cabinets were pretty deep, but overall small compared to a regular house kitchen- with the exception being the boat galley is bigger than our Louisville townhouse kitchen), and taking inventory of what would be left for us, so that we could purchase necessities upon our return home. Summercamp, co-captained by the current owner and Ben, took us from Salt Pond to Safe Harbor New England Boatworks where we would have our survey, haul out, and sea trial the next day.

The current owners recommended we have dinner at The Coast Guard House on Thursday. Ben really wanted fish and chips, but they were out for the day, so we both wound up with the very tasty Lobster Mac & Cheese.

Friday was survey day! We didn’t have a leisurely start to our day like we did the day prior, but there was definitely a lot of energy and excitement, despite Ben’s lack of sleep. (I slept just fine, but he apparently had a lot on his mind after spending several hours aboard Summercamp, taking notes, learning the vessel, and cruising.) 

We picked up the current owner and drove to the marina. Bill, our surveyor, was already aboard, evaluating and noting the outside of the vessel. Our haul out was shortly after we arrived. I had seen this done for our previous “under-contract” vessel on a video, but to see it first-hand was pretty cool. The boat cruised onto giant fabric u-shaped lifts and we disembarked while the boat was lifted out of the water and suspended in the air for a full inspection of the hulls. While it was out for more than an hour, they pressure washed it, banged on it with a hammer, inspected the propellers, examined the paint, checked the thru hulls, you name it. With my phone, I walked around, observed, and took countless pictures and video. The boat was lowered, we climbed aboard at the bow, and watched as the lift lowered us to splash back into the water and head for our sea trial before returning to a different slip at the marina to continue the inspection. Both the current owners and Bill told us how the weather and water was the best it had been all year. I told them that's why we picked those days to come check it out.

I had NO IDEA that boat surveys took so long! The four of us (Ben, current owner, Bill, and I ) were at the marina for around 7 hours. I thought Ben went over everything the day before, but there was still so much to look at and check. I spent most of this day trying to stay out of the way, while still eavesdropping on things here and there, making a mental note to ask Ben about this or that later.

Near the end of the day, the boat in the slip next to us asked if we wanted any of the bedding they were taking off their boat, stating they were just going to take it to the trash. Ben and I grabbed everything they had, threw it in Bear’s cabin, and decided we’d analyze what we would keep and what we didn’t need when we came back in June. I had to giggle when Bill witnessed this and said, “I love mid-westerners. You aren’t snooty at all!”

Before we left the slip, we took a selfie with Summercamp in the background, knowing that this was our future summer home.

A New Path

Today we decided to reject the vessel. It was a tough call, but ultimately we knew that paying top dollar for a boat that we thought was in great shape wasn’t a good idea. We don’t think Jim had any idea how bad of shape his boat was in, after owning it for only 6 months. There were going to be so many additional expenses and repairs that we’d have to do which means less time enjoying ourselves on the boat this summer. Part of me wanted to wait and see what came out of the engine repairs, but I also knew that meant unnecessarily dragging along the sellers, which wasn’t fair to them.

Because of our rental properties, our debt-to-income ratio looks awful on paper. We were also having a hard time finding a bank that wanted to loan us money for this boat. We decided that we’d continue our search and pay cash for a boat, so that we wouldn’t have to rely on the boat loan, and lower our price range a bit.

Knowing this in the back of his mind, Ben had already been talking to our buyer’s broker, Steve, again and was looking at some other options. Steve is an admin on an Endeavour Trawler group on Facebook. It’s what he and his wife live on. After hearing the results from our survey on the FP, he told Ben to join the group because there were a few owners getting ready to sell their Endeavour 44.

Starting out with 3 options, we slowly narrowed it down to one in Rhode Island. Ben and the current owner had been talking back and forth for about a week or so. Expressing a ton of interest, Ben told him we’d like to come look at it, set up a surveyor for while we’re looking at it, and wondered if we’d be wasting money and time to line everything up (flights, rental car, hotel, surveyor, etc.) and go out there if someone else was in line before us. He told us we’re first in line. We booked a flight to go see it and lined up a marine surveyor for the following day.

Pretty Okay

Marine surveyors are a busy lot! After Peter gave us the timeline of vessel accept/reject date and closing, we had to quickly search for and book a marine surveyor who could survey our boat in North Carolina sometime within a 2 week period. After a handful of phone calls, we finally found someone who could do it on April 6th. Ben booked his flight to go out on the 5th and return on the 7th.

Waking up on the 6th was just like waking up Christmas morning. We couldn’t wait to hear (anything!) from Ben. Knowing he was busy, and hoping he was taking a zillion photos and videos, I didn’t call or text him and waited patiently for him to call me. At 0945, while I was teaching my online class, I got an incoming video call from him. I quickly got the kids to work and muted myself on our Meet. When I answered, I saw him on the deck of our boat cruising along. I started envisioning myself and the kids alongside him on our journey south and a huge smile appeared on my face. Naturally, I asked how it was going. His reply, “Pretty okay.” 

“What do you mean pretty okay?” I cautiously asked. 

“I’ll tell you more later. I’ve got to go.”

Needless to say, I was upset, curious, and frustrated that he’d call me just to tell me things were “pretty okay” and then leave me hanging. Don’t worry. He called me back. FOUR HOURS LATER.

Apparently “pretty okay” meant there was black smoke coming from one of the engines and they thought it could easily be fixed, but it also meant that the sea trial would not be happening while Ben was there. Besides the smoke, there were a ton of other things that the surveyor found, bringing his estimated value of the boat to $35,000 less than what we offered. He even suggested we walk away. “Pretty okay” it turns out, is not actually okay.

I felt like someone died. My daydreams for the past few weeks had been based on this boat, this summer. Ben reassured me that we would still go through with the sale of the boat and that the surveyor (who he got to know and trusted) would be there for the sea trial reporting anything we need to know about our boat. Wearily, we trudged forward and waited for updates.

The diver removed the propeller, repaired it, and returned it to its home underwater. When they tested the boat again, the black smoke was still there. Ben said he thought it was the fuel injector from the start. The next step is to have Yanmar take a look at the engine. An update of our contract and timelines was necessary, moving the vessel accept/reject date to June 1 and our closing to June 6th- the day we planned to leave Colorado to begin our voyage to the boat, which no longer would be moved to Florida ahead of time by Ben and me, with some friends. This now meant we’d drive to North Carolina and get on the boat there as a family to take it to Florida to kickoff our catamaran life.

The Initial Wave of Our Journey

We recently returned from our 8-day “Boat Tour”. Ben and I took our camper through 11 states, drove 5,123 miles, and spent 80 hours in the truck on this tour. Along with the numerical stats, I feel like I learned so much about boats, as far as terminology goes. I also know that I still have so much to learn, so my lingo may not be as accurate as those that are more knowledgeable than me- please correct me if I’m saying something wrong so that I can learn!

Friday was the first day of our journey. We drove on the first two days and arrived in Nashville, TN just after the sun went down on Saturday. We had a showing on Blue Heron, a 34’ 2006 PDQ, at 0830 the next day. It was a beautiful boat and proved that the helm does not always need to be at the front of the boat. There was another PDQ in Maryland that we were interested in, so this was more of a chance for us to scope it out in person rather than rely on the photos online.

From there, we drove another 690 miles to Deltaville, VA. Again, arriving after sundown on Sunday, ready for our showing at 0800. We were stopped by a live-aboard guy after he noticed us driving around in the dark, looking for a place to park that would be out of the way. Apparently, a lot of people own boats that they live on in marinas and essentially pay marinas rent for their docking space. Spending most of my life in a land-locked state, this was a new concept to me. The 55’ 2005 Seascape was donated to a local school, so the buying process is more complicated in a lease-to-own over 3 years situation. This was the cat that Ben was most looking forward to seeing. I, on the other hand, had to keep an open mind as to what could be done to make this our boat.

Our next showing, only a 50-mile drive from where we were, was not until 1500, so we had time to spare. As we were driving, I noticed we’d be driving directly through Yorktown, so we got some ice cream and stretched our legs while exploring the historical site, waiting for a call back to see if we could see our next boat earlier in the day.

After getting the call that the owner could be at the marina at 1230, we headed to Poquoson, VA to see Pocatalico, a 2009 47’ Leopard, that both Ben and I thought would be “IT”. Neither of us said anything until we arrived in the parking lot. When Ben said, “I think this is the one we will wind up with,” I laughed and said I had thought the same, but never said anything out loud until that. During the tour, we both realized we were not accurate with our original thoughts and knew our search would continue, possibly winding up with a Leopard because we both liked the setup (and the fact that it would sleep TWELVE!), but not that particular one.

Earlier on our trip, we had been harassed by the broker (Peter) on Copacabana, a 2004 Fountaine Pajot Maryland 37, who was “making sure we had all 10 fingers and toes still” and that we were making adequate progress and would be in Wilmington at 0900 on Tuesday. He also informed us that there had been “a flurry of activity” on the boat, so if we could see it before then, he wanted us to try. Another buyer had put an offer in, but he knew we were driving so far and wanted to give us a chance to see it before sealing the deal. The two of us just rolled our eyes at this, thinking he was just being pushy. Peter’s track record with us led us to believe he was pretty scummy and that we couldn’t trust him. While our buyer’s broker was out of cell service, Ben called Peter to see if we could add this stop to our boat tour. He said it was still available and could be shown to us. Ben told him our buyer’s broker would be getting ahold of him to set it up and that’s when the claws came out. Peter told Ben that since they had already started chatting and “formed a relationship” that our buyer’s broker could no longer be in the deal. Come to find out- that’s illegal in the Florida broker world.

Because we had some time to spare after moving the Leopard earlier in the day, we decided to push the Copacabana up to the early evening on Monday. Peter agreed, but insisted that if we come earlier, it couldn’t be as the sun was going down. Waze told us it would be 1730 when we arrived at the Copa- Copacabana (sorry- I couldn’t resist throwing in the song). This shift in schedule would give us time to get to see one more boat (a 2002 Fountaine Pajot Maryland 37) in Jacksonville that we just found before we left.

Due to traffic in several places (because Ben and I kept forgetting that not everyone gets a Spring Break) we didn’t arrive at the dock until 1800. The sun was still up, so we were in luck. We met Jim who showed us the boat, told some really cool stories about his past and his family, and answered our questions. When the tour ended, I was sitting at the settee while Ben and Jim were standing near the helm. Ben told Jim he really loved it and would like to talk to me about it. I couldn’t tell if he was just paying lip service or if he truly meant it. Being accompanied by a look I hardly ever see, I felt it was genuine. I replied, “I do, too!” because I really did. After about 20 more minutes of chatting, Jim told us to take as much time as we need and talk it over, but to keep in mind that he had an offer that he hadn’t responded to because he wanted to give us a chance to see the boat after driving from so far away. He told us that if we wanted to put in an offer, we’d have to do it right away because he had to sign this other potential buyer’s offer the next day. 

(Side story: Jim asked us where we were staying and we told him in our camper. He said he knew that, but wondered where we’d park for the night. We told him we were going to start driving to Jacksonville and stop somewhere en route for the night. “Jacksonville, North Carolina?” he asked, “that’s not too far.” “No, Jacksonville, Florida,” Ben replied. He gawked at the idea and told us we could stay in his driveway. This really speaks to his character that came out even after only being there for an hour or so.)

Ben and I talked it over and walked the boat a few more times. We both really loved it. We called out a quick pros and cons list and had so many pros. My only con was I said we weren’t going to buy a boat on this trip! I took a walk-through video so we could show our family and friends. Knowing the wooden rail in the cockpit needed some attention, I peeked over the edge to see what it looked like in the rear and noticed the worn area where letters used to be, only because of the way the sunlight was at that particular moment (which wouldn’t have been the case if we came at 0900 the next day). Being as curious as I am, I looked to see what the boat used to be called. I saw the letters H-O-L-L-Y and gasped. Ben tried to see what I saw and he said that was our final sign. The boat had previously come from Hollywood, Florida, which is where I previously came from too. We walked back up to Jim’s house, Ben thanked him for his (and his family’s) service, and told him that we would call the broker and put in a full-price offer, resulting in the start of riding the wave of this journey.

From there, the rest of the trip was spent getting to know other boats and see what we could do to ours! Ben was on the phone almost non-stop the rest of the trip setting up appointments with the marine surveyors and the loan people- all of this stuff was what our buyer’s broker would normally do, but we got conned into thinking he couldn’t be part of the deal. The boat-buying world is so different compared to the real estate world and we kept (unknowingly) getting the wool pulled over our eyes. Yet another strike against Peter. 

We stopped and saw one boat in Jacksonville that was a few years older than ours and had 2 cabins instead of 3, but was the same model. Then we saw a boat (2003 52’ Portsmouth) in Vero Beach that was way overpriced for what it was, considering all of the hatches had water damage under them. Every. Single. One. It really must have been beautiful prior to whatever caused all of the water damage- a storm with the windows open, maybe?

As fate would have it, Ben remembered that one of his friends, Lance, had recently moved to Florida. He thought he moved to the west coast of Florida, but he decided to text him, in case we could see him and his new project on our way home. Turns out, he was 10 minutes north of where we stayed, so a stop was in order.

While touring Lance’s property, Ben and Lance talked about our new purchase and how difficult it was to find a slip or marina to keep the boat when we wouldn’t be on it. Lance told us we could keep the boat at dock #3, with some conditions to which we agreed.

We wrapped up our trip with a day at the Palm Beach International Boat Show. Since we already had our boat, we knew of a few things that it would need: a tender, a different refrigerator, and some sort of lift if we were to take Lance up on his offer.