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.

Let the Cat(amaran) Out of the Bag

In Ben’s communications with Marie, he found out that the broker’s contract would end on February 12th because they had decided to bring Domino back to Florida to try and sell there. So, on February 13th, we sent an email with an offer to the owners. It seemed like we were waiting forever and had not heard from Marie. I was starting to get worried that something had happened on their travels from Mexico to Florida. Ben finally got ahold of her and she told him that Domino was sold on the 11th. Although we were sad, we knew that didn’t mean our dreams wouldn’t become reality, we just knew Domino wasn’t meant for us and we had to keep looking. So, our search continued…

Around February 18th, Ben contacted a broker about a power cat he found that was recently sold, but had questions about the boat and information about the sale. The broker answered and said he works for free as a buyer’s broker, and if we were interested, we should send him what we’re looking for in our purchase. He gets paid commission from the sale (paid by the seller) when a deal closes.

Ben sent specs and the broker sent us this boat that is currently in Mexico with damage to the top outside part (not the part in the water) from banging into a post in a hurricane. The current owners bought it in 2020, are the broker’s friends, bought a house in Mexico, and are thinking of selling their yacht. It isn’t listed. We could potentially put in an offer without them listing it, not competing with other offers in the current seller’s market. One owner wanted to sell it because they haven’t used it in a year. His wife loves the yacht and may not want to part with it quite yet. So, we wait again...

Knowing that we weren’t going to be able to just put an offer in on any boat, sight unseen, we decided that we’d like to see the boats we were interested in, just to get an idea. We created a Boat Tour road trip that would have us stop along the way at 7 different boats- all different makes and/or years, so we could find out what we liked, what we didn’t like, and what we thought we’d need and the things we could do without.

We decided to plan our trip over my Spring Break. To travel close to 5,000 miles in 9 days or less would require leaving our children with their grandparents. We reluctantly told them about our big, financially irresponsible decision. That was of course met with uncountable, “Did you think about…?” and “What about…” and “How will you…?” questions, not to mention the “Well the kids have to wear life jackets the whole time,” comments. The cat had been let out of the bag.

Our journey would take us from Colorado to Virginia, North Carolina, and Florida to see potential boats before returning back home. We assured our families that we would not be purchasing a boat on this trip- it was strictly to find out what we liked.

How It Began

It all started on a cold February night. Ben and I were chatting in bed and he brought up the boat people with a blog. The blog of the couple followed their adventures cruising on a yacht all over the world that Ben had been following for a while. We had talked several times prior about selling our house and buying a catamaran power yacht once we both retired and our kids were in college or beyond, before becoming grandparents, returning to our beloved honeymoon sites in Fiji, so this conversation was nothing new to me until… he told me they were selling Domino- their 2009 Malcolm Tennant yacht.

I wasn’t sure where he was going with this, but in true Ben-fashion, he had thought up the next Carter Family Adventure and wanted my buy-in. Of course, we have had a ton of these Carter Family Adventures with our camper and cabin, but it seems, now the adventures have been calling him (us?) to the water. Knowing how hesitant I was with our other big purchases in life, I decided it wasn’t worth digging my feet in, in opposition and decided to just trust him, start researching, and get on board (pun intended).

He told me his ideas, including that we could each take a leave from our jobs, I could homeschool the kids while they’re still young, and we could travel the world while teaching our kids that there’s more to life than the everyday suburbia life we currently live.

He showed me the listing for Domino and the walk-through video, pausing on and off and narrating the whole time about what different things are for or how they would apply to our new boat-life, while answering all of my silly questions and trying not to get annoyed. His time with his grandpa on his grandparents’ sailboat, Afterglow, learning all there is to know about nautical and maritime life was taking a front seat in our adventures.

Ben emailed Marie, one of the owners of Domino, and was talking with her about our interest, which at first was curiosity, and later became serious. She told him that there was another offer on Domino and that we were more than welcome to come see the boat in person once they reached St. Petersburg, Florida in April. Marie also told us to do our research and see if there is something else out there, better fitting for us. So we did.

We talked about how we could afford this yacht life. After all, we were still paying some mortgages, car payments, and credit cards, among other things. Buying a boat, like a car, is not an investment, so we had to decide if it would be worth spending so much money on something we wanted to try and weren’t sure the kids and I would like. We threw out ideas left and right and finally decided to refinance our townhouse to get some cash equity for the down payment and future payments, fuel, tools and parts, emergency equipment, etc. There were so many thoughts running through our minds and our mouths that we both were up well past midnight talking and sharing more ideas. With our 3 kids (Bear- 9 years old, Moose- 6, and Roo- 4) being asleep for more than 4 hours already, we had to get to bed- they’d be waking up in no time!

One of my biggest wonderings was- How are we supposed to take 3 tiny humans with us and live on a boat for an extended period of time?! We had managed to do this fine in our camper and on road trips, but we were not in the middle of nowhere, surrounded by miles and miles of ocean with kids who eat next-to-nothing. I started reading and researching and found that traveling the world with kids for years at a time is not actually as uncommon as I had believed. There is a whole community of families with young kids who live on boats and cruise the oceans. A lot of them homeschool their kids and have had great success with it! I decided I was up for the challenge as long as I didn’t have to teach anything beyond middle school. That gives us 4 years.

With such exciting news, we both agreed not to talk about this new possibility in front of our kids, so as not to get their hopes up. We also didn’t want to alarm either of our families and cause unnecessary worry and fear. Moving into the next few weeks, when no one was around, all we could do was talk about a new power yacht catamaran listing Ben had found, weigh its pros and cons, and compare it to Domino. (Of course, there were a few slips here and there with the kids, but we managed to cover them up and quickly move on- no questions asked.)

Passagemaker is a magazine that Ben subscribed to several years ago, that I had secretly been recycling (for many months!) before he knew it came in the mail. I didn’t want him to get his heart set on anything and then start talking about buying a random boat, but look at us now, doing just that. When the March issue came in February, it was the first time I brought it in and actually started reading it myself. There were several articles about The Great Loop, including a family with 2 kids who had just sold their house, bought a yacht, and decided to cruise the loop.

I never thought I’d be a blogger. In fact, I still don’t consider myself to be one. This is just my journal of our journey that I’m sharing with all of you!