Boat Shopping - Take One

Reading over my last entry, I am taken back to almost two months ago when Rob and I thought that boat shopping would be as easy as 1-2-3: one week, two sailors, maybe three thousand miles from Texas to Florida and back with some driving while there.  That was a simpler time, a time of knowing that everything was going to be on our timeline and just as we planned...  That was before Rob and I took the longest "week" trip ever!

We did go to Houston, where we spent one night with my aunt and uncle catching up and talking into the wee hours of the morning.  That part was well worth the trip as my aunt has always been one of my biggest cheerleaders, rallying me to follow my dreams and excited to hear the stories that come from dreams-turned-reality.  It had been too long since I had a 2:00 in the morning story-telling session with her and I had a blast catching up!


The next day, what we found on the coastline was not what we were hoping for in terms of getting us under sail.  It turns out that the boats on the Texas coast in our price range are better-equipped for living at the dock, something that seems to be more the norm in that area than we were thinking...  Well, really more than we were hoping - we kinda thought this is what we'd find, but we hoped to buy something close to home.  We had composed a list of what we wanted in a boat as we drove south, what our requirements and hopes were in our new home.   As I was telling Rob my first requisite - headroom for his 6'2" stature - he was already writing the exact same thing, proving that we were on the same page, which is a very good place to start.  Though we were to learn so much more over the course of the next five weeks, this was our jumping off point, our Starter List so to speak:


Necessities included:

• headroom for Rob - A #1 most important aspect (I'll write about the "perfect" boat that was too short even for me in the next entry)
• good engine and overall good boat (a solid hull, good sails, and rigging that's in great shape)
• Bimini top (bonus if it came with a dodger)
• dinghy with a motor
• a real toilet (as opposed to a porta-potti)
• electronics (such as GPS, depth sounder, and VHF radio)
• ample storage for our stuff and for our liquids (water, gas, and bodily waste)
• anchors
• stove (propane a bonus)
• made by a trusted boat-manufacturer with a reputable history for this type of journey

Some features that would have been a bonus:

• oven
• fridge instead of an icebox
• lifeline netting
• solar panel(s) and/or wind generator
• grill
• swim platform (the link is just a reference - a teak one is out of reach for us right now)

Now, my enthusiastic husband would love for me to TORTURE you, Dear Reader, by posting pictures of every boat we walked on and writing the blow-by-blow account of our journey to find The Boat. With fieldnotes in hand, I will write that as a "How To" book someday that can be read by those people wanting to make this drastic lifestyle change themselves... For those of you only interested in what Rob and I are up to, I will spare you the details. You're welcome.

So, finally, we were ready to put feet on decks and get a feel of what the next year will bring.  In the one day we had to shop in the Galveston area, we met three boat brokers and four boats... one of those boats we felt lukewarm about; one of those brokers, we just felt cold toward.  The oldest of the boat brokers insisted - no matter how many times we told him that we would be sailing off for the Caribbean - that we would need an air conditioner because of how hot it gets in Texas.  After we (once again) stated that we would not be staying in the area and would be setting off for a climate I lived in for three years without a/c, he still had only one boat to show us, one which was out of our price range and - surprise, surprise! - had an air conditioner, the first time I had ever even seen central a/c on a 30' boat.

Outside of that disappointing and very frustrating experience, we had the opportunity to meet two down-to-Earth men who were more willing to stay within our budget, but who - unfortunately - just did not have boats that came close to our needs.  None of the boats had a dinghy or an independent power source (again, these are boats for plugging into the marina, not sailing into open sea) and some had just not been well-maintained.  While we expected Florida to be a reality for us and had prepared to take the drive, I know there was a small part of both of us hoping we could find the jewel in the rough here in our home state, sealing a nice and tidy deal where we could be close to our families during the last couple of months in the States and cut down on the miles driven.

After walking on four boats and strolling up and down as many marinas we could get into (which had been the plan, but most are locked, just like the one we have our boat at now), we were tired, frustrated, and thirsty, leading us to stop.  This was to be the most productive visit of the entire day at a shop that surprised, amazed, and amused both Rob and me: the used sailboat parts store!  Want to talk buried treasure?!  Here it is!!!  All you have to do is walk through a West Marine one time and you will understand how wonderful it is to find prices like we found while playing with pieces of boats which our minds' eyes placed on our own imaginary boat.  Stove/oven combos, steering wheels, radios and speakers, cushions, wenches, and so much more - all looking so lonely away from their boat home, all priced to find a new one!  It may seem silly to non-boaters to get excited about a pick-a-part shop, but considering the idea that adding the words "marine grade" to a product adds about $100 to it, almost anyone can appreciate finding good-condition used parts at reasonable prices and realize it's damn-near miraculous!

The end of this tiring day found us eating and drinking with friends who took us to a karaoke honky-tonk, a first for us and a phrase which would crack Rob up in sober and not-so-sober times for weeks to come.  The next day, we headed to Bastrop, seeing for the first time the misery and devastation a huge fire can cause to a region, a town, and to our dear friends who lost everything they owned.  However, celebrating one couple's anniversary over a sunset dinner that night, I looked at my friends and realized that as long as we each have the families we come from, the families we create, and our family of friends to make us laugh and to hug us as we cry, we have everything we need.

Every forest across the globe has a time of fire, a burning off the old unnecessary parts that have collected on the ground and have begun strangling the propagating soil which nourishes the trees' and plants' growth.  After the demolition and danger have moved passed, all that is left is nutrient-rich ash which adds to the soil and openings through the trees for the sun's life-creating beams to warm the ground below.  As the intelligent Earth Mother can absorb the most minute traces of water from the air, these three elements bring forth a new, stronger, and more bountiful forest.

I look forward to the time on the other side of all of this when our three small families are renewed, stronger, and more bountiful in all that we do, a time when we realize how the unimportant material things we had collected for so long were strangling our growth.  While I know Rob and I have consciously made the choice to sell off/give away most everything we owned and did not have this thrust upon us as our friends did, we are now all in the same place, relearning how to define who we are without our "stuff" and making heady choices that not everyone will always agree with.  I think all of us now understands that no one can completely depend on the future they've planned because life is going to be a challenge due to the unplanned events; thankfully, the hardship or ease of each challenge is determined solely through the solutions and paths we chose.

"It's HUGE - to finally embrace the life you never planned on."

~"Ivan Schrank" in Greenburg, 2010 movie

Note:  Most of you know by now that we have actually bought our boat already.  I tried writing this post starting here and ending with the purchase of our new home... and bored myself writing it halfway through.  So, I am starting here and breaking it up into pieces; this should be the first of three installments to get to the end result (I'm hoping three right now, but I do get wordy!).  Please check back as both of those installments should be posted within the week, the last will -of COURSE - contain the pictures of our new beautiful lady!