Planning The Fun
1 hour ago
Friday, May 19, 2017
. . . and it's gone!
The free sailboat we were looking into. Someone beat us to the punch. The boat is supposed to be hauled away this weekend. However, if for some reason those people flake on the deal, the owners are saving our number.
It would have been neat to have a good 30 foot boat but it's not the best of timing for us. Coastal Massachusetts is one of the more expensive places to keep a boat, even on a mooring. Don't get me wrong, we'd make it work. It would be close to one of my daughter's and her family, so that would be good. However, we'd have to leave earlier than planned in the fall to beat the cold weather. Still, it's all workable. If for some reason we get another opportunity to take the boat, we most likely would do it.
Our fallback plan is to do a mixture of camping and sailing. We'd hook up our Oday 19 sailboat behind our ambulance/motorhome conversion. The van's fixed and running well. The sailboat basically just needs a new battery. Before heading to southern salt water I'd give it a new coat of bottom paint, but that can wait until the last minute. The big advantage of this arrangement is the fact that we already own everything.
My lovely wife won't let me take the little Oday across the Gulf Stream,so the Bahamas would be out for next winter. However, the shallow draft opens up a lot of Florida waters that other boats cannot get into. When we get tired of the tight quarters on the boat, we can easily haul it out and stay in the van a while. One big advantages of our trailer sailor arrangement is being able to stick around until after Thanksgiving, my favorite holiday.
Of course, anything could happen. We are flexible and ready to make changes at a moment's notice.
-Sixbears
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Flexibility is good!
ReplyDeleteIt's what keeps us from being disappointed. Things tend to work out for us. Sometimes they take longer than expected, but that's life, right?
DeleteHope all works out and you don't get snowed in before Thanksgiving.
ReplyDeleteOne year we were delayed three times by snowstorms. Any idea how weird it feels to shovel off a sailboat?
DeleteIts not free but Ebay has an amazing array of very affordable mid size sailboats listed (under a grand). Lot of them donated to charitable organizations that are trying to convert them for some cash. Might not be a bad deal, especially if they are already located in southern states.
ReplyDeleteGood point. I tend to forget about ebay. We looked at a great boat once that was being sold to profit a sailing club. The boat was fantastic, but the trailer was completely unsuitable for our needs. It was designed for only short hauls and required a boat lift to get the boat off. We needed something we could ramp launch. Would have taken more work than it was worth to convert the trailer, totally negating the bargain of the boat.
DeleteYou might enjoy a book called "Chicken Hawk, back in the world." It's about a Vietnam era Huey pilot who needed some money when he became a civilian, so he tried to sail a little sailboat from the Caribbean back to South Carolina, loaded with pot. Sadly, he got busted, but hey, might be an income stream there, who knows? ;-)
ReplyDeleteJust ordered it from Amazon. The paperback was cheaper than the Kindle edition. Go figure.
DeleteI was in Ft. Myers Beach Fl, and one of the old timers was pointing out how much of the waterfront was developed with cocaine money. They had to do something with all that cash.