Aaron's blog

Trip to Port Charlotte, FL

By aaron.axvig, Mon, 10/29/2018 - 03:00

On Sunday, Aaron had planned a trip to Fort Clinch State Park where there are a lot of trails for hiking and biking, a beach, and Fort Clinch of course. The drive from the entrance of the park to the fort was absolutely beautiful, with a full canopy of live oaks with Spanish moss hanging down over the road. We even saw a baby deer cross the road with itā€™s momma! We arrived at the fort around noon and ate our sack lunches on a bench outside the visitor center. Construction of the fort started in 1847, though it was never completed, and it is classified as a Third System Fortification. It was used during the Civil War, Spanish-American War, and World War ll. The fort is in the shape of a pentagon and has a set of walls surrounding it. We spend a good part of our time there going through all of the buildings inside the fort and walking along the beach. After seeing everything at the fort we headed to another beach at the park where we walked along the waters edge and played in the sand and water.

After leaving the state park we tried to visit a lighthouse which Aaron found on Google Maps but it turned out to be on private property and there was a gate blocking the road. So we headed to the historic area of Saint Marys. We walked around the town and enjoyed the views of the water and sailboats before heading back to the camper for the evening. We had set up an appointment to view another Hunter 376 in Port Charlotte, 5.5 hours away from the camper, at 11AM Monday morning. Anticipating the early morning, we heated up some leftover spaghetti and meatballs and called it an early night.

Today we woke up at 4AM to get ready for the drive over to Port Charlotte. We took Louise with us since we were going to be gone for the entire day. Upon arrival at the boatyard we met with Skip who brought us to the boat which had been on the hard for the summer and was very interesting to see out of the water. We were not impressed with this boat and are still in favor of the other Hunter 376 we looked at on Saturday as it is in better condition.

Once done looking at the boat we started the drive back to the camper. On our way back we kept seeing these billboards advertising free fresh-squeezed orange juice and baby alligators which compelled us to stop. The orange juice was refreshing but the alligators were pretty boring. After a quick stop at Dairy Queen for a pup cup for Louise we continued on our way.

Finally back at the camper 12 hours after we set out for the day we were exhausted and hungry. We had leftover spaghetti again for dinner and will call it an early night again tonight.

Tags

Looking at boats in Charleston, SC

By aaron.axvig, Sat, 10/27/2018 - 03:00

Friday morning the rain came but nowhere near two inches. After breakfast we spent a few hours looking at online listings for sailboats in the Jacksonville area. At 2:00PM we left to drive to the Cooper River Marina for an appointment to look at a boat. We walked to the marina office by way of a very long pier and had some ice cream while waiting for the broker to arrive. There was a large, multistory, run down, boat named "Fathom This" parked on the end of the pier which we couldn't resist asking about. It turned out to be owned by Bam Brown from the TV show Alaskan Bush People. The boat even has its own Twitter account @FathomThisFairy. Aaron thought that was kind of interesting.

Randy, the broker, showed us a 1996 Hunter 376. First impressions were that the outside was dirty with the deck and sides of the boat needing a good cleaning. The boat is normally washed monthly but due to the recent hurricanes the last two cleanings were canceled. We started to really like the boat as we got past the fixable cosmetic issues. The boat has a very large aft cabin with two big hanging lockers, lots of storage on three sides of the bed, two empty storage areas under the mattress, and access to the head. The galley has separate fridge and freezer areas and lots of storage. There is a reasonably large v-berth with good storage, a comfortable cockpit, walkthrough transom, more storage on the transom, etc. Basically there is a lot of room to store all of our crap! For downsides it doesn't have a windlass for the anchor nor in-mast furling, which we have learned is a possibility in our price range. This is the first boat that has an interior which we could imagine ourselves living in.

After that we followed Randy to a marina about 10 minutes away and looked at a 1999 Beneteau Oceanis 352. It was OK but again light on storage and it did not have the best headroom for Aaron. It did have in-mast furling and a manual windlass.

That evening after a dinner of great Mexican food Anna went to bed early, probably dreaming of Hunter 376 sailboats. Aaron spent a lot of time reading Hunter 376 information and reviews, and investigating how much it costs to install a windlass.

This morning we packed up the camper and headed to the next campground in St. Marys, just north of Jacksonville. We ate at Bojangles, a popular chain in the south, for lunch and it was pretty good. Aaron liked the "bo sauceā€ for dipping his chicken tenders and Anna liked the biscuit. The gas station attached to the restaurant sold boiled peanuts which appeared to be peanuts in the shell sitting in some hot water. Someone had told us about them at one of our departure parties but we can't remember who. We were not bold enough to try them.

We liked that Hunter 376 layout a lot so while driving today we started working on plans to view other Hunter 376 boats. There is one for sale in Port Charlotte, FL that does have a windlass and is reportedly kept up better cosmetically. The salesperson told us it had been run aground, keel damage professionally repaired. He also said the boat had been tipped off or floated off of its stands during Hurricane Irma where it took on water and caused an electrical issue which was supposedly professionally repaired.

We are planning to stay in St. Marys for 6 nights. During that time we will spend a day on Cumberland Island visiting Ann and Ralph, potentially drive five hours each way to Port Charlotte, look at some boats in the Jacksonville area, and partake in some tourism activities. Regrettably, we did not see much of Charleston except the marina so we have promised ourselves we will park our sailboat at the city dock and see the town in the future.

Tags

Wrightsville Beach and Wilmington, SC

By aaron.axvig, Thu, 10/25/2018 - 03:00

On Tuesday at about 10:30AM we drove over to Wrightsville Beach as we heard that's where the sailboats are. We tried visiting a couple yacht sales offices in person but they were not staffed. We didn't see much for sailboats around that spot either, just power boats. So we looked at satellite imagery and picked out a different marina about a mile away that looked like it had sailboats in it. We went over there and it was a yacht club and there wasn't really a sales office. We talked to some members in the parking lot and they invited us to walk the docks and see if there were any sailboats displaying for sale signs.

We found one boat with a sign but it was a power boat. The aging man working on it said he had previously had four sailboats and then this was his fourth power boat, and that it was time for him to get out of the boating business. We also found a 30 year old guy washing his 32 foot sailboat, and he told us that it was for sale. We went on board to check it out and as suspected due to the length being less than 35 feet, it did not have enough headroom inside for Aaron. It had a carbon fiber mast--first time we had seen one of those. We didn't find any other boats for sale, but it was a pleasure to enjoy the sunny weather and gaze at all the boats. We always learn something!

After that Aaron noticed a point of interest on the map named "The Mailbox at Wrightsville Beach". It appeared to be a mailbox that people leave messages in, just to say hi, to vent, or whatever you imagine. We drove down to check it out. There were some letters in there of people writing to each other, and a log book where we wrote a little something. Then we spent about 45 minutes to enjoy the beach. Aaron didn't want to take off his shoes but Anna did a little wading and got her jeans wet. We weren't really wearing beach clothes but it was still nice. There were probably 20 people total out there in the mile plus of beach in our immediate area. We went back to the campground to do some laundry and some camper wiring repairs to get the fridge working on 12V, then had some leftover soup and watched a few YouTube videos before bed.

On Wednesday we did some housekeeping and Aaron had a 2 hour conference call. Anna did a couple hours of research and scheduling boat showings, and then we drove into downtown Wilmington to check out the historic district and the Riverwalk located there. Part of the Riverwalk is facing the city docks which charge $1.25 per foot if you want to park your boat there for the night (power and water provided). It would be cool to park our boat there in the future as it is right along the Intracoastal Waterway and would be a nice stop on our way up the coast next spring. We had appetizers at Front Street Brewery and then pizza for Anna and a calzone for Aaron at Fat Tony's Italian Pub (that food was amazing!). One brewery we stopped at didn't serve food so they could have dogs inside and there were 4-5 very nice ones hanging out with their owners.

Today was an early morning, getting up at 6:30 so that we could leave the campground at 9:00 and be in Little River by 11:00 to look at a boat. We met Captain John there and looked at a Beneteau America 343. This was a very lightly used boat, the newest we had looked at so far, and we liked it overall. It is on the expensive side (the listed price at least) and doesn't have a lot of storage. We keep thinking "where would we even put xxxx!?" Probably we will end up downsizing even more from our pop-up camper lifestyle. We also went on a 2012 33-foot Hunter just to see ($120k or something so way out of our consideration) and it was very nice, but no headroom for Aaron. John spent an extra 20 minutes or so talking about our plans and giving us advice, so we tried to soak it all in. He even offered to show us a catamaran but didn't have the key so we just saw it from the outside.

Then we drove to Charleston and set up for two nights. We are formulating plans to meet Ann and Ralph who worked with Anna in Medora and part of that involves putting Louise in doggy day care for a day. For that she needed an additional vaccination so late in the afternoon we found a vet and they were able to get that done. Now it is time to heat up some dinner. It is supposed to start raining in the middle of the night and continue all day tomorrow accumulating two inches. We have two sailboat viewings scheduled so we will definitely need our raincoats!

Tags

Looking at boats in New Bern, NC

By aaron.axvig, Mon, 10/22/2018 - 03:00

Yesterday we went to grab a few groceries at the Piggly Wiggly near our campground.  Then we decided to drive over to Emerald Isle and drove the whole length of it over to Morehead City.  We stopped at a Ben and Jerry's right away where Anna loved the cows on the walls, and then on the other end of the island stopped at an Ace Hardware to pick up a few things.  On the north side of the bay we stopped at a visitor's center, checked out the water, and chatted with the guy staffing the place.  He recommended a yacht salesperson down in Wilmington so maybe we will meet up with him.

Back at the campground we set about making some repairs and cooking supper.  First up was the left taillights of the trailer which happened to be working at that moment, so we moved on to the fridge.  The 120V switch had melted one of its terminals loose so once that was replaced we had a working fridge in the camper again.  We still need to get the 12V part of it working though.  Then we watched a movie and had a great supper of creamy chicken wild rice soup along with chips and salsa and some sangria given to us at the farewell party in Rosemount (thanks Mike and Jo!).

Today we met Ken from Neptune Yacht Sales at the New Bern Grand Marina.  We looked at four boats there.

  • -1999 Hunter 340 - liked the cockpit, very small v-berth, no separate shower, only two winches, generally good
  • -2000 Hanse 371 - Aaron could not stand comfortably inside
  • -2002 Beneteau 361 - Very nice front access fridge plus separate top loading freezer, separate shower from bathroom, white pleather cushions inside, electric windlass, four winches, large v-berth, debatable quality of aft cabin, very nice cockpit, many windows and almost all of them opened for ventilation too (Anna loves this one)
  • -1982 Morgan Out Island 416 - center cockpit, ketch-rigged, has solar panels and dingy davits, very wide and very long (too big?), dark (cozy?) insideā€¦lots of dark wood, tons of storage inside, aft cabin with own bathroom, no walk through transom so would be difficult to get Louise on board (Aaron loves this one)

After we finished looking at the boats we debated taking a free ferry ride for fun but the timing didn't work out.  So we drove back to the campground and on the way Anna researched some campgrounds in Wilmington and booked us at the KOA there.  At the camper we ate sandwiches, packed up, and drove the 1.5 hours or so to the new campground.  The new campground is glorious compared to the previous one.  Drinkable water, dog park, laundry, friendly neighbors, level camp site, free coffee in the morning, swimming pool (Anna was sad that it was not open, and the staff laughed at us when we asked, because "this morning the temperature started with a 3!"), etc.

We spent about an hour at the dog park and Louise played a lot with a boxer named Luke.  Luke was about 10 months older than Louise and played very well with Louise so she is exhausted now.  We talked a lot to his owner who had a house nearby that had about 1 foot of water flood his house so he was staying at the campground while it was repaired.  He recommended many things to do, places where boats are, and things to eat.  We had some Japanese food and now are back at the camper to research where we want to go tomorrow.  No appointments are set up so I guess we will just crash some marina sales offices!

Tags

Indianapolis, IN to Maysville, NC

By aaron.axvig, Sat, 10/20/2018 - 03:00

Thursday, October 18th we left Mickey's in Indianapolis at about 9:00AM.  We drove through Cincinnati and then took a state highway past Maysville, which was a nice break from the interstate traffic.  Later on we drove I-64 south of Charleston (toll road!) and sat on the highway for 30 plus minutes due to some construction.  We got a little anxious about running out of gas (even turned the car off a few times during the gridlock) but made it to the next gas station.  There was some nice mountain driving--Anna's car holds the speed down really well in manual shifting mode so that was not too stressful.

Around sunset we pulled into Little Beaver State Park, WV and got the camper set up before dark.  It was a nice quiet campground with a glorious bathhouse.  This was the first night setting up the camper and most things travelled well.  Our corn starch and baking soda containers had been stored on their side and their tops popped off but surprisingly didn't make too big of a mess. We had cup of noodle soup and a beer to celebrate our first night in the camper while we watched a movie.

We took our time packing up Friday morning (rearranging both the car and camper substantially) and left the campground a bit before noon.  There was more mountain driving at first and then we started to get into the really curvy rural roads with views of nice houses featuring huge porches.  Then we stopped for supper at a Wendy's in Dunn, NC.  We were not too fond of the clientele there and were glad to leave that area.

We found White Oak River Campground near Maysville, NC as a place to stay for the next few nights that seemed reasonably close to New Bern.  There was some ongoing road construction nearby so our navigation software failed to bring us to our destination.  We called the campground office to get directions and ended up having to turn around in someone's rural driveway which was a stressful experience. We finally arrived at 8:30PM, got set up, showered, and went to bed.

Saturday morning we went to look at a 1991 Hunter 375 as scheduled on Friday.  The broker had sounded pretty gruff and like we were really hassling him to see the boat, which had some hurricane damage and the owner didn't want it to be shown.  We got to his office and he talked to us for 20 minutes about what our plans were and whether we had thought through various things.  We then followed him in our car to a marina and looked at the boat.  The hurricane damage turned out to be just 6 inches of a rubber trim piece on the edge of the boat that had been torn off.  One of the sails was piled into the salon (standard hurricane preparation) and took up a lot of space, but otherwise we got a very good look at it and learned a lot from the broker.  He is a captain and has been cruising for many years; I think he said 70,000 miles of sailing.  He gave us lots of advice and talked to us about many aspects of cruising. It turned out to be a much better experience than we though it would be based off of the phone call the day prior.

Then we drove back to New Bern and had lunch at Morgan's Grill and Tavern.  Very good food (delicious croissants drizzled with honey as soon as we sat down) and excellent service.  On the way home we stopped at a dog park for 20 minutes so Louise could run. Then we picked up a few items at Target and Lowes (water hose, blanket, pillow, rugs).  Back at the camper we took a nap, rearranged stuff, took Louise on a walk, read a little bit, and did some writing.

Within 30 or so miles of the coast we have been seeing hurricane debris that people have piled on the curbs for pickup.  Most of the houses look like they have been cleaned on the outside but a few still have visible flood waterlines.  Some have huge piles of plaster, sheetrock, insulation, furniture, etc. in front of them, so even though they look OK on the outside there must still be a real mess inside.  There are many crews going around picking up this debris using trucks with crane arms, very similar to logging trucks but with solid trailer walls.

During the hurricane the campground was heavily flooded because it is situated near a river bottom.  Where our camper sits today was covered with about 11 feet of water.  There are a few rough edges but it is remarkable how quickly things are being restored. We are planning to stay here until Tuesday morning when we will move south onto the next town. We are not sure exactly where we will go next but at least we have a few days to figure it out.

Tags

Indianapolis

By aaron.axvig, Wed, 10/17/2018 - 03:00

Last night we arrived to our friend Mickey's just east of Indianapolis and slept while she worked the night shift.  In the morning we let her sleep a little and then headed into the center of Indianapolis to check out the sights.

We saw many tall buildings.  Then we went into the ArtsGarden which is a large glass building suspended over a busy intersection.  Feeling hungry, we went over to City Market which is like a food court but not really any chains.

Then we went to the Soldiers and Sailors Monument.  We took the stairs up to the top which is a considered equal to 20 stories.  The sign at the bottom has some guidance, and the first item on the list was to not do the climb immediately after eating.  We forged on anyways and saw some nice views in the solar oven (windows and no ventilation) at the top.

We walked by the very cool hotel that Mickey works at and then over to the canal walk to walk along the water for a little bit.  The boats were not in operationā€¦too cold I guess.  On the way back to the car we stopped by the huge Catholic church which was very nice.

Back home at Mickey's we took Louise for a walk and then went to Hometown Classic Pizza--great service and great pizza.

Tags

Sailboats we have looked at so far

By aaron.axvig, Mon, 10/15/2018 - 03:00

Our experience looking at sailboats is pretty thin given that we live in North Dakota, hence the goal to just look at a bunch right away.  But here is all of the looking we have done so far:

We were in Duluth just after Christmas 2017 and stopped by a couple marinas just to look around.  It was VERY cold so we would step out of the car to walk between the rows of boats on stands and then quickly return to warm up.  It was interesting to see some of the parts that had just been previously read about--keels, through hulls, rudders, weather vanes, and many more.

When we were at sailing school in Florida we were on their Dufour Gib'Sea 43 for 6 nights.  So we became pretty familiar with that model.  I was a little disappointed that we didn't do much looking under all the floor panels and just in general checking out the different systems.  On the last day two of the school's other boats were at the same dock so we went to take a quick look at those.  First a Gib'Sea 51 which was much larger inside than our 43-footer, and then the Island Spirit 37 catamaran.  The salon and cockpit on the catamaran were enormous.

For Easter this year we were up in Minot and one of Aaron's relatives said that they knew someone who was selling a sailboat on Lake Sakakawea.  They showed us a picture and we decided we would stop by the marina on the way back home to Medora.  There was still quite a bit of snow to trudge through but we found the sailboat there.  It looked pretty classy and I figured that the full keel meant it would be a solid boat but couldn't see much from the ground.  A few days later we got ahold of the owner and found out it was a Tashiba 36 that he brought up to ND after it had been damaged in a hurricane near New Orleans.  He described it as "the best boat between Lake Superior and the west coast."  Some reading online indicated that maybe he wasn't completely in fantasy land as it was designed by a legendary boat designer and built by a very well-regarded yard in Taiwan.  He said we should come check it out once it was in the water, and we did early in the summer.  His son was there too and we poked around into all the dark corners--very fascinating for Aaron.  We also took it out for a short sale that day.  Ultimately it was too expensive and not a great design for us.

In August Aaron was in Duluth with his father and brother on a motorcycle adventure.  They stopped by one of the marinas and talked to the salesperson who jumped at the chance to take them out on the docks to see 8 or so boats.  This was helpful for Aaron to see many different floor plans and conditions of boats, but also very helpful for his father to see what this crazy boat idea was all about.  The salesperson had lived on a sailboat in Key West for two years and talked about his experiences there too.  It was too bad that Anna couldn't be there but hopefully we can replicate that great experience at a few of the marinas that we visit.

Tags

Our sailing experience

By aaron.axvig, Mon, 10/15/2018 - 03:00

Aaron here.  I trace my interest in sailing to almost 3 years ago when I found the SV Seeker YouTube channel.  This is a guy named Doug that is building a 74-foot steel sailboat in his front yard in Tulsa, OK.  I think at the time I was more interested in the spirit and scale of what he was doing than the fact that it was a sailboat.  He lets people come help him and teaches them any skills they may need for the work--often welding and grinding.

I mentioned this to my dad that summer (2016) and in October we went down there on our motorcycles to help him for a weekend.  When we arrived Friday night we spent a couple hours grinding the edges of the portholes.  On Saturday we started manufacturing the floorplates that do double duty as the tops of the diesel tanks in the bottom of the boat.  I ran a CNC machine with a plasma cutter to cut out the shapes of the floorplates and hatch covers, and my dad drilled and tapped hundreds of bolt holes for joining the two together.  On Sunday we worked on welding a cast iron threaded fitting into each hatch cover.  The SV Seeker video that includes our time in Tulsa can be found here (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Td707cC8UW8); my dad and I are introduced at the 5-minute mark.

Then other sailing videos kept being suggested to me on YouTube.  I watched a few and soon those were all I was watching, trying to learn as much as possible.  Sailing books started arriving in the mail.  Probably during the spring of 2017 I began to think that going cruising was something I was actually interested in doing (Anna wasn't opposed, but maybe didn't think it would actually progress this far!).  I figured that I should probably get some sailing experience so drove to Bismarck to buy an 18' 1976 Chrysler Buccaneer for $800.

We took out the Buccaneer on Lake Patterson near Dickinson, ND and had a pretty stressful first sail.  At one point the side of the boat dipped under the waterā€¦very exciting.  Hear me yelling "bail faster!" to Anna in this video we made of the event: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g9CH3XI5skc  The Buccaneer went out three other times that summer, once me by my self, once Anna, Daniel, and myself, and one time I took my sister out.  Small "dingy" sailboats are very unstable since they don't have weighted keels, and there is a definite risk of tipping it over and then struggling to right it again.  So I can't say that I really enjoyed sailing that little boat.  I didn't take it out this past summer and sold it to a guy who lives on Lake Patterson in July.

In February 2018 we went to Florida for sailing school.  We went through Blue Water Sailing School in Fort Lauderdale for a week-long course that gives you the American Sailing Association 101, 103, and 104 certifications on completion.  Those respectively are Basic Keelboat Sailing, Basic Coastal Cruising, and Bareboat Cruising.  In theory with these certifications a rental company would let you take out one of their sailboats on a charter for a week or so without a captain (making it a "bareboat").  Also a boat insurance company typically requires experience or certifications like these.

The school sent us three textbooks to study ahead of time.  Then when we arrived we spent most of our time learning the hands-on skills and then taking written and practical tests.  We spent 6 nights on board the 43' Dufour Gib'Sea named Third Wish.  We both learned a lot that week and passed all of the tests!

Our most recent sailing was in the early summer when we went to check out a Tashiba 36 on Lake Sakakawea.  We spent an hour or so examining the internals of the vessel and then went out for a short cruise along the lake shore.  Ultimately it was more expensive than what we want to spend and not a great interior layout, but it was a beautiful day to go out for a sail.

Tags

What we want in a sailboat

By aaron.axvig, Sun, 10/14/2018 - 03:00

We looked at our first sailboat today and thought we should tell you about what weā€™ve been looking for in a boat. In general, we think that a 35 foot monohull made in the 90s would be a good fit for us.

A broad category of sailboats is whether they are a "bluewater boat" or not. Bluewater boats typically feature heavier construction, a large keel (no fin keels), and thicker rigging. Basically they are designed to be safer and more comfortable in heavy weather conditions that you may not be able to avoid when crossing an ocean, but often sacrifice performance and cost. We currently have no plans to do any longer passages and will not specifically be looking for a boat designed like this, but would be OK with one.

Specific things we will be considering:

  • Diesel engine: this is pretty standard, typically about 40 horsepower
  • Aft cabin: when the main cabin is in the back of the boat you get a more square-shaped bed instead of the more common triangular ones in the pointy bow (v-berth).  Also a little better walking room. However, they lack the excellent airflow of a v-berth and take away large amounts of cockpit storage.
  • Sugar scoops and walkthrough transom: sugar scoops are when the back of the boat has a flat "scoop" surface down by the water line, and the walk through transom is when you can step into the cockpit from the transom. This would be great for boarding the dingy, swimming, and getting Louise on and off.
  • Dual helms: having two steering wheels makes the cockpit feel more open since you can walk down the middle to the back of the boat, but was not very common on models under 50 feet until the 2000s.
  • Pilothouse models: these have an enclosed cockpit and seem nice but are pretty rare.
  • Navigation electronics: we have a relative at Garmin who has offered to hook us up with discounted instruments so a boat with aging electronics wouldn't be a downside.

We plan to keep the price under $50,000. This should be enough to get us in a boat that doesn't have any major issues, but will need some moderate repairs and updates. It seems usual to spend about 20% of the purchase price to do that, which for us might be things like adding solar panels, replacing batteries, painting the bottom, replacing ropes, etc.

We will need a dingy too, probably a 10 or 12 foot inflatable with a 10 horsepower motor.

Tags

Our plans

By aaron.axvig, Sun, 10/14/2018 - 03:00

So far we have left Medora at noon on Friday, October 12th, spent a night at Aaron's brother's house in Fargo, ND, and are halfway through a two night stay at Anna's parents' house in Rosemount, MN.  We had great goodbye parties at both of those places with many friends and relatives in attendance.

Our next stop is Indianapolis, IN to visit Mickey who we worked with in Medora.  We plan to spend two nights there and then cross off a few more states for Anna with a route through Ohio, Kentucky, West Virginia, and Virginia on our way to North Carolina.

A couple weeks prior to Hurricane Florence we had chosen New Bern, NC as the first place we would start shopping for sailboats.  Some brief research made it seem like we would still find sailboats in good condition for sale there so we will check it out.  From there we will work our way south, stopping in areas that have marinas with boats for sale.  For example, in New Bern we found 5 marinas that each have about 5 listings of interest to us.

Our loose goal is to see 50+ sailboats over a few weeks as we don't have much in-person experience.  This will basically be an education phase.  As we start to narrow down our interests in specific features or models we will also be looking on Yachtworld, Craigslist, etc. and schedule some individual showings.

If things go well we envision that we could close on a sailboat by early December.  This could be anywhere from North Carolina down to Miami.  Then we would spend about one month cleaning, updating, repairing, and adding stuff.  Probably towards the end of that timeframe we would have the boat in the water and go on shakedown cruises on some days.

That would bring us to January.  We think we will spend some time in the Florida area building up our experience in relatively protected waters.  It would be fun to visit Biscayne Bay where we did most of our sailing school training.  Towards the end of February we may feel confident enough to make the 80 mile passage over to the Bahamas.  This would be our first (and only planned, other than the return passage) time being out of site of land.

In April we would return to Florida and begin the process of heading north up the east coast of the US.  Aaron's brother is getting married near Boston in early July so we will try to be there by then.  We haven't thought much about what happens after that.  Possibly we would head further north for a while and then retreat back down towards Florida as the fall weather sets in.

 

Needless to say, this is all subject to change!

Tags