Good news.. Bad news... This is starting to feel like an ordeal

We got an update from our broker for the sail boat on Friday that the new prop had come in and a diver was scheduled to put it on Saturday. Yay... Maybe we will  close on the new boat on the 13th like we planned. Saturday the next call comes in from the broker letting us know the diver that was supposed to put the new prop on canceled and that the owner had decided to put the prop on himself ensuring we would make the closing date. We said ok but wanted to ensure our surveyor or someone could stop by the boat and at least check it out for us after he let us know the job was completed. I also requested a receipt for the prop. We called the surveyor and he said no problem it was not a busy week for him, he could stop by almost any day to check it out. I tentatively asked him to plan for some time Thursday to stop by start the engines put the boat in gear under load at the dock a couple times ensuring the prop wouldn't magically spin off again and that there truly was a prop there. Monday about lunch time I get the call that all went well have your guy come check it out we are ready to close. With my brokers help we move up the surveyors schedule and hope for the best. Meanwhile I spent about half the day Monday, getting the final payment transferred, the required registration forms completed, insurance finalized, and started on booking some plane tickets so we could spend the night on our new boat, go though the various boxes of spares on board, look at what tools might still be on it, safety equipment and hopefully start a few projects ensuring we will be ready to start moving the boat north in mid June. At this point I've done everything but sign the final closing paperwork that was sent over late in the afternoon. About 5pm I get a call from the surveyor reporting that he thinks they put the wrong prop on as one engine is rev'ing at a significantly different RPM then the other while under the same load and while he was there he noticed some new dock rash the boat had acquired since our survey. Ugh... is about all I could say. Guess we won't be closing tomorrow after all :(

I understand accidents happen and the dock rash is not horrible. If it happened to me I would most likely be frustrated and simply plan to have it addressed at the end of the season. If it happened when I was under contract selling the boat I would have reported it and made immediate plans to get it addressed. What bugs me most is that it's in a obvious place that is easily seen when getting on or off the boat making me reasonably sure the current owner knew it happened and just hoped to ignore it leaving it as a surprise to me when I got there. Between this and that it seems almost no maintenance has been done to the boat under their ownership is starting to leave a bad taste in my mouth probably compounded somewhat by the fact that the rumor is they are very difficult to work with. I hate to back out of this over something as trivial as the wrong prop being put on and some dock rash but we are starting to think about it. Anyway we have punted both concerns over to the sellers and will see what they come back with. I have an idea what may be going on with the prop but as I've never had a fancy folding prop am not sure and will wait to see what they have to say. Good thing I could not find my FF number and thus didn't get the tickets booked this afternoon when I was originally looking at flights.

Boat show and current plans

We decided to head over to the Cataba Island Boat show last weekend. We were hoping to find some local marinas to talk to that might be able to store the boat for the winter and maybe even supply dockage. We got two solid leads for winter storage which was way better than our previous options of maybe something on Lake Ontario and a 90% sure they could at one marina on Lake Michigan. So that was a win. Now we just need to find a dock somewhere on the US side of Lake Erie preferably. We got a couple leads but nothing real promising. The reality is even though I've started to see a few catamarans start to show up on the Great Lakes most are around the 40ft range and at least 4ft narrower than ours. The lakes just are not set up right now to handle these boats wide beam boats and it's going to be a challenge if we would like to bring it back near home.

The next problem is time. With all our currently scheduled activities we just don't have time to get this boat from Florida to Lake Erie this year. I think we are going to target somewhere on the Chesapeake Bay for the season. But even getting enough time to move the boat there will be a challenge as we have a family wedding on the 13th of June we have to be at. I coach the local high school trap team and our State event is on June 29th, and then Scout camp is June 29 through July 5th in WV. I'm a Scout leader by the way as well. Once we get back from Scout camp I have to take the Trap team to Nationals for the week in Columbus, OH then the next week is our county fair which is quite a busy week for us as well since Max shows goats and we are busy with volunteer work with his 4H club. Once fair is over Max's HS tennis team will start up for the season in August. So basically we have two weeks in June to get the boat from Miami to hopefully some marina on the Chesapeake Bay that can hold us all while crossing our fingers for the good weather window those weeks that will allow us to make that happen. Worst case scenario we hopefully get the boat to SC or above and find a place to park it for a month then come back in August and try to get it moving again. We are choosing the Chesapeake area simply because it's on the coast and only about six and a half hour drive away from us. We know there are lots of support facilities in that area and have heard about the great sailing there that we might enjoy on some extended weekend trips to the boat this fall/late summer.

Bottom line I'm not sure we are going to be able to use the boat much this season. Hopefully next year after Max graduates from HS we will be able to block off 6 weeks or so to bring the boat back to Lake Erie allowing us to go slow and enjoy doing the Down East Loop taking the boat up the East Coast past Maine and into Canada then down the St Lawrence to Lake Ontario though the locks and into Lake Erie where we can hopefully sail it on the Great Lakes a bit before putting it away for the winter and sailing it back out the next year ensuring we are in St Lucia by Jan of 28 to start the World ARC.

Writing all this out seems a bit crazy but hopefully the trip will help us get to know the boat while also providing some good experience along the way. At this point all our plans are written in sand and may change at any moment :)

Time to splash the tug

Yes it's always fun to think about a new boat and all the new adventures it can take you on. But we still have our 42 Nordic Tug that is scheduled to go in the water May 1. A couple weeks ago I brought all the cushins home to clean them as they have not been well cleaned since we bought the boat. I had grand plans that if I moved the boat to a marina closer to our house I would visit it more and work on several projects over the winter. Heck it was even in a heated storage unit which would allow me to do some much needed bottom paint and calking that needed to be completed. Unfortunately almost none of those plans came to fruition. I did get some new bolts put in the braces that hold up the swim platform and did get the hoist working again which should allow us to launch the dinghy. Last year we launched and played with the dinghy while at Toledo Yacht Club, lifted it up on to the boat and the hoist quit. We were able to loosen the four point straps we use to attach the hoist to the dinghy, to then lower it into the chalks but I had been stumped on what caused it and choose to ignore it for the remainder of the season.  Anyway it seems other than those two minor fixes I managed to ignore all the cleaning and other more minor projects on the list including bottom paint. Well it was now down to the wire. The boat is supposed to go in the water tomorrow and one can't very well bottom paint it in the water. 

I got to the boat and spent almost 12hrs sanding and painting without a break just to get the job done prior to splashing the boat the next day. Two years ago when I bottom painted I had decided to try an environmentally friendly paint that was really expensive. It worked really well the first season and not so great the second. However coverage only took one gallon and we were putting it on pretty thin by the end. This year I purchased the West Marine branded stuff thinking two gallons should get me two coats. Nope seems it's a lot thicker and the two gallons barely got one coat. Ugh!  Lesson learned next time I'm doing this job over three days instead of one. By the time I got home I could barely lift my arms and I was never so happy to have a chiropractor appointment scheduled for the next day. Oh well, I"m sure what I got on will last the season and with some light sanding next year I can get the two coats on pretty quickly or maybe better yet it will be the next owners job? As I'm writing this I'm remembering the new boat needs a bottom paint job and its twice as wide as this one and in another state.. Ugh :(

Watching them launch the Tug is a pretty neat process. I'm always amazed how tightly they can squeeze these big boats together in the storage barns. The pictures here sort of give you the idea but I can't walk between two boats in there without turning sideways. Anyway they show up with a little car similar or maybe the same as what they haul luggage to the planes with at the airport. Attach to it is a hydraulic trailer they can raise and lower at least four feet while controlling the front and rear heights independently. They slide the trailer under the boat. Raise up the pads, remove the blocks the boat is resting on in the barn, then just drive it out. The little blue car for lack of a better term moved our 40,000lb boat around with no problems. Of course the trailer tires did look like they were under quite a lot of pressure but everything else looked easy.

Once they had the boat out of the barn they hauled it the 1/4 of a mile to the travel lift where it was backed in and the lifting straps were put in place to do their work of holding the boat while they lowered the hydraulic's on the trailer and pulled it out from under the boat. Once that was taken care the lift driver drove it into the well lowered the boat until it was floating. I checked all the bilges to ensure water was not gushing into anything and that my bow thruster still worked. Everything checked out, I started it and enjoyed the 2 mile trip to our dock. Luckily all of this happened about the same time Max got out of school so he could meet me at the dock to catch lines helping to get the boat tied up. 

Now the real work begins. We need to get everything cleaned up, depersonalized, decluttered, and polished so we can start looking for its next care taker. It's been a great boat for us. Was a great boat for doing the loop in and I'm sure would be great for the trip we would like to do to Alaska one day but for now we need a boat that will circumnavigate and unfortunately our little tug is a bit small and limited on fuel capacity for that trip. I'm sure we will miss it. When we came back from the loop we had grand visions of checking out some of the Canadian canals, visiting the Thousand Islands area, spending time in the North Channel, doing the Down East Loop, and visiting Lake Superior. Unfortunately life and kids activities got in the way of all of that. Now that I'm over 50 I've really been thinking about my bucket list and I'm afraid of getting too old or simply loosing the desire for a few of the items like a circumnavigation. So I figure while I'm still healthy I should knock some of the big items off my list and can come back to the smaller ones when we are older. I wouldn't be surprised if we come back to another tug one day in the future. Its build quality, fuel efficiency, and overall design really do make it one of the best boats I've seen for cruising.

Seems everyone came to agreement that we have no reason not to buy this boat.

After some back and forth the next couple days the brokers convinced the sellers they needed to adjust the price a bit more. The boat had been marketed in turn key near perfect condition and was now barely operable with a few issues showing (I'm sure there are more hiding that will show up as soon as we take ownership :) ).  With all of this said the boat is still in really good condition, 95% of the items work as expected. It just has a lot of systems and a few of those need some love.

When we had agreed on the initial price I had pushed that I was not looking to use the survey for another round of negotiations but did expect everything to be in good working order. I felt somewhat disappointed that we needed to go back to the table for negoations again. Seems the sellers had a lot of trouble coming to terms that their baby had a few ugly spots. From what I heard the sellers broker may have been holding the phone about 3ft from his ear during that discussion. With some smooth talking the brokers got everyone to come to terms with a price we could live with.. both brokers agreed to cut their commission some to get to the price we were now proposing that would get a few of the major items from the survey addressed (dive compressor replaced, sail drive maintenance, 4 of the 5 AC units replaced, missing prop). Our one caveat was that the boat needed to be operable before we would close which ment the sellers needed to get the prop/propulsion issue fixed before any money would exchange hands.

A couple days later the sellers had a diver check it out and we had indeed lost a prop during the sea trial. They promptly ordered a new prop. Unfortunately this was not just any prop. It's a Gory prop which is short for German and expensive. Seems dealers don't just stock these, one has to order them for your boat. So needless to say we were going to missing the initial closing date planned for May 2nd. Everyone agreed and the date has now been extended to May 13th which now sounds like its going to slip as well due to shipping, customs, and our new tariffs. Fortunately this too also works out in our favor as Amy is crazy busy getting her Ice Show ready for this weekend, Max is still in school, and well I've been busy getting our Tug ready to launch doing all the fun projects like bottom paint that I've been putting off for as long as possible this winter. 

So bottom line is that if we had closed on the boat in early May we were going to have to find a dock and let it sit there until June when Max gets out of school so we can move it north of the magic line somewhere in Georgia or North Carolina that is above the hurricane zone making insurance significantly cheaper. I'm all for saving a few days of dockage costs/worry while earning a few extra dollars in interest while we wait.

More to come!

Survey Day

I was surprised when I called to set up the survey that he thought it could be completed in one day. For me this was the most complicated boat I've owned and seemed huge. Heck our Tug took the guy two days to survey partially due to weather and partially due to the marina and their haul out scheduling. We decided to fly in the night before as Amy had to work. Long story short our flight got delayed and we didn't get to our hotel until about 3:30am. Our survey started at 8am.. So we got a solid three hours of sleep that night. Overall the day went pretty smoothly. A rep from Just Catamarans was there for the sellers, our broker (also with Just Cats) was there, along with the surveryer, as was a captain the owners hired to take us to the haul out and test sail. The captain thing was new to me but he was very friendly and talked us through all of the maneuvers he was doing with the boat. With past boat purchases the sellers broker has generally been a certified captain and was the one to take us for test sails.

Anyway we left the dock at about 8:30am. It took us about 3hrs going up the ICW to get to Just Cats where the boat was hauled. Our surveyor wondered about the boat testing everything as I stuck my head in every nook and cranny. Meanwhile our broker and Amy went though and inventoried everything on the listing to ensure it was actually on the boat. The only items we found missing were the Dometic portable freezer and a cover for the dinghy. The sellers have promised to return the freezer and claim the cover is on the boat somewhere. Overall the boat seemed to be in pretty good shape. Seems I always have rose colored glasses on the first time I see a boat and this one was no different. I noticed more wear items like crazing on the hatches more stains on the flexi teak deck and other items that are normally associated with a used boat. 

Going through Miami is always interesting. There are so many folks with expensive things there. The number of mega yachts amazes me. As we were passing the huge "ships" our 50ft Cat was looking really small. Along the way we also spotted dolphins which Amy took as a good sign and is generally her favorite thing to see while on any boat other than maybe whales! When we got to the marina our boat started to feel pretty big again. Going down the channel felt somewhat narrow when passing another big cat and then I won't even mention how big the boat felt in the marina. I was glad we had a captain that I could hand over the controls to that had done this before as I'm not sure I would have made one of the tight turns required to get into the haul out. Posting a link here to the video Just Cats posted showing us coming in.

Once out our surveyor did the usual thing tapping around with his hammer giving the boat a good visual inspection pointing out that it was time for some maintenance on the folding props and that one of the four underwater lights was not working. I was pleasantly surprised to see that the boat only had 2 or 3 underwater sea cocks. Our broker took me up to the office pointed me to the person I needed to pay for the haul out and then they dropped the boat back in the water. The whole process probably took less than an hour for a 50ft boat.

Once back in the water our surveyor went up the mast to do a rigging check. This was new as in the past I've had to hire both a surveyor and a rigger and sometimes even a desiel mechanic to check the engines. This guy did it all from rigging to systems to pulling the oil samples on the engines & sail drives.

After he completed the rigging check we headed out the channel, hoisted the sails and finally cut the engines. The boat seemed to sail pretty easily but the unusual part was the feeling at sea. It doesn't really roll like are used to in both our Tug and mono hauls. I don't know how to describe it yet but it just was not that relaxing fluid feeling I was used to. The other strange part was that I had set a cup of coffee down in the morning and when I came back in the afternoon it was still in the same spot I left it. Amazing! 

Performance. This is an area I really have no clue about. What does seem quantifiable to me is that waterline equals speed and weight will slow you down. All the other stuff seems like more of an art than repeatable science but I'm sure a true saltly racer would say I'm insaine. We got the boat out on the water sailing under the full main, deployed the storm jib then furled that back in then unfuling what I would call a big gennaker. It appeared we were on the edge of the Gulf Stream but even with that extra speed taken out we were doing about half the speed of the wind. I'm sure we could have done some sail tweaking to get more but overall I was happy. Our captain reassured me that we were doing well & it was a reasonable amount of speed compared to what he sees with the Leopard's, FP's, etc. I should have asked to hoist the wingaker sail that was in a sock in the sail locker but wimped out. Guess we will save that surprise for another time.

I'm not sure if I've mentioned it yet but we are completely new to catamarans. We have talked to lots of owners, sellers, walked around them on boat shows, and watched a lot of YouTube about them but have never really sailed on one other then a short day trip on a sunset cruise in Maui about 25yrs ago. So this was really our first experence on a cat... Yea I know maybe we should have done that before we went under contract to buy one.. but that has never really been our style. Prior to buying our 31ft Almond we had never sailed a small boat before. Prior to buying our 47 we had not been out on anything like it. So I guess why not find something that works layout wise and decide to love the one you're with. We know we are not performance sailors and in the past have enjoyed the comfort/forgivingness of the big heavy cruisers so following that theme we are sticking with it again.

On our way back to the inlet the Captain reved up the engine and ran them at full speed for a bit. He noticed a power fall off one one engine and between him and the surveyor decided that we may have lost a prop or most likely that deferred prop maintenance by the seller was now coming back to haunt us. Needless to say he was a bit dismayed to be coming back on one engine. I'm not sure if its just because he is only used to driving catamarans or maybe they really don't perform like my single engine sailboats/tug but he was convinced using the steering wheel coming into the dock would not help us. The team had discussed dropping the dinghy and pushing the front of the boat in but it seems the steering cables are frozen and would not allow the outboard to steer. When I suggested he turn the wheel hard over and give the engine power the boat did react but he seemed reluctant to use this method so I walked to the back of the boat to work lines. After a lot of messing around he did finally get it into the dock and frankly I think I could have gotten it in just as well if not better in this case but it was not my responsibility that day and we had the privilege of just being passenger's.

It was about 4:30 when we tied to the dock. We pulled the sellers rep in and got the debrief from the Surveyor. Honestly the list was a lot longer than we had expected. Going into this thinking it's a 6 year old boat that looked like it had been maintained. Well it appears the current owners bought it in June of 23. Used it until January of 25 and probably did not do much to it over that year and a half they lived on it, then let it sit for the next four months waiting for it to sell. Prior to the current owners there were a fair amount of records showing maintenance being done. Fortunately there was nothing structurally wrong with the boat but the list of little things was quite extensive. Items like all eight float switches in the bilges were not working, four of the five AC units were failing, water in the sail drives, a dead dive compressor, anchor chain that is ready to be replaced, a through haul not working, deffered engine maintenance, etc. While some of those are bigger than others (and there are many more on the list I have not mentioned) each adds up pretty quick. We asked for some concessions and told their representative they needed to get the propulsion system addressed. We said our goodby's and headed off to find some food, much needed sleep, then flew home the next day eager to hear what the sellers position would be.

Oops did we just buy a boat?

We walked away from our boat viewing hungry and happy that six months later we still had the same opinions on what we liked and thought we wanted. Over our 3.5hr drive back to Duck Key we talked about our likes and dislikes from the day and agreed it was not the best time for us to be considering a boat. We really should wait at least until Max's senior year or maybe even the year after. I should probably mention here that we have never sailed on a catamaran other than a sunset sail/snorkeling trip 25yrs ago during our honeymoon in Maui. But with that said its never stopped us before. We had never really done a trip on a trawler or a big or small monohaul before buying those so what the heck why not just try something new? Generally we are pretty good about loving the one we are with vs having problems with the grass looking greener in other pastures which is a long way of saying we have not regretted any of our boat purchases so far.

Like a good saleswoman would do our broker followed up with us a few days after we got home. We politely tried to put her off saying we were still thinking about things and then she followed up again a few days after that. Well that seemed to be enough to talk us in to thinking maybe we should make a lowball offer on the Xquiste X5 just so we could say we tried. Note this was also the same time the stock market was tanking due to Trumps newest tariff plans. Well long story short the buyers accepted our offer. 

Great now what do we do? Where are we going to put this thing. Do we leave it on the coast, do we bring it around to the Great Lakes. Can I even find a marina on Lake Erie to pull it and store it over the winter. If we do leave it on the coast where and how much are we actually going to be able to get to it to use it. What are we going to do with the Tug? Are we dumb.. Well of course we are dumb is the answer to that we keep buying boats which are about the slowest and most costly way of seeing the world. Not to mention the constant work/money they require.

Well as of right now I'm feeling pretty committed to this next adventure. Lets see how the survey turns out and oh yea I've got almost three weeks to figure rest of the stuff out...

Spring Break Trip to the FL Keys

 

Last summer our son and I had done a scuba diving trip with his Boy Scout troop to Sea Base. He really enjoyed it and got several recommendations from the staff to come back as staff in a few years when he turned 18. It sounds like they don't get many Eagle Scouts with real boating experience that also know how to sail and dive as applicants. They told him if he would complete his Advanced Open Water & Rescue Diver certifications they would pay for the Dive Master training. To help him along with this goal of going back as an instructor we signed him up for the next dive certification with the same folks he did his initial certification with when we were in Marathon during our Great Loop trip as a Christmas gift. Sounds like a good spring break trip right? Well it was. He completed his Advanced Open Water certification early in the week. We did a couple extra dives to learn to spearfish. He speared a number of lion fish and even caught a few lobsters. We were able to take them to a few of the nearby restaurants to cook them up and they were delicious. I will admit this was my first Florida lobster and it did taste salter and a bit chewer then the Maine lobsters I was used to. Frankly I still prefer the Maine lobsters but fresh anything that you caught is still good and oddly fulfilling. I didn't know what to expect with the Lion fish but it was really good!

The weather forecast predicted high winds that were supposed to come in  messing up the sea state. This ended our dive plans and eliminated the potential for going out on a charter boat for some fishing. In the extra days off we went to the beach, visited Key West where we checked out Trumans Little White House, and had a pool day. During this time I got a e-mail from a broker in Fort Lauderdale advertising a price drop on a FP she was trying to sell. So after a couple of e-mails we planned to go check out the FP 45 as well as two other boats they had listed. Luckily for us we were able to line this up with the worst forecasted weather day that we were afraid might limit our options in the Keys. 

 

We were able to get on a 2023 45FP, a 54ft 2023  Royal Cape, and a 2019 Xquisite X5 all listed for sale by Just Catamarans. We still liked the FP but it didn't really excite us. The build quality was ok (not over built), it felt livable but not really as big as we might like, and it would require us to spend some money to get it ready for world causing (extra solar, lithium batteries, water maker, etc). This was our first time being on a Royal Cape and it was everything the FP was not. While being a very impressive boat it felt really big and like it would make a great charter boat. It did have lots of solar, a huge battery bank, impressive wiring closets that looked easy to access and work on. With some effort we might be able to sail it as a couple but it might be a bit more then we wanted to take on.. Not to mention it did not feel very personable it felt like it could easily host 20-30 folks for sunset sails. We really didn't need that much space. 

When we got on the Xquisite it felt just right. It met all our requirements and confirmed our feelings from the previous fall at the boat show. Its well built with beefy backing plates behind all the deck hardware, was designed for Bluewater cruising meaning we would not have to do a lot of upgrades after the fact like additional solar, water maker, dive compressor, anchor upgrades, it had solid stainless steel railings in place of lifelines, and many other features that appeared well thought out. It just felt like a comfortable boat to be on. The only thing it was missing was a walk around bed vs one you have to butt scoot down while trying not to wake your significant other up getting into or out of. I also hate having to crawl up on it to make the darn thing in the morning or putting clean sheets on. Our last two monohauls were like this and I said I was done with that design after we got the tug that featured a walk around queen size bed in the master stateroom. I had grown to really appreciate the bed in the Tug making it easy to get in and out of bed at night to check the boat at anchor or in weather. The other hold back I had from when we saw the Xquiste at the show was the styling. It looks a bit spaceshippy. Amy had liked this boat best at the Annapolis Boat Show with Privilege being a close second. I was of the opposite opinion. Maybe it will grow on us?

What kind of boat do we want to go around the world on?

 

After making the decision that we wanted to be a part of the World Arc I spent almost every night reading about peoples journeys. I was interested in the journey, what kind of boat they did it on, what kinds of issues they had, what made it great, and what was not so great. Luckily with all the youtube channels and Blogs out there this is pretty easy. I soon found myself corresponding with a lot of folks that were happy to discuss their adventures with me. A few years ago I had stumbled across the Nordhavn Motor Sailer and always thought it would be the perfect boat for a circumnavigation. Not only does it sail, it carries enough fuel if you just wanted to motor across the Pacific Ocean and at 56ft seemed like a boat a couple could manage. Even if we didn't cross any oceans its still seemed like a fantastic option. When doing our Loop trip one came up for sale and was on our path as we were traveling down the coast of FL. After a little talking my wife was up for looking at it so we stopped in Sarasota and spent a couple extra days there which would allow us to see the boat. We both walked away pretty impressed but at the time we still owned the 47ft Beneateau that we put in storage to do the loop and the 42ft Nordic Tug we were currently doing the trip on. What would the logistics be like if we bought that boat. Coming to our senses we decided to let someone else's cruising dreams come true. With that said we kept talking about it and almost did call back to make an offer a couple times over the year or so it was on the market after we got home. Needless to say this was my go to boat when we started seriously talking about this trip. Well after a few discussions my wife pointed out that it might not be very comfortable spending weeks at a time crossing oceans while heeling at 7-20 degrees.

Having enjoyed the ease of having a trawler I could point any direction and go in we started talking about long range trawlers. I started making internet friends with guys that owned big trawlers and had made ocean passages. Frankly all the systems, size and weight of the boats were a bit intimidating but hey they have stabilizers which should fix the heeling concern. I have always admired the Nordhavn 62. It looks like a little ship and by all accounts is quite sea worthy. I even called the ARC folks and asked if I could do the trip with a trawer and was surprised when they said yes if it met the necessary requirements. Amazed by that answer I dove into all the long distance trawler options I could find. We even talked about going to see a 62 that was for sale in Newfoundland. I obsessively talked with folks I never met that owned these boats about fuel burn, comfort at sea, reliability, running the boat as a couple, and everything else I could think of. During my search I found a fellow that had owned and crossed the Pacific in both a 50ft Lagoon catamaran and a 50 some foot Nordhavn that said next time he would rather do it in a monohaul? He said the biggest problem was find places that could deal with the width of the catamaran and the weight of the trawler (most the big trawlers weigh well over 100k lbs). It would be easiest to stick with a mono haul. This comment helped center me a bit and I came to the conclusion that while its a good option and frankly might be cheaper then doing it in a sailboat (after you figure in the cost of new rigging and at least a couple new sails along the way working out to be less then the fuel costs). We both liked the idea of doing it in a sailboat where if something went wrong we would have the choice of an extra engine or sails to get us somewhere.

Having now removed the trawler or mono haul options we started talking about catamarans. Our new friends that had completed the ARC had done it in a 50ft performance cat. After doing some homework on that we decided we didn't want the more spartan conditions that come with those kinds of boats, probably are not enthusiastic enough to want to push a boat to those speeds while staying alert enough to safely manage it and thus focused narrowed our search to boats in the cruising class. We took a trip in October to the Anapolis show once again determined to take a good look at Catamarins to see what we liked and didn't like while talking to the manufactures about various design philosophies. The first boat we saw that we both really liked was the Nautitech 48. Build wise it was nice but reminded us of a production boat like our Beneteau which was nice but not to the quality level our Nordic Tug had been. Also it had the outside exposed helm stations which one fellow told me was not a big deal after sailing his around the world as he only used them for docking. Having had the duel helms on our Beneteau I could see the advantages for the position. But I also looked at those as making it hard to see what is in front of you. Would I be able to see any logs or crab pots from that position. I enjoy sitting at the helm while underway and ultimately don't want to be in the sun that much. While it was the first boat we seriously considered buying we ruled it out because of the helm stations. After a couple days spent getting on most the boats at the show we had narrowed our search down to something in the 45+ ft range and really liked the FP's, Xquisite, and Privilege brands. Unfortunately Privilege only had a 580 on display which we agreed was too big but there was a 2022 for sale nearby that we were able to get on. That boat seemed to have everything we were looking for. Unfortunately we didn't really need a boat right now. If we were to follow our plan we would be waiting until 2026 or 2027 to buy the next boat. We drove home talked about it a lot.. one can do a lot of talking over a 7.5hr car ride and its easy to walk away from a boat show excited.. we called the insurance company confirmed they would insure us, found a dock that would fit it on Lake Erie and maybe even a marina in Lake Michigan that could haul it out (seems not many marinas in the Great Lakes are set up to deal with a 26ft beam). So we got brave and called back to make an offer only to find out someone was faster than us to the punch. We took this as a sign and went back to our initial plan to buy a boat in a couple years. Ultimately, at this point we had decided a catamaran should be our next boat and that's what we should focus on going forward.

The next adventure

 

Having loved the idea or fantasy of a boat, thinking about how it works, and where it could take me has been a bit of an obsession since was a little kid playing with toy boats in the bathtub. I got pretty excited about the idea again after I graduated college and found myself doing some consulting work for the US Navy. I was doing pretty well financially and had been able to save a lot of money that seemed to growing exponentially as the dot.com bubble continued to rise. It was during this time that my wife and I first started talking about buying a sailboat, taking a year off to sail the East Coast and "the islands" for a bit before we had kids. Well the bubble burst and our cash stash did not look so promising anymore thus we put that dream on hold for a while. About 10yrs and two kids latter we came back to it and finally bought our first sailboat that we purchased in Sea Bright New Jersey. Concidently we flew up to look at it the same day Captain Sully landed the USAir flight in the river. We were actually scheduled to be on that flight but changed our plans at the last minute to go on an earlier flight. Getting back to the story we brought that boat back via the Erie Canal as documented in previous posts here and sailed it on the Great Lakes for a few years before upgrading to a bigger sail boat that we also enjoyed on the Great Lakes. Then COVID happened and my step mom was diagnosed with Alzheimer's. At that point we were reminded that time is finite and decided it was time to revisit the day dream buy a trawler and do The Great Loop with the hopes of one day doing more. Well it seems life is once again passing us by pretty fast and as Ferris Buller says "it's time to slow down to take a look around" once again. After completing the Loop and another year of prodding my wife we have expanded our goals and decided to try a circumnavigation. YouTubers make it look pretty easy, we should be able to manage this right? Seems my wife was not so confident in our abilities and frankly was not enthusiastic about an open timeline to complete it in. She likes seeing her friends and family regularly and frankly after a couple of days finds that I don't meet her conversational needs. So I went googling to see what kind of options might be available for group travel and came across the World Cruising Club. Over COVID we joined several of their virtual webinars to learn more, then went to one of their breakfast events during the Annapolis Sail Boat Show where they brought in several sailors that seemed just like us that had just completed the rally or were in the process of it. They did a great job of making it feel achievable and real. After that my wife was sold. We were going to do it.. One day.

Last summer I got a call from the Sailing Fleet Captain at our boat club asking if I was willing to stand in as the committee boat for the racing fleet that night. I said no problem but had no clue how to do the flags, horns, scoring, etc. He said no problem he would send a bunch of experts with me. After dropping anchor I got to talking to the guys with me and it turns out one of them had recently done an Atlantic crossing with a friend that went on to do the World Arc and he would put me in touch with the guy. After a few weeks of back and fourth I managed to set up a dinner with the this guys friend that had just made it back from his circumnavigation with the World Arc and only lived 15 minutes from us. I hate to admit it but I was in full fan boy mode and pretty excited to talk to both he and his wife about the adventure. I had found his blog and read everything I could find on them. After what felt like forever.. Maybe a week :) We finally got together for dinner with Eric and his wife Yong. They answered all our dumb questions and more and encouraged us to do the trip ensuring us it was much less intimating that it sounded. He was a fantastic resource for us and we even ran into him again at the Annapolis show again last fall. After that dinner we went home and decided it was time to put a date down to do the trip. We decided we are going to join the 2028-29 World Arc fleet. Now we just need to get the boy graduated from high school and sort out all these minor logistics like what do we do with the house, what do we do with the dogs, will the kids be ok at college if we are not in the country. Then there is the fun stuff like we need a new boat, what should that be (catamaran or mono haul, maybe a big trawler), what sails do we need, safety equipment, etc.

For a bit of background the World Cruising Club was initially started to help group folks together for Atlantic crossings then having helped a lot of folks tackle that task went on to create an around the world trip that they run once a year that follows the trade winds and allows cruisers to hop on and off with them at any time. If one follows their route/schedule it takes about 18 months to do the trip leaving from the Caribbean. From what we have been told some boats will stop for a season in Austrila or New Zealand then rejoin the next years group as they come back around allowing them to spend additional time in French Polynesia which I would like to do but may still be up for negotiations at our house. Below is there high level outline for the trip. There are several other groups that do similar rallies but a few of them require you own a certain boat (Oyster, Gun Boat, other) and there does seem to be a new one starting up soon but for now I think we are going with the ARC.

Route: First Half from Saint Lucia

Month	Details	Miles
January	Saint Lucia to Panama	1100 NM
	Sail independently to Colon, Panama
	Transit Panama Canal
February	Las Perlas to Galapagos	850 NM
	Cruise Galapagos
March	Galapagos to Hiva Oa, Marquesas	2980 NM
	Cruise French Polynesia
April	Cruise Society Islands
May	Bora Bora to Niue	1055 NM
	Niue to Vava'u, Tonga	230 NM
June	Tonga to Fiji	290 NM
	Cruise Fiji
July	Fiji to Tanna, Vanuatu	450 NM
	Cruise Vanuatu
	Port Vila, Vanuatu to Mackay, Australia	1150 NM
August	Cruise the Great Barrier Reef

Route: Second Half from Australia

Month	Details	Miles
September	Darwin to Lombok	920 NM
	Lombok to Christmas Island and Cocos	625 + 525 NM
October	Cocos to Mauritius	2350 NM
	Mauritius to Reunion	130 NM
November	Reunion to Richards Bay, South Africa	1370 NM
	Cruise South Africa
January	Cape Town - Namibia	715 NM
	Namibia - St Helena -Recife	1215 + 1785 NM
March	Recife to St George's, Grenada	2300 NM
	Cruise Caribbean
April	Saint Lucia parade of sail
	Final prize giving in Saint Lucia

We have lots to figure out and what seems like a long time to do it. I'm excited to have put a stake in the ground that we are going to do it. It gives us something to be excited about and a goal to be working toward maybe as a family. If it goes anything like our last trip everything will seem like it we have loads of time right up until the last two months before we have before we leave from the dock!

It's been a year already?

As much as I would like to be the kind of person that journals and is witty and fun. Its seems I'm just not. So here I am after another year with no updates. I'll start with a few life updates then move on to the next big event that we are starting to seriously plan for.

My daughter is now finishing up her second year at Ferris State University working towards a degree in Hospitality. She did her first internship at Disney last summer and really enjoyed it. My son is currently a Junior in HS. He moved to the public schools this year and has been fully embracing all the sports and other club activities they have to offer. This year he decided to join the tennis team, wrestling team, and thought about golf for a minute but decided to stick with the Trap shooting team. Last year the coach's for that team decided to move on and I took over as the coach. It's been interesting, I've learned a lot, and as a result I don't seem to be shooting much this year. The other big change around here is that I decided to retire at the end of July last year. I had been with IBM for 26 years and they asked that I move to Austin, TX. Having been pretty burned out at work and very settled here in our small town of Monroe Michigan the idea of moving to a much higher cost of living city in TX did not sound like a fun idea. So I took an exit package and its worked out great. Folks talk about all the time they will have when they retire.. I thought it would be fantastic.. I would get to read more, catch up on projects around the house, be out on the boat more. Yea none of that really happened. My step mom died (my last parent) shortly after I left work. She had Altizmers and had been in a care facility since about the midway point of our Great Loop trip back in 2022. So I spent a few months dealing with the fall out from that. Presently I'm down to just taxes and one other thing I'm going to have to hire a lawyer to help with. Then there is all other stuff that just seems to fill in the cracks that keeps us all busy. Life has been good since leaving work. I have not missed it or the routine at all. We had been budgeting everything down to the cost of tooth paste over the last few years to see if it would be possible and I'm happy to report everything seems good financially. I have not looked at any of those crazy financial planning tools since leaving work that I had been obsessing over. For the moment we are spending less money than expected without feeling that we are missing out on anything. Oh yea and we got a new dog. Scrolling Facebook a cute dog showed up from a friend that helps with a Bermese Mountain Dog rescue. He looked like a trouble maker and of course was really cute so we offered to be a landing spot for him. After a few months he seemed to be fitting in and we officially adopted him. His original name was Atlas, he was not working out for the original owners so they found a farmer that wanted him up near Big Rapids. They renamed him Remi. Seems he had spent a lot of time in his crate with the original owner and as a result had a lot of energy, was very heard headed, not well trained, and wanted to fight over the word no but otherwise seemed like a happy dog that wanted to please. After biting that guy a few times they called the rescue and we stepped in right before Thanksgiving. So now we have crazy house bear named Remi.

With that said it's time to start thinking about our next adventure after kids. Maybe I've been watching to many YouTube sailing channels but I'm pretty convinced that sailing around the world might be a fun thing to do.

Nothing exciting to report this week

 Well the early spring flowers are in full bloom and I've been out doing my daily walk with Snoop while trying to create some unique pictures. My two favorite lenses are still the 105 Macro & the 85 1.2. Still amazes me that as I'm going through a big pile of photos that were taken by a variety of different lenses anything by the 85 always stands out to me.  This week's pictures are from both the 85 & 105. One of these days I'm going to take Snoop for a walk somewhere else but its just so easy to walk out in the back yard :)

Purchased a new lens & teleconverter last week

 

In anticipation of our upcoming trip to Iceland next month I had been planing to buy a 100-400 & 1.4TC should I get a chance at any cool bird pictures or maybe whale watching. One came up locally for sale used so I jumped on it. Took it out for a photo walk today and while I did not find any birds that would pose for me nicely I did find a bunch of fungus and flowers that were more than willing subjects.  I have to say I'm really impressed how well this lens does for close up photography. 85% of these were taken with this new lens and the TC on it a few were without the TC and I'm guessing one might be able to tell which were which if I had not tossed in a couple with my 105 macro.  All are uncroped with a bit of color enhancement but nothing else. I now understand why so many speak so well of this lens. Frankly I'm not sure I have much use for it long term but will see how much use it gets next month when traveling. 

For now my 105 is still may favorite lens for photo walks. I have not used my 85 1.2 much and have only used my 24-120 once. I'm thinking of trading my 85 for a 135 but will have to try some street photography with it before I make that decesion. I really do love the look the 85 provides but I have no plans to do portrait work anytime soon. For now I plan to keep the 100-400 at least through summer to see how much use it gets. In my head I think the 24-120 & 100-400 will be the perfect setup for traveling which we hope to do again once Max graduates in a couple years. I really miss the small size and pictures I could get on my old F mount 50 1.4. Maybe I can find something equivalent one day for this system that will fit in the bag with these two lenses?

Week 7: In the distance

I found a Facebook group with a 52 week photo challenge that provides an assignment each week.  The first two weeks my photo's both involved my dog somehow so I decided to try and keep him in each of my photo's for rest of the year. So far I've only missed one week and it's been a fun interpitive challenge. This week's photo assignment was "in the distance". I choose to submit the power line picture but the bottom one was my other favorite from our walk today. I went out with a vision of getting Snoop in the area of the field with the grid lines (look at last weeks post) or these power lines.  Snoop was not very excited about either option having no interest in listening to the stay command or leaving my side. So this is what we got. Next week is splish splash. Maybe we will make a trip to Sterling State Park for some beach photos as I'm sort of running out of back yard photo ideas :)