In the Sights

Ahoy Mates !! Down here in (well, near) Margaritaville, I'm beginning to sense the eye of my late maiden aunt Wilma, for whom I never had cause for feelings of affection. Did someone put an X on my back? The good news is that I have found a great boat at a price we can afford. For the boat curious, its a Pearson 365 ketch. This is a design Donna said "How about a ...", and I scoffed and said "They're not real quick." (For the new-to-boatspeak, a ketch has two masts, taller one in front, shorter one behind.) The broker I'm working with suggested the design, and I lifted an eyebrow about speed.... He said he had owned two of them, and they were quicker than generally believed. Since Skip is a dead-ringer for my dead Father and I liked what I had seen of interior drawings, we went to see one. Verrry nice. Cheap! Looked at another one this morning. Verrry dirty, a bit rough, waaay overpriced. Another this afternoon. Way better even than the first one. Skip was purring and drooling. He and I meet tomorrow A.M. for breakfast and to draw up an offer. Donna is EXCITED! Neill is EXCITED!! Tesla is stretching, yawning, and eating like a pig. But keep your scuppers dry, this is just an offer.

Keep watching the news about Wilma...I'm near Palmetto, just south of St. Petersburg. The boat is just south of Fort Myers, right in the path of Wilma. We'll try to schedule surveys just when she is due. OR NOT. If we are able to buy it, I'll try for a closing Dec. 2, after the hurricane season. Contingent on undamaged boat.
Fair winds, Neill

Am I here?

So, I thought I had this blog set up yesterday. NOT! For all those inquiring minds who ask, "Do you have a boat yet?" the answer is no, but progress is being made. Cap'n Neill-san is driving all over the sunshine state looking at boats by day, searching the internet for more boats by night. I remain here 'midst the splendor of autumn doing really fun stuff like moving phone service and getting new health insurance.

The big plan is to move unto a 35' to 38' sailboat before Christmas and sail off to the Bahamas. We'll spend the winter in the Caribbean, maybe get to Antigua for boat week, then crawl up the East Coast. By hurricane season 2006 we should be dodging lobster-pot bouys in Maine.

Why are we doing this? Why leave good jobs in lovely Durango Colorado? Reason 1: We Love To Sail! We also enjoy living on sailboats, the Captain because there are many cool things like shackles and stays to tweak and adjust; I because it's a small space to maintain and the Captain is forced to keep his clutter jones under control. No more dragging home construction materials that might come in handy some day! We're doing it now because we're both still in good health and, well, we love to sail! Also, the rising cost of energy has made the 2-car-roomy-house lifestyle rather pricey, especially in a place where just about everything but beef and alfalfa (and we eat neither) must be shipped in from far away. And did I mention that we just love sailing?

This concludes my initial post. The mighty Web Wranglers at the Durango Herald are going to link this blog to a website for us, and I need to let them get started. Onward! Hey, how about naming the boat "Blasphemy"!