The Search for Our Home Afloat

For the past 15 years, or so, we had a rough plan:

2008 - Buy a condo with a slip.  CHECK

2012 - Sell the house, sell the powerboat and the Lightning sailboat, renovate our condo, downsize, and move in.  CHECK.

2013 - Find the Liveaboard Boat.  CHECK

2014 - Retire. Move aboard.

We had casually been looking for The Boat for years; boats shows, charters, deliveries. The Serious Search began in January 2013 and by June we had found her in Ft Lauderdale. We colored in one eye of our Daruma doll in Jan and colored in the second eye once we were boat owners! More on that later.

We looked from Boston to Miami. Three trips to FL alone.  Joelle really felt like a jet-setter when she flew to FtL for 3 hrs to see a boat; no bags, just a cellphone camera.

Our brokers, Dave and Erin Townley of Integrity Yacht Sales were AWESOME.  http://www.integrityyachtsales.com/about.html

One time we left Naptown on a Thursday night in Dave's car, to see a boat in GA on Friday morning, and then were home by Friday night! Mark was driving, Dave was in the back seat writing contracts, emailing them to me in the front seat so I could docusign them, email them back to Dave, so he could send them to the seller! Quite an operation.

So here she is...

Our dear friend, Cardie, graciously offered us her floatplane slip, as our slip is too narrow.

Top/port is the guest wing with 2 staterooms and a shared head.

On the bridge deck is the salon, galley, NavSta, cockpit, and helm.

Bottom/stbd wing holds our stateroom, office, and head.

The cockpit, aka living and dining room. We will replace the canvas cover with a hardtop and then and an all-weather enclosure.

The salon.

The NavSta.

The fwd half of the galley with fridge, freezer, convection/MW oven, and stove.

Galley sink looking aft. The ice maker doesn't work.

Looking down into the starboard "owners'" hull. We have an office, stateroom, and head.

Looking aft past our desk, aka the office, to our stateroom.

Looking forward to our head and shower.

Looking down into the port hull or "guest wing."

Aft guest room.

P-way to fwd guest room. Head through the door on the left.

Mark's first ride in the dink. Started on the first pull!

Drivin' bahamanian style in Balmer harbor.

Our first trip was to Balmer to join our friends in HSA1. Each year we sail to Balmer to watch the Os play. Always a good time.