Norfolk, VA
To see as much of the world as we can,
Using the smallest carbon footprint we can,
Spending the least amount of money we can,
Making as many friends we can.
One golden rule of boat safety is "never lift anything heavy". One version of this rule is "never lift what you can drag, never drag what you can roll, never roll what you can leave". See Jan Adkins' Moving Heavy Things for classical advice on avoiding heavy lifting.
On a …
Documentation is officious nonsense; there is a lot of documentation. What -- precisely -- is the point of a "Documented" vessel? Primarily, the USCG agrees to recognize our name. They agree so strongly that they assign a number as a surrogate for the name. That's right. The privilege of documenting your vessel's …
Part of boat buying is The Survey. Part of the survey is to identify and disclose any "issues" with the boat. One of things our survey disclosed that "Foredeck exhibits excessive moisture and deterioration of core material from bow to aft of windlass and houser, repair and install better backing …
We've finished most of the "official" documentation process. Jimmy Cornell's book on World Cruising, and his Noonsite web site provide a specific list of documents that constitute the "Ship's Papers" for a small yacht. www.noonsite.com—DOCUMENTS YOU WILL NEED
The list looks like this.
USCG Documentation. No. 648197 …
We grew up in houses, on land. We've lived in cities as well as the ‘burbs, and we felt pretty well acculturated.
But marina life is still very new to us. The standards and conventions are not what we're used to. It takes a bit of work to fit in …
Changes feel like they're coming at us in waves. Back in December, all we had was a marine survey with dozens of things that absolutely had to be done. The insurance company (of course) has to see all the known problems resolved. Some of these are objectively slow: weeks of …
The Team Red: Red Rover name had a lot of resonance. The kid's game. The idea of roving around. Rover is a euphemism for pirate. Cool.
Synonyms for rover turned up ranger and wanderer, neither of which are piratical in nature. Wanderer seems undirected. J. R. R. Tolkien has this …
On the first day of Christmas, my true love gave to me a Ford Lehman engine.
On the second day of Christmas, my true love gave to me, 2 full berths.
On the third day of Christmas, my true love gave to me 3 little anchors.
On the fourth day …
Let's talk some more about Team Red names. Response to Pick a Name was good -- lots of ideas.
Too cute: Redmund Fitzgerald, Red Zeppelin.
While some names are aspirational, some names are historical -- they show what the owner does when off the water or what the owner did to get …
There are lots of lists. Some lists are obvious. Some lists no one told you about. We'll get to the "other" lists in a bit.
You start with a candidate boat list, and you cross some off, circle others, write little notes and pictures and do a lot of ruminating …
The final dance is over.
The wire transfers are finished. We've had the keys since last weekend, but the job's not over until the paperwork is done.
We'll pick the paperwork up Saturday. The original Coast Guard vessel documentation was surrendered. For $180 we can document this vessel under new …
A Marine Surveyor is a necessary CYA step. It appears that you can't buy a boat from a reputable broker without a survey. I suppose that's because you shouldn't buy a boat without a professional survey.
Unlike cars, boats appear to have a longer life and more complex set of …
It seems so sudden. We moved to Norfolk at the end of September. We're closing a deal on a boat in December. We're doing wire transfers of large piles of money.
First, this took us several years. We'll look at that first. Also, this will involve an alarming amount of …
In The Karmic Bond, we noted three connections.
Months ago, Wayne L. told us to look at Whitby's.
There was this peculiar moment of Jonathan calling me while I was standing outside his office.
Jonathan showed us the Whitby before we knew to ask about it.
We noted another. The …
It's hard to know what the "perfect" boat might be. And it's hard to know what price to put on that boat. Pricing is almost impossible unless you buy and sell boats on a regular basis. For mere civilians like us, how can we know what to offer?
Who do …
Nancy adds to the general level of hand-wringing with this: "Its not like buying a house because you don't have that added dimension of the location making the decision. I can't imagine the buyers remorse on a boat and --- what if you see the best one ever the week after …
Looked at a Whitby 42 today.
A lot to think about. The BoatUS Review. The Cruising World Review. The Whitby-Brewer Owner's Association. Sailboat Owners Review.
Other Whitby 42 cruiser logs: Summerthor. Pilgrim. Maggie Drum. Maya. Corus. Osteoflyte. Caribbean Soul.
There are plenty of boats with extensive, sophisticated cruising logs. That's …
Our short list was based on OPO -- Other People's Opinions. We don't know enough to have an informed opinion on various boats.
After a few hours with a professional, however, a few things became clear. We have specific needs and preferences. Even though we don't know much about the wide …
Found the Trouser Rollers blog. This lead us to their Cruising Handbook and the Desirable Attributes list that describes their dream boat.
This is in addition to resources like The Voyager's Handbook by Beth Leonard and Evans Starzinger. And the Mahina Expeditions Cruising pages.
Did I mention discussion forums?
Of …
Saw this advertisement for a Morgan 38. If the pictures are accurate, it's in fabulous shape, with a number of important features. A bit rich, price-wise.
There's no reason to go all ga-ga over what is -- essentially -- just a boat that caught my eye.
The problem is that it's really …
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