⛵We're off on another exciting adventure - and this one doesn't involve getting on an airplane. Yet, like other grand travel excursions, it does involve lots of dreaming and learning and planning.
The past six years of chartering sailboats in both Chicago and the British Virgin Islands have helped us decide that we need one of our own.
Kent & I have been thinking about this for the past two years, pouring over online listings, watching YouTube videos, calling brokers. And then actually looking at real boats in Mississippi, Alabama, and Florida before the world shut down last March, and then closer to home in Illinois, Wisconsin and Michigan when it became somewhat safer again.
We've changed our minds about key bits of information: what size and brand of boat (a 32 foot Island Packet? how about a 35' Sabre? maybe a 38' Tartan?); how much to spend (only what we've saved up or take out a loan?); and about where we would sail it (in the south where we'll have a longer sailing season or more nearby where it'd be more accessible?). And just about everything else. In fact the only thing we were very sure of was that we wanted a monohull sailboat, not a catamaran nor a power boat of any sort.
So today we drove back to Michigan - for the fifth time in two months - and a 35' Tartan became ours! We will call her Cool Heads Prevail. Indeed.
Her mast is up, she's in the water. And tomorrow the work - and eventually the fun - begins. We have lots of cleaning and organizing to do to make our used, yet quality boat the comfortable dreamboat we're wanting. And a lot to learn.
