Ok so let's do a little timeline. Most people spend months looking for a boat, sometimes years. We did that and since we had more free time at the end of the work season we'd even scrounge around boat yards in Maryland on the Chesapeake and a few in north NJ looking for a steal or a find. Once purchased, most people then spend months or even years refitting, outiftting, and trying to fit into their new boat. Most people.
On October 26th we viewed China Doll around 3 PM. 5 PM we rolled into my father's house and began typing up our offer to email to the owner. 7 PM she accepted our offer. 9 AM I dropped off the deposit. 11 AM I have the survey scheduled for the following week. November 2nd we started the survey at 8 AM with frost on the ground and the boat. Noon we launched China Doll for her sea trial. 4 PM we paid the balance to the owner after the surveyor had assured us we were buying a great little boat and headed home to celebrate. Now it gets tricky.
We differ form most people in that while celebrating the enormity of what was actually to happen over the next week crashed down on us mid-bottle of red wine. We were not spending months or years getting used to the idea of leaving and our boat. There was a break in the thumping swell and conditions just one week away and we were going to be leaving on China Doll come hell or high water. We spent 6 days frantically trying to get everything we owned moved into the boat, provisioning, gathering various odds and ends that we still needed and all the while trying to visit every friend and family member we had to say goodbye for the next 6 months.
On November 7th we got onto China Doll and staged her up at the only semi-open marina after getting a slip for $20 at a private marina for the condo owners and a guy named Bobbie, the dockmaster with a sextant collection probably worth a cool million bucks, telling me that we should pull into slip number 5 and to look him up if we hit the keys as he was leaving to spend his entire winter surfing and diving down there. Bobbie was the man.
That day several things happened that we now laugh about. It was blowing offshore at about 30 mph. In the 12 mile transit from the boatyard to the marina here's the list:
-- a loud pop followed by smoke coming out of one of the hatches in the cabin where we had a semi-melted thru-hull fitting emitting a very foul odor.
--opening our first swing bridge on the ICW - there was about 4 knots of current as the tide was outgoing and the inlet was only about 1 mile away - this was pretty awesome, kinda like being on an episode of modern marvels en vivo
--running aground right outside the marina entrance despite being mid channel - later I realized that it was a blow-out low tide and we were shy about 6 inches of water...we had some wine and waited for the tide to come in while the sunset - the best part was that after we passed the bridge there was a stranded small fishing boat that asked us for help - we told him it was our 1st day ever on a sailboat (not completely true) and we weren't comfortable towing him and that we'd send help as soon as we were shoreside - he got his engine running and half towed us off the bar about an hour later...Nicole and I could not stop laughing.
--pulling into our first slip with NO REVERSE OR NEUTRAL - the next day when trying to reverse out of the slip I realized that the shifter cable had come out of its mounting because the wood backing was rotted out
This was day one.
--Jay and Nicole
On October 26th we viewed China Doll around 3 PM. 5 PM we rolled into my father's house and began typing up our offer to email to the owner. 7 PM she accepted our offer. 9 AM I dropped off the deposit. 11 AM I have the survey scheduled for the following week. November 2nd we started the survey at 8 AM with frost on the ground and the boat. Noon we launched China Doll for her sea trial. 4 PM we paid the balance to the owner after the surveyor had assured us we were buying a great little boat and headed home to celebrate. Now it gets tricky.
We differ form most people in that while celebrating the enormity of what was actually to happen over the next week crashed down on us mid-bottle of red wine. We were not spending months or years getting used to the idea of leaving and our boat. There was a break in the thumping swell and conditions just one week away and we were going to be leaving on China Doll come hell or high water. We spent 6 days frantically trying to get everything we owned moved into the boat, provisioning, gathering various odds and ends that we still needed and all the while trying to visit every friend and family member we had to say goodbye for the next 6 months.
On November 7th we got onto China Doll and staged her up at the only semi-open marina after getting a slip for $20 at a private marina for the condo owners and a guy named Bobbie, the dockmaster with a sextant collection probably worth a cool million bucks, telling me that we should pull into slip number 5 and to look him up if we hit the keys as he was leaving to spend his entire winter surfing and diving down there. Bobbie was the man.
That day several things happened that we now laugh about. It was blowing offshore at about 30 mph. In the 12 mile transit from the boatyard to the marina here's the list:
-- a loud pop followed by smoke coming out of one of the hatches in the cabin where we had a semi-melted thru-hull fitting emitting a very foul odor.
--opening our first swing bridge on the ICW - there was about 4 knots of current as the tide was outgoing and the inlet was only about 1 mile away - this was pretty awesome, kinda like being on an episode of modern marvels en vivo
--running aground right outside the marina entrance despite being mid channel - later I realized that it was a blow-out low tide and we were shy about 6 inches of water...we had some wine and waited for the tide to come in while the sunset - the best part was that after we passed the bridge there was a stranded small fishing boat that asked us for help - we told him it was our 1st day ever on a sailboat (not completely true) and we weren't comfortable towing him and that we'd send help as soon as we were shoreside - he got his engine running and half towed us off the bar about an hour later...Nicole and I could not stop laughing.
--pulling into our first slip with NO REVERSE OR NEUTRAL - the next day when trying to reverse out of the slip I realized that the shifter cable had come out of its mounting because the wood backing was rotted out
This was day one.
--Jay and Nicole
No comments:
Post a Comment