As you might deduce from the photo above, she is now ours. I'm not sure what I'm going to do with her-- but she's now ours. Just kidding----we know exactly what we're going to do. We're going to have a blast. But first I need to learn how to drive her.
We flew over to Ft Myers a week or so ago and attended the pre-acceptance survey and took her out for a sea trial--about 12 miles up the Caloosahatchee River to a marina for a haul out (to check all the underwater parts and integrity). WE had to employ a Captain for this part of the survey as the seller's insurance required it. Eric, from the marina where she was being kept, a licensed captain, came on board and very skillfully took her out and put her back in a very tight docking situation. It was amazing and quite difficult to believe that I'll ever learn to do it with any where close to the skill and ease that he did. I've decided that once we get on her I'm going to hire Eric for the day and spend several hours learning the ropes. It's really quite different from driving the sailboat. All the power boaters that I talk to tell me that I'll have no problem, and that it's easier than driving a sailboat. All tight maneuvering is done with the engines with only a slight bit of steering involved and usually, the best and most responsive steering is in reverse. Should be interesting!
The survey went very well with only a very few issues found and they are all quite minor. The previous owner apparently took excellent care of her and all major systems checked out well. Part of the survey involves checking out the engines (2 240 hp diesels). They had 2100 hours on them--the most of any of the boats we looked at--but they checked out perfectly. We had all the fluids from the engines and the generator collected and sent out for analysis. This will usually identify any significant problems---they came back completely clean and clear. Both the hull and engine surveyors told us the boat was in excellent condition and that we were getting a "good boat". Now it's up to me to keep her in this condition.
Things I learned: She'll run at around 20 miles per hour, wide open (but will also burn about 20 gallons of diesel an hour at such a speed). She cruises comfortably and quietly at around 8 to 10 mph while burning around 5 gph of fuel. The generator is powerful enough to run 2 air conditioning units, all burners on the stove, the oven, the electric grill on the flybridge and all electronics at the same time---ie. plenty of power.  Overall she just seemed to be very solid and comfortable (of course we didn't hit any heavy seas in the river)
A note about the previous owners. Jim and Judy H. bought the boat, I believe, in 2007. They cruised the Great Loop (more on that later), and made at least 3 trips over to the Bahamas--The Exumas, Bimini and The Abacos and islands in between. They had very little trouble with the boat and quite clearly loved their time aboard. They are from Decatur Indiana. Jim was the owner of 2 True Value hardware stores and, I understand, an engineer by education. (This explains the excellent condition in which he kept the boat). Jim unfortunately died of prostate cancer this past April. Thus, the decision to sell the boat. How do I know all this? I found and read their blog. (Google "The Silver Foxes Blog and you should find it if you're interested) They seem like the kind of people we would have wanted to meet on our travels and feel badly for Judy. I plan to call her and introduce myself to her soon so she'll know the boat went on to some other "good people" and to express our condolences.
It looks like the boat will sit vacant until we get through the holidays and take care of some business in early January and then off to our new adventures. We are both terribly excited and anxious to get going (BTW--Diane fell in love with the boat during the sea trial--right when she took over the helm)
More on our plans for cruising later. We won't be activating our SPOT (see top of page) until we get moving in Jan) . For now, it's off to Colorado Springs for Christmas with Kristin and family. Scott is back from China and interviewing for US based jobs--San Francisco and Seattle-- and, of course will be joining us for the holidays in CS. A joyous time. Life is good!!!

GOING OVER TO THE DARK SIDE

The "Dark Side" is where aging sailors go when they want to continue cruising but realize that on their last outings, whether it be coastal cruising or crossing the Gulf Stream or the Bahama Banks, the wind is NEVER out of the direction you want  and you have run the diesel auxiliary engine roughly 80% of the time to get to your destination. There continues to be no substitute for the thrill of a day under sail on those rare occasions when the wind is right (like our perfect "10" day on the run from the Little Shark River in the Everglades down to Marathon in the Florida Keys in  March of 2011) but they are indeed rare. It's a different thing when you're just going out on the Bay for a day sail and you can go in any direction that the wind will allow--as opposed to having a destination ahead of you and a limited amount of time to get there--which is much of what cruising is all about. (A sailboat can only sail to within about 30 degrees on either side of the direction from which the wind is blowing, and it almost always seems that the wind is blowing out of the direction you want to go--thus, you fire up the "Iron Genny" to get there.) This was certainly our experience in 2010 thru 2012.
Thus, our anticipated move to the "Dark Side".
 Having sold Assisted Living in  October of 2013 we have been boatless for over a year and way too long. Thanks to our friends in the sailing community here in Houston we've been able to satisfy our lust for being on the water on several occasions over that period of time, including my crewing onboard Gene and Marylou's 44 foot  Catalina, "Fresh Aire" in the Harvest Moon Regatta (Galveston to Port Aransas) in October. But, we were sitting around having a "sundowner' one evening several months ago when we both lamented having sold A L and realized that we really badly missed the cruising life and all that it had offered to us. After discussing what we wanted to do if we got another boat we decided that a Trawler was the way to go. One of the things that I had hoped to do on A L after I had gotten the Bahamas out of my system (does one ever??) was to cruise up the intracoastal waterway of the east coast and visit all the storied maritime towns and sites along the way, eventually getting as far as the Chesapeake and up the Potomac to D.C. where we could live on the boat for a couple of weeks and really take the time to see the sights and museums of that city. After a great deal of thought and discussion we decided that a power boat, specifically, a trawler, was the right kind of boat for this trip. A trawler is a power boat that we used to describe as a "cabin cruiser". It's not a go-fast boat and actually cruises "economically" at a pace not much  faster than most sailboats--around 8 or 10 knots.  It doesn't have a mast sticking up 50 or 60 feet in the air so you don't have to worry about the many bridges along the way. It is generally more spacious and comfortable and allows for guests to visit in comfort as well.
Soooooo---we have entered into a contract to buy the boat pictured above--"The Silver Foxes".  We will have it surveyed in early December and, if every thing goes as hoped, we will take possession around the middle of December. She is a Mainship 40, 40 feet long with about a 14 foot beam and draws less than four feet of depth. She is powered by twin diesel engines that will push her along at an easy 8 to 10 knots and faster, up to about 15 should we need the extra speed. There are 2 nice sized staterooms, one head, a full galley and seating for 5 or 6 people comfortably in the main salon. It has a double sized hide-a-bed in the salon as well. We liked this particular make of boat because, in addition to the large fly-bridge with lots of comfortable seating it also has a large outdoor cockpit on the rear (which is where we like to hang out). This opens through double doors into the main salon. This boat presents a huge learning curve for us but we're excited and ready to jump into it. WE'll move it back to Burnt Store Marina in Punta Gorda (where we kept A L) after we take possession and probably spend the month of January in that area as we learn how to operate and drive her. At least we'll be in very familiar waters as we become familiar with the boat.
So--wish us luck. We have our fingers crossed that the survey will go well and we'll be back on the water in a month or so. We plan to "reactivate" this blog as we move on, learn and start our new adventures and hope you'll find it interesting. WE will reactivate the "SPOT" (see above) also as we begin to head out.