Month: September 2009

Sept 18^th

Hello from Muggy, Buggy, Florida.  I can understand why the snowbirds fly North in the Summer and come back in the fall.  Where’s the Calomine Lotion?  I haven’t updated for a while because frankly, there was not much happening.  We start our day by getting up early and try to get a walk or bike ride in before it gets too hot.  The middle of the day is spent on-line looking for things we will need to outfit a boat for extended cruising or taking a drive to do the same.   We had a great visit with our friends Don & Julie Nyman at their beautiful home in Cape Coral.  Don is recovering nicely after blowing out his knee at Wolfcreek this winter and after 3 reconstructive surgeries, is working hard with his PT to regain mobility.  His goal is to be back on the slopes by the 2010-2011 ski season.    We have been looking around for a dingy and motor as both of the boats we have been looking at do not come with one, as Mike put it, “It will be our new car”.   Since arriving back in FL, we have been negotiating with brokers on a couple of boats we were interested in but we really weren’t sure if anything would come of it.  We had made an offer a couple of weeks ago on one of the Victory 35 Catamarans that we looked at while we were in St. Augustine, FL but the owners , a nice as they were, came back with such a high counter offer that we didn’t think we could afford what they were hoping to get for their boat and we didn’t want to insult them by trying to get them down to what we could afford.   We backed out of that deal and made an offer on the other Victory 35 Catamaran that we had looked at in Ft. Lauderdale, FL.  It needs a little more updating on the interior but was more in our price range.  The owner of that boat made a more reasonable counter offer.  In the last couple of days, things have really started happening.  We made a counter offer of our own and met the owner in the middle between the two offers.  We got confirmation yesterday morning that our counter-offer had been accepted.  So in essence, barring any unforeseen circumstances, WE OWN A BOAT!  We paid a little more than we were hoping to but the boat is in really good shape on the exterior and well set up for extended sailing.   Mike and I have made a wish list of what needs to be done to the interior to bring her up to our standards.    You know what happens when Mike sets his mind on a project.  She will sparkle when we get done with her. We hope to complete the transaction and transfer of ownership in the next week or so and then drive over to Ft. Lauderdale to pick up the boat and sail her around from the east coast to Punta Gorda on the gulf coast where we will put her at Mike’s folks Dock while we work on getting her ready to go.   It should take us about 3 days to sail her back from Ft. Lauderdale.  The other news that has happened in the last couple of days is I had been looking at RV’s on Craigslist (a free advertising site on-line) to get an idea of how much to sell the Creampuff for.   I put our RV with Pics on the site and we had a response requesting more pics by that same night and then another couple came the very next day and left us a down payment while they get a place set up to keep it.  They will return with the remainder of the purchase price in cash and pick up the Creampuff this weekend.   We were able to sell her for what we were hoping for, and I think she sold so quickly because of how great her interior looked after we remodeled her.  We will do the same to the boat.   Her name is currently Dancing Dolphin……nice but does not easily roll off the tongue when calling on the SSB……so as before we are looking for suggestions for a boat name.   

Sept 8th,

Sage called last night, but we missed his call…..Mom is devastated.     The message he left let us know he was doing well and that boot camp was tough but he was having some fun.     I hope we get to hear from him again soon.   We are currently settled into Mike’s parent’s spare room in Punta Gorda, FL and will be making this our home base while we hopefully finalize a deal on a boat.   It is nice to be in one place again for a while.  We put over 12,000 miles on the Creampuff in the 2 months we were on the road.   To bring everyone up to speed we left Corey in Greenville and traveled up to Raleigh, NC and had a wonderful visit with Mike’s Sister Barb, her husband Michael, and daughter Lauren.  We got to attend a High School Football game.  GO HAWKS!  Lauren is on the Varsity Cheerleading Squad and Our team Won!   It was a great evening even though it rained for much of the game (blessed yet again!).  We spent the next day with Barb, Mike, & Lauren and a couple of their friends waterskiing and Tubing.  Their friends had just gotten a new boat and were kind enough to take us out for a fantastic time on the lake.   We got to see Barb play a wicked game of tennis.  She is amazing!   Thanks to all of the Longabardo’s for a great visit we will not soon forget!  The Granola and Honey is wonderful!   We would have loved to stay longer but again we press onward with our mission to find our boat.  We made arrangements to see another boat in Brunwick, GA.   It was a Seawind 1000 and although it is a faster sailing Cat then some of the others we are looking at…..The livability was not as nice.    Sept 2^nd. My Birthday found us on Jekyll Island GA. , where we had planned to spend a little time riding bicycles and exploring the Island.  Unfortunately, it was pouring rain and so our plans were again altered.  I will forever refer to this year as the wettest on record for all my important days.  We drove back down to St. Augustine, FL to look a 2^nd time at one of the Victory Catamarans we had seen previously.   Around Noon, I finally reminded Mike that it was my birthday.   Oops! He had forgotten.  I think it was a test to see if married life had changed my sense of humor or my level of patience.  He apologized and took me out for a nice dinner.   The next day we traveled to Ft. Lauderdale and looked a 2^nd time at the other Victory Catamaran and then drove to the west Coast of FL to Mike’s Folk’s Home in Punta Gorda.   So here we are.  We have unloaded everything out of the Creampuff and cleaned her up.  She has served us well and we appreciate here bringing us safely to our next adventure.  We will put her on the Market for someone else to enjoy and hopefully have a boat to call our home in the very near future.   Keep your fingers crossed for us