The Journey

On Thursday of last week, we realized were informed that we’d need a slip to move the boat to after the sale was finalized. Duh…why didn’t we think of that??  Well, it is very difficult to get a live aboard slip here in SoCal, so by Friday (when we’d set the appointment to make the offer on the boat) I’m thinking our dreams will just have to be suspended for now.    I just knew we wouldn’t be able to get a slip in time, someone else would fall in love with the boat and we’d have to start all over.  I rationalized that this was probably for the best…we should be saving our monies for property taxes and wedding expenses in November.  But deep down…I really wanted to make an offer!

After work on Friday, I drove down to Wilmington Harbor and checked out some of the marinas..in hopes one would have live aboard slips available.  I met this darling lady at Lighthouse Yacht Landing named Barbara.  She and her husband have owned the marina for over 35 years and have put their lives into it!  They hand select their tenants and keep their grounds super clean!  The bathrooms and laundry were simply adorable…I just fell in love!  Luckily, so did she!  She really liked me and felt like maybe we could work something out!  She had a small issue with the pups, but she seemed flexible enough!

Friday night I told Sean all about my findings and he and I agreed we’d go back with the dogs to try and win her over for sure!!  Saturday morning was sailing lesson #2.  It was just Sean and I with the instructor, so the class was much more intimate and fun!  We went over all the parts of the boat and got underway!  Both of us got to practice the helm position, hoisting the sails, trimming the sails, switching sides, and putting the boat all back together!  We had a great time…we are really loving our new hobby!

After sailing, we had a quick lunch at Tequila Jacks while watching the first quarter of the UF vs. UT football game.  We scurried home after lunch in time to catch the end of the 2nd quarter…we were slaughtering them!  With full bellies, Sean and I both dozed off, waking up halfway into the 4th quarter…just in time to see UT LOSE to UF.  GO GATORS!!!  After the game, we hurried the girls into the car and headed for Wilmington Harbor.  We did get to chat with some of the other marinas only to find out they didn’t have any slips either.  We finally made it back to Lighthouse Marina…Sean liked it right off the bat!  It has a great little garden area with a BBQ and fountains…so nice!  Barbara just loved the pups and walked us all over the marina talking about which slips she could put us in!  Score!!!  With that taken care of, we could now put in our offer!

And that’s just what we did on Sunday!  We met our boat broker on Sunday afternoon to sign the papers and put in an offer.  Today the owner of the Pearson 36 countered, then we countered back, then he countered, and we countered…you get the picture!  Eventually we agreed on a price and the process is in motion!  If all goes well with sea trial and survey this week, we could be boat owners by next week!  How exciting is that?!?!  Whooo…I am excited and nervous!  We probably should be saving those monies for the wedding, but hey, that’s why we go to work everyday, right???

So, I’ll keep you posted…keep your fingers crossed for us, please!