All I want for my birthday is a 4600
Rebecca, Michael and I had a long but relatively painless trip from Colorado to Tortola. In spite of several people’s assertions that we’d have issues traveling on our budget airline, Spirit, we had none, aside from a couple of flight delays. Even Michael was quite convinced that Spirit would be hardline about their baggage policy and not allow me to bring my guitar on board. I chose to think otherwise and my optimistic attitude paid off. All three of us, and my guitar, arrived last night in time for a nice dinner and an early night’s sleep.
Today, Rebecca and I awoke to our 6:00 AM alarm, choked down an apple and had a quick TRX workout outside the marina hotel where we slept. We had a big day today, the pre-purchase boat inspection, and we were eager to get at it.
Believe me, my young friend, there is NOTHING–absolutely nothing–half so much worth doing as simply messing about in boats. — Kenneth Grahame
Unlike when I was a kid (a few years ago), I don’t make a big fuss about birthdays. In fact, the only reason I even mention the fact that today I celebrated another anniversary of my existence on this planet is that I got to spend it doing exactly the kind of stuff that I enjoy doing – messing about in boats.
While Michael spent most of the day in the lawyer’s office, tidying up the paperwork portion of the deal, Rebecca and I spent all day crawling through the boat, inspecting it to ensure that every item on the CAOV (conditional acceptance of vessel) list had been completed. We were happy to see that the maintenance crew had worked diligently to fulfill their obligations. As you might imagine, our careful scrutiny uncovered a couple dozen other minor issues (a loose screw here, a scratch there). The Moorings team appear totally cooperative and plan to fix virtually every item on our list. I think that’s awesome.
One thing that turned out to be a bit of a surprise for us was to find out that they had another haul-out scheduled for 3:00 PM this afternoon. Apparently there was a small issue with a gasket on the port saildrive and they wanted to deal with that. This turned out to be a bonus for us as Rebecca and I were able to ride to the haul-out yard on the boat and inspect it once again out of the water. The last time we did this was during the survey and that was back in March. As the boat received new bottom paint only 4 months ago, we were happy to see that the hull was nearly pristine.
Tomorrow we’ll be back in the yard at Hodge’s Creek, where the Moorings does most of their phase-out work, to oversee the remaining items and check out a few more things. After that, assuming all goes well, we’ll be off for a bit of a shakedown cruise. We had initially thought that we’d jam for St. Maarten right after closing. Our new, more prudent plan is to hang here in the BVI for a week, test out the systems and should we find any issues that have yet to be uncovered, we’ll be able to return to the phase-out base where they can get them looked after. Why a week? Because the BVI carnival begins this Friday and if we have any work to do beyond that, it ain’t gonna get done for a week anyway. If you can’t beat em, join em!
When do you start with charters? The boat looks great….Congratulations and Happy Birthday
Thanks, John. November 2013 is the goal.
Can I say with all sarcastic emphasis unfolded in a typical to growing up in Boston proper way, to express happiness for you guys?….., “You bastards!!!!!!” *
What a fricken awesome birthday for you Mike!!!!!!
Happy for you all!
What phfun!
*(that first sentence was really hard figure out)
Yes, it was. 🙂
Happy birthday, Mike! I know this is late in the day, but we just drove 5 hours south to Puerto Penasco, Mexico (way north in the Sea of Cortez) and we’re scoping out charter possibilities here along with spending a few days enjoying a friend’s penthouse condo at a beautiful resort right on the beach! BTW, the 4600 is one of our favorite boats. However, I cannot wait to check out the new 5800…they look awesome!
The 5800 is huge! Our broker friend Wiley was on one the last time we saw him in the Virgins.
The 58 is a very nice boat, and a BIG boat… Even though I don’t work for Leopard anymore they still call me to move the one around in Ft. Lauderdale. I personally feel that it is way too big of a boat for a cruising couple… Now if you had crew like Mike and Rebecca working for you… Different story…
Kind regards,
Wiley Sharp
561 613 8985
Wiley@DenisonYachtSales.com
Maybe Michael will want to upgrade next year. 😉
Love the site and updates you’re keeping my dream alive. i went sailing for the first time friday and loved it. The basic course starts this weekend. Thanks for sharing your experiences with me.
That’s excellent, Kester. Enjoy the learning process!
Happy Birthday!
Boat looks great!
It will look even better anchored in South Bay!
Eric
Agreed!
HB, Dude!
Merci! I’ll be down for a piece of Bday cake soon.
Add another Happy Birthday!!!!
Well, from one Canuck to another, Congratulations.
A little over a year ago I stumbled upon your Zero-to-cruising website one day while day dreaming online, and since then hardly a day has gone by that I don’t get up and check on the adventures of Zero-to-cruising ( usually even before my daily chive.com fix ). During one of my multiple conversations with my wife, where I’m trying to convince that selling everything, learning to sail then running away down south is NOT crazy I said “… If only they operated a charter business…”
So I now have a “plan” to work forward, and if the day ever comes that we are able to take a Vacation on One-Love I’ll be sure to give you a heads up so we can formulate a game plan to 3 on 1 my wife on the cruising lifestyle 😉
Let’s make that happen! 🙂