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Okaaaay.  How does one buy a boat exactly?  Google, Google, Google, Google.  Wow.  There are a lot of boats.  Lots of different kinds of boats.  Should we build a boat?  NOOOO!  Can we afford a new boat?  NOOOOOO!  Do we want a wooden boat?  NOOOOOO!  Monohull or catamaran?  Monohull (Cats are too expensive).

Okay, so we want a used, fiberglass, monohull sailboat.  It needs to be big enough to live aboard.  And we’re too old to go climbing over one another to get in and out of bed, so a centerline berth is important.  And we want a separate shower stall.  And we don’t want a cast iron keel so when we run it into something we don’t rip the bottom off.

Now we’re getting somewhere:  a fiberglass, monohull, single-masted, center-cockpit (centerline berth in aft cabin!) sailboat, between 38 and 48 feet long.  We know it’s going to be used and need some work.  Because that’s what we can afford without borrowing any money, which is out of the question.

If you were wondering, South Central Texas is close to exactly no large bodies of water.  We were going to need to travel to look at boats.  You know where there are lots of boats?  Florida!  Florida has LOTS of boats.  Let’s go to Florida.  So we went.

Over 5 days, we looked at boats from Jacksonville all the way down to Miami.  It was a LOT of driving.  The dream almost died on day one.  The first boat, a Gulfstar 44, was, shall we say, disappointing.  Not clean.  Not particularly well-maintained.  Kind of shabby.  Kim and I thought “Well, if this is what we can afford, let’s look at van life again!”  We also looked at a Beneteau 44 Center Cockpit that was very nicely maintained and clean.  But it was pricey and we would have still needed to put money into it to equip it for offshore cruising.  I LOVED the Stephens Custom 50 we looked at.  It was a lot of boat, but was absolutely gorgeous.  And it seemed affordable.  Until we got inside and saw that the sole boards were warped.  Ummm, this boat has been storm-damaged and had water inside.  No thanks!

Do you like rom-coms?  Of course you do: those fairly cheesy, romantic movies where the guy looks across a crowded room and sees “The One”?  What’s not to like?  Well, that happened. 

To me. 

To Kim?  Not so much.

We went to a private marina to see a 1985 Stevens 47.  The minute I saw Destiny, I loved her lines.  She looked graceful and sleek, as if she were born to move through the water.  It’s probably because the Sparkman and Stephens design took me back the Tartan 34 I grew up on.  She seemed like she was in fairly good shape with very little recent use.  But there was that item from the listing:  “Ask broker about water intrusion event.”  Ummm, okay.

Me:  What’s the deal with this “water intrusion event”?

Broker:  Well, in 2020, while the owner was away, one of the seacocks failed and water began to come into the boat.  Fortunately, someone noticed and they were able to get the boat to a lift and out of the water within a couple of hours.

Me:  So she almost sank.

Broker:  NO.  She had some water come in through the seacock.

Me:  How much water?

Broker:  Well, it was above the sole boards by about 6 inches.

Me:  So she almost sank.

Broker:  NO!  She had a water intrusion event.

Me (in my head):  Brokers only use the word “sink” for a basin in which one washes hands or dishes.

Kim and I moved on.

Well, mostly.  Actually, Kim did move on.  I kept flashing back to first laying eyes on Destiny.

You know the rom-com where the girl falls in love with the boy whom she has never met but with whom she exchanges letters?  The foreign exchange student?  That happened too.

Kim fell hard for a Taswell 43 up on Vancouver Island in Canada.  Man, she had it bad for that boat.  And she was a beauty and really well-equipped.  She got the alert on a Saturday morning about the new listing and immediately reached out to the broker and to our broker.

That week was a blur.  We decided to go for that boat sight unseen.  We would make an offer right away and then see the boat for the first time when we went for the survey.  We even offered over the asking price.  We might have gotten a little carried away.  It’s probably for the best that our offer was declined.  She ended up going for well over the asking price.  Well over.  We decided to cool off for a bit.

We continued to look at boat listings and compare notes, but nothing really excited us.  I may have mentioned a few times that I really liked that Stevens 47…