After the boat show, I was reinvigorated. Feeling the desire to get onto a boat stronger than ever, we were interested in finding more boats to walk on that were in our price range, and I had an hour to kill each morning.
This is what many consider to be a bad combination.
Although this was my Love's idea to begin with, I have thrown myself behind this wholeheartedly. Not only is it important for us to both be on the same page about the lifestyle of a liveaboard (really all three of us, but Kiddo is all-in as well, as will be discussed later), but the whole concept of lifting anchor and heading towards someplace other than here has really begun to appeal to me on a level unlike anything other than my family and music.
Therefore, I was online Tuesday morning and checked Craigslist's ads for boats and found a $1 listing. Normally when I'm on Craigslist and see $1 ads, I'm in the musical instruments section and that's just to get their much-more-expensive-than-$1 shtuff to the top of the lists of those who sort in ascending price order (like, uh, me). There's usually some who offer charter fishing at $1, but this one ad was for a boat for sale. Could be $100,000... could be $1 million... but I'd never know unless I check the ad out.
Lo and behold, I was right. It wasn't $1.
It was, actually, free.
Caveats:
1) No working engines. Apparently they won't turn over, but the seller assures that it's relatively minor.
2) Hole - Apparently there's a hole that has been patched temporarily.
3) Needs to be out - Apparently it's unwelcome in its current condition where it is currently berthed.
Did I mention it's a wooden hull, too? Harder to insure and repair?
Well, I figured it would still be a fun ad to send to my Love. So I did after she got to work and we resumed our workweek email conversations. I also sent her my search, via a link.
I ended up getting a quick response letting me know that she had struck gold, in a way.
When we were at the boat show, there was a part of the dock that was blocked off from foot traffic, probably because those boat owners didn't pay the extravagant prices the boat show was charging. When we were walking to and from the docks, my wonderful Love had kept having her eye drawn to a boat with a stained glass window that she believed I would like. She had mentioned the desire to check out a boat she saw over there and I was game at breaking the nearly-invisible barrier (it was a folding sign, like you occasionally see in construction areas, with a printed sign attached) and venturing forth, but we didn't want to set a bad example for Kiddo. So we left the boat show without any sort of wrongdoing.
Lo and behold, she found the boat in that Craigslist search I had sent to her.
She contacted the seller that day and made an appointment for us to look it over the next evening. We ate a quick dinner and fought through the traffic (and the idiots, rude arseholes, and hazards to life in general) to get to the marina and meet with the owner. When we finally reached the marina, we could see the boat and met with the owner just as I was getting ready to call him and let him know we made it.
The boat, a 36-footer from 1973 (my birth year, incidentally), was great to behold. We climbed aboard and explored the vessel, inside and out. Kiddo went down to the v-berth, the cabin that would be his should we purchase it. He proceeded to lay down and try out the bed while I looked around the place. I was barely able to stand up inside (I'm 6'2") and the galley, near the v-berth, was dated (it reminded me of my grandmother's kitchen) but that could be upgraded in the future if we wanted to. The v-berth's door was missing, something we would need to fix soon after we were to purchase... if we were to purchase.
I'm not falling in love. I'm not.
I walked the boat while my Love talked to the owner and Kiddo climbed around in a safe and impish manner. He had a tendency to stick close to me, especially when I climbed up onto the flybridge. There was a small grill, sans propane, nearby and I counted at least four spots to place fishing rods. It wasn't perfect, but few things from 1973 are. I can attest. Even so, I realized that it would be a good starter boat for us - or for someone else. The marina is close to the freeway for Love's commute, the berth is close to the gate, which is right next to the showers and restrooms (so no need to use the head onboard) and the parking lot. All in all, it has a lot going for it.
We wound up our discussion with the owner and, although he was busy this weekend, invited us out sometime within the next week/weekend to take the boat out beyond the breakwater. Although he's a motivated owner and holds a clear title, we have literally zero money to put towards anything at the present. That being said, we are discussing a couple of options to offer him to possibly allow us to move onto a boat before the end of the year. Conditional upon a lot of factors, some beyond our control.
We've got a lot of talking to do before we schedule that trip past the breakwater...
