Author: buckscountyphoto@aol.com

Today, we ventured out into the river. Everything went perfectly. We took our time in the marina, went wide around the jetty and into the Delaware. The river was deserted so we went back and forth a mile or so, then headed back into the marina. Docking went well and Lyn was fast becoming a pro with the lines.

We had the obligatory martini to calm the nerves and planned the next excursion. Feeling even more confident, I decided the next time out we are going down river to Philadelphia. Lyn was not excited.

I am a tax accountant and typically work the first four months of the year and take off for the next eight months. Lyn owns a wedding photography studio that is currently operated by our daughter, so she is mostly retired as well. After April 15th we have all the time in the world and that is a main reason we decided to try owning a yacht.

Since we knew almost nothing about operating a large boat, we planned to hire a local captain to teach us the ins and outs. On a bright sunny day, while sitting on the bow, searching the internet for a captains, we heard a loud crash. This was surprising since we were one of the few boats in the marina at the time. Apparently most boaters wait until May to put the boats in the water.

Looking up, two piers over, we saw that a 40′ sail boat had just rammed into one of the finger slips. We watched as the flustered captain and his wife pushed off the piling, as if nothing had happened, and pulled their boat back into the main channel. From there they headed to another slip, on the other side of the marina, and attempted to dock with just a bit more success.

 

That is when it occurred to me – the marina was almost empty. This guy was taking advantage of the situation to learn how to operated his sail boat. Wow, what a great idea. No other boats to hit, no one around to laugh at your lack of sailing skills (well, except us) – it was perfect. I decided right then that the following morning, weather permitting, I was taking the boat out and and practicing. Hell, if that guy managed not to sink, I could do it too! Lyn was not as excited.

The following day we spent about three hours going back and forth across the back half of the marina, backing into slips, doing 360s, occasionally smashing into an empty finger pier, and it was a fantastic experience. My biggest fear about boating was maneuvering around a marina, especially backing into a shared slip. Now I had at least a little experience and the odds of me ramming a neighbor had dropped dramatically. Lyn also gained a lot of deckhand experience: guiding me in, jumping onto the pier, tying the lines.

Feeling overly confident, I exclaimed to Lyn,”Tomorrow, I am going out into the river! She was not excited.

Is it “sailing” when you are in a motor yacht or “motoring?” Anyway, the plan was to have Captain Jeff pick up the boat in Laurel Harbor Saturday afternoon and take it to Atlantic City. After hurricane Sandy, Laurel Harbor became very shallow, making it impossible to leave unless it was high tide. This meant that we could not get on the water early enough to make the trip in one day. We (Lyn, my son Chase, and his friend James) were to meet him Sunday morning and leave for Neshaminy, in Croydon Pa, our home marina.

We decided it would be fun to spend the night on the boat, so we went to Atlantic City Saturday night. She was docked at the Golden Nugget Marina which has a restaurant called the Chart House. Martinis and appetizers! A perfect way to celebrate our new adventure – until the phone call.

It was Captain Jeff, calling from his home. There was a problem with the boat. Every time he took the RPMs up over 2000 the temperature on the starboard engine would start to rise. As soon as he backed the engine down it would return to normal temperature. Because of this, he had to travel at 10 knots during the first leg of the trip. After docking the boat, he had taken a taxi back to his house to spend the night and come back with some tools in the morning. His hope was that there was something clogging the heat exchanger or, better yet, he picked up some debris in the intake strainer and it would settle out by morning.

Unfortunately, it was neither. We left Atlantic City at 9:00am and as soon as we tried to take her up on plane the temperature started to rise. Our choice was to stop somewhere to have the problem fixed, or keep on going at 10 knots.

We decided to keep on going. It would take an extra day to get home, and another day’s pay for the Captain, but that seemed much better than dropping the boat off to be fixed and having to reschedule the whole trip. Besides, the gas savings from traveling at hull speed would cover the Captain’s extra pay.

On a brighter note, the weather was fantastic, the water was incredibly calm, and I had a lot of time to pick the Captain’s brain.

 

 

 

The seed was planted 15 years ago when we had the opportunity to tour the New York Harbor on a 52 Chris Craft. The boat was operated by a husband-wife team who had recently retired from “regular” life and began offering 4 hour cruises, with him as the captain and her as the chef. Although running a cruise business was not very appealing, the idea of touring the country by water seemed like a fantastic adventure.

We started toying with the idea about 5 years ago and started thinking seriously about it last year, after a family tragedy (ironically a fatal boating accident) inspired us to rethink priorities.

Initially, we planned on buying a yacht in the 50 foot range, perhaps new, or very lightly used. We went to a few boat shows in Miami and Annaplois and fell in love with a Aquila 44 Catamaran but it seemed more suited for Florida or the Islands. We live near Philadelphia and planned on spending the first year or two cruising the Delaware, Chesapeake and North Eastern Shores. Limited dockage for Catamarans and zero experience on a large boat made us leary of the idea.

We spent months scouring the boat ads on Yacht World and Boat Trader. Although the extra cabins and living space made 50-55 boats the most appealing, eventually common sense prevailed, and we decided to scale back to a mono-haul in the 40 foot range. As long as we had two cabins and a decent size salon, we figured we could cut our teeth on a smaller boat for a few years. If we enjoyed the experience as much as we hoped, and managed not to sink, we could trade up later. And as a bonus, if we stayed in that range, we could do a cash purchase and avoid the banks the first time around.

We found 5 boats that met our criteria, all within an hour of our home, and went out to visit them. A couple Silvertons, a Mainship and two Carvers, eventually deciding on a 1995 Carver 355.

We made an offer through a broker who had shown us a couple of the boats and with whom we felt comfortable, John from Sea Port Yacht Sales at the Jersey Shore. (By the way, John and the owner, Ted, were very helpful and professional, and we recommend them if you are in the area). They were asking $65k, we offered $57k and settled at $60k, providing everything went well with the survey.

Our surveyor, John Spencer, was very thorough and we learned a lot by spending the day with him, going through the boat. He did miss a couple of things, which I’ll discus later, but overall, we were very pleased with his service.

Only a few minor items were discovered during the survey (broken trim tab, a few bad anodes, bad bilge pump switch) which the owner agreed to fix.  The boat appraised for $69k, so I suppose we got a decent deal on it. Regardless, we loved the boat and were very excited that the survey went well.

Unfortunately, it was December and all of the navigation markers were removed from the bay and we had to put off the sea-trial until April 3rd. Everything went smooth at the sea-trial, so we went to settlement that day.