Name that boat....

Everyone keeps asking what our boat was named and I keep saying I don't know.  There was no name painted on her hull and I started trying to get ideas about what to call her.  Nothing seemed to fit.  About 3 days after moving on-board, Bob and I were having our morning coffee in the cockpit when I realized she DID have a name, Mystery.  It was painted on the doors leading into the salon~lol  All this time I had seen the painting over and over and never realized her name was painted on the doors instead of the hull~lol  Talk about "solving a mystery". 

I considered changing it to Mystique, but Mystery just seems to fit.  Neither Bob nor I are sailors, so all of this is a mystery to us!

Finally on-board!

We have finally moved onto the sailboat!!  The house is almost completely cleaned out (thanks to everyone that helped us out!) and we slept in our bunks last night.  Talk about heaving a sigh of relief!  Bob's on vacation now to help finish up the house and getting us settled in.

We had coffee this morning sitting in our cockpit and enjoying the view of the river and salt marsh around us.

Whoever said there's no pirates in Florida?

Whoever said there's no pirates in Florida lied.  We bought the boat with 2 solar panels and a bow rail.  See that outboard engine in the photo?  Well, it's no longer there~lol  When we went to move the boat, all the solar panels were gone, the bow rail was removed and there was no engine.  Talk about pirate's!

Our boat may not be as "put together" as we would have liked, but she's ours and we wouldn't trade her for the world now.  Oh, wait, we could probably be convinced to trade for a bigger boat~lol

Time to move the boat

Max's first real dinghy ride

So it's time to move the boat...finally.  Unfortunately, the woman that was supposed to move it seems to think that whenever she gets to it is fine by us.  I've tried to explain that we have to have it moved and be living on-board by the 31st of the month, but she doesn't seem to get it.  Thankfully, the harbormaster at Rivers Edge has volunteered to help us out.  Smitty (a long-time resident) has agreed to captain our little boat for the move.  I am so thankful for the good people at the marina!

Max and I, along with Smitty and Paul have decided that the best course is to dingy out just before high tide and bring her in with the tide behind us.  I'm a newbie, so that's fine by me!  On the way, we'll be delivering a wooden dinghy to someone in Fish Island Marina.  Sounds like an adventure!

When we arrived at our new boat, we discovered that a little "piracy" had been going on while it was anchored unattended in the bay, but that's a story for another time.  Smitty and I pulled anchor while Max and Paul got our boat tied up to the dinghy for the push to Rivers Edge (did I tell you the engine had disappeared?).

After a lovely trip through the salt marsh, I am happy to say that our boat is secured to the docks and we are ready to start moving on.  Now the hard work begins...

Off to the races...the cardboard dinghy races that is!

Now that we have settled on which marina we are moving into, we are starting to socialize a little more with the residents.  Max has made a wonderful friend at Rivers Edge and has been invited to join in the cardboard dinghy races.  As you can see, their dinghy is rather elaborate (thanks to Jake's father) and was the most unusual in the race.  Unfortunately, they came in second (third actually, but the second one cheated and grabbed onto a powered boat to pull them over the finish line).

We wish that Jake lived full-time in the marina, but he and his father are from England and have to go back in a week for school.  They have promised that they will be back next year and may visit sooner than that.

I am so happy that everything seems to be working out well so far.  Let's hope that there are no mini-disasters between now and when we move the boat!

Finding the right marina

We've now owned the boat for a few days and it's time to find a marina.  I've been talking to friends who live aboard and have settled on visiting 2 different ones.  Hidden Harbor and Rivers Edge. 

Hidden Harbor is in a small inlet that's protected from the wind and waves, but isn't in a very convenient location for us.  After visiting, we've discovered that it's in a lock community and well off the beaten path. 

Rivers Edge is close to downtown (I can ride a bike or walk to work if need-be) and has a restaurant/bar on the property.  Not that I think we'll be visiting the bar, but the restaurant may come in handy when I don't feel like cooking.  The people there seem to be very nice and the harbormaster has been extremely helpful so far.  I think that this is where we'll be settling in.

The Accidental Boat

My husband, son and I have been living in a rather pricey rental house near downtown St. Augustine, FL for the past few years.  It's a nice 3 bedroom house with 2 bathrooms and an in-ground pool, but since my daughter moved out, there's too much room for just us.  It's time to look for a new house.

As always, I checked Craigslist and browsed the papers, but after an unsuccessful search, we kind of puttered into our normal routine again and let the search die.  Then Bob saw the ad.  Not just any ad, but THE ad that changed our lives.  It was a boat.

Before I actually saw THE ad, we saw a post from someone desperately trying to get in touch with "the person with the 26' sailboat" and after skipping down a few ads, there it was.  A small, ready to live in sailboat within our price range (which turns out be just less than a months rent on our house).  The wheels started turning and I remembered my misspent youth working on sailboats in the Caribbean.  Ah, what good times.  I miss being free like that and I was willing to try and grab onto a little of that freedom now!

Bob and I made an offer and we now own our first boat!  There are good sails, the boat is solid with one tiny leak (which I have taken care of), a dingy that sank (a total of 3 times~I eventually gave it away) and no engine.  Not much when you think about it, but just enough to make us happy.

Our boat is currently at anchor in the bay and we need to find someplace to move it quickly so we could get out of the house within 3 weeks and avoid another month of the dreaded rent check (did I say our rent was pricey?).  Time to start visiting marinas, talking to friends and checking on-line.

Our boat may not be pretty, it may not be perfect, but it is all ours and we are happy to have it.  We know that it is too small and we are going to be SO frustrated by the time we get a new one, but for now we love her and can't wait to start this new adventure.