We bought a boat!

Well, we paid a deposit on a boat we plan to buy. It seems that the Southern Cross was not in the cards for us, but the lovely boat we found chasing leads in Rockland, Maine will soon be ours. The closing date is July 4th and in the meantime we will be having the boat surveyed. Since the boat is in the water the first step is usually a sea trial, then the boat comes back out of the water for a more thorough inspection by the surveyor.

We thought we were already on the same path with another boat just a few days ago when we were back in New York. I won't say here where it was or what kind, because we discovered that we were lied to about the boat's history and condition. It was just dumb luck that we got that information when we did, otherwise we would have been feeling much less forgiving about the situation. Or more accurately, Jon would have acted in a much less forgiving manner when he politely rescinded our offer. In the end, it's just a relief to know that we didn't get in too deep to get out of that bad deal unscathed.

We both had misgivings about the whole interaction and now we know why. So what did we learn this week? Trust your instincts. We talked ourselves out of thinking that the sellers were hiding something, and convinced ourselves that we were just being overly critical. I guess when we both feel like a situation is sketchy, we're probably right. Luckily it didn't cost us anything in terms of money or lost opportunity.

Now we're just excited at the prospect of living on the boat we loved at first sight, and which surprisingly turned out to be a great option for offshore cruising. As an added bonus, it should have more room than we had originally anticipated for our boat so it will be much more comfortable to stay aboard with us when you come to visit!

Tonight we're driving back to New York from Maine once again, but we will be returning shortly. Assuming we still want the boat after the survey, it looks like we'll be spending the summer learning to sail in Maine.