Changing Course

It sure has been a long time since I added a post. This whole blogging thing really takes a lot of discipline! But not only that, I was really upset with how things were going and didn’t have any positive news, so in all honesty, the motivation just wasn’t there.  

When I last posted, I had a plan in full swing - at the end of 7 years, we would be casting off. But, I was finding it harder and harder to accept the rather long wait in order to leave, so I subconsciously was pushing to move the timeline up. I started cutting corners in my baby steps plan. Hubble still wasn’t completely on board, but would make small positive comments that I interpreted as strides in the right direction. 

The Gemini 105MC we toured

In January 2015, my Dad and I went to the Seattle Boat Show and took a trip up to Annacortes to see a Gemini 105MC that was for sale. My main focus was on the construction of the cat and the price. Catamarans are intended to be lightweight, therefore it should be expected that it won’t have a beefy, tank-like feel. This doesn’t mean that the boat isn’t well constructed, but the amount of flex that happened as we walked around was likely not going to make a tentative landlubber feel very comfortable. As for the price, I was just itching to be able to leave sooner than later, and to save the money to buy the boat and still afford to leave would really take too long. 

So, I started considering monohulls. I tried talking them up to Hubble, and was successful in getting him to tour a few in early 2016. But, in reality - my original sales pitch of a catamaran was one of the few things even peaking his interest, so without completely realizing it, I was starting to undermine my own plan. At one point, we toured a center cockpit Irwin that felt very beefy and solid. The price was amazing, so we agreed to move forward with purchasing it - meaning my Dad drove over to look at it with us as a “pre-inspection” of sorts before we started any loan applications. We showed up at the marina in Olympia, WA and the boat was missing. I can laugh about it now, but at the time I was livid. Turned out the wife owned the boat, but the husband was the one attempting to sell it. The wife “stole” it back without the broker knowing. It felt like such a waste of a trip, but it really was a sign. 

Still determined to make this happen and ignoring reality, I continued a boat search and even started entertaining the idea of buying a Pudget-Sound-only boat with the intent of getting comfortable for a few years. Then we would sell and buy something down in California or Florida, successfully avoiding the not-so-fun trip down the Pacific Coast. (Been there, done that!) I was so desperate to achieve my dream that I was compromising left and right. Hubble and I went on another tour of boats over Memorial Weekend 2016, rather unsuccessfully. The market was hot and most of the boats I had lined up were already under contract by the time we arrived. In Never Be Closer fashion - we decided to go to a Mariners game at Safeco Field so that the entire weekend wasn't lost. 

Making the best of a botched boat tour weekend!

Finally, we found an Irwin 37 in Portland that seemed like it would work for us. We went up and toured the boat and Hubbie agreed that we should move forward with the purchase. We quickly submitted a loan application and scheduled an inspection. After entering the purchase contract, Hubbie came to terms with what was really happening. He decided he was NOT comfortable with buying the boat, nor did he have any interest in living on one. I was so angry that my dream was being taken away, and very frustrated that this was only realized once money was on the table, some of which we were guaranteed to lose. The only option was to continue with the inspection with the hopes that there would be problems found, allowing us to break the contract at minimal cost. 

Thankfully, it worked in our favor. When the current owner purchased the boat, they didn’t have an inspection completed because their intent was to just live aboard to save on rent in Portland. Unfortunately for them, their asking price was about double the value of the boat, making it very easy for us to get out of the contract while only losing part of the cost of the inspection (I was even able to sell the report to the broker/seller to cover some of the cost). 

But, that didn’t solve the disappointment. Deep down, both Hubbie and I knew it was never going to happen. He didn’t fess up because he didn’t want to shoot me down and I didn’t listen to the signs because I didn’t want to face the reality. It was a long six months before I would land on a new way for an alternative lifestyle - which also required a few rounds of revision before arriving with the current plan. 

Going forward, our story will not be one on the high seas - rather one of the open road. Stay tuned!