Last week I took a deep breath, gave the email a final look and pressed “send.” Thus notifying my broker†, Dave, that I was ready to begin the search for my boat. I took this step with a mixture of excitement (over the anticipated joys of living aboard), trepidation (over the anticipated rigors of living aboard), and a dash of “Susanne are you nuts!?!”
Today, I began the search. Dave and I spent all day traveling around looking at boats. He was a real trooper waiting for me in the near 100° heat as I worked through my checklists, evaluations, and took a slew of photos. Our first stop was Rock Hall, Maryland to look at two boats made in the 80’s by Morgan Marine. These boats have the reputation of being very solid, well made boats that are good for bluewater (crossing oceans). The 1988 41′ Morgan Out Island sloop was today’s early favorite, but it was replaced by the last boat of the day a 40′ Jeanneau sloop (also a bluewater boat built in the 80’s). An older cousin of this boat, the Jenneau Gin Fizz ketch, was used by Dutch sailor Laura Dekker who successfully circumnavigated the planet, solo, to become the youngest sailor to ever do so – she was 14 at the time.
Tomorrow will be another long day as I head down to Norfolk, Virginia to evaluate another Morgan Out Island 41′ sloop. Hopefully it will be cooler than today!!
Location: Forest Hills, Washington DC, United States, North America
Altitude: 76.00 m