find | Errantries

Author: Pete

Location: Fort Lauderdale, Florida
[26°8′N 80°9′W]

Thursday. We were hoping to meet up with a broker we had already talked to when we were still in Chile, but he’s been down in the Carib selling a boat and we’ve been playing phone and email tag. So, plan B. In a quick perusal of Yachtworld and Sailboatlistings we found three boats of interest with the Multihull Company brokerage. Gave Alexis de Baucaud, their senior broker, a buzz. He too was down in the islands, but set us up to check out the boats on our own! Armed with some addresses and key-codes we jumped into the car, again, for a treasure hunt. There’s always a mast at the end of the rainbow. All week we’ve been driving up to some unassuming house, not sure if there’s any water nearby, and lo and behold, a mast sticking up from behind the low, one story house.

Our first boat of the day, a 2001 Fortuna Island Spirit 37’ was an immediate hit. Great size, nice and beamy. Felt solid and stable. Lovely open cockpit and excellent access to uncluttered decks, solid bimini and superstructure, well outfitted, and good vis from the helm. Nice open salon and galley up. She had a few knicks in her decks, but then again, so do I. We scampered about happily, feeling a little sneaky for being there on our own. Peered in cupboards, through hatches, and under mattresses. It immediately went to the top of the list.

Our next stop, luckily only a few minutes away was a Maxim Yachts, Voyage 380. Again, snuck behind someone’s house, slipped through a fence on the side, and finagled our way into the boat via a lock box. I think the James Bond music was playing the entire time. The Admiral was stout and strong. She would’ve been a favorite had we not seen the Island Spirit previously. The salon layout was much more crunched and the overall space on the boat was inefficiently distributed compared to similar boats. Would do the trick without a problem through, I’m sure.

Our last stop of the day was to see a 2001 Lagoon 380. Dariousz, a Polish-French gentleman was selling it right after seven years of cruising it from the Med with his wife and young daughter. He took great care, pride, and records of his boat, all of which he showed us with eagerness. The boat was immaculate, almost perfectly loaded, and at a great price. The only problem is that the great price is still at the upper limit of our funds.

We toured the boat with Dariousz, then sat and had a beer with him in the cockpit, chatting about the boat, international living, and futból. He had Brazilian beer, Brahma, in honor of the World Cup that was playing in the salon. He told us the boat was pretty much sold to someone in Boston who didn’t even come down to see it, but still wanted to haggle over the price. He was adamant that he set the price fairly, and that anyone who came down to see her would agree and not insist on haggling per industry standard.

Of course we loved the boat immediately. He asked us if we had liquid capital, which we do, and he started discussing selling it to us instead. I think he partially didn’t like the current buyers as much as us, and partially thought that we could move the boat faster.

Called Alexis when we left as a rumbling thunderstorm came in and started spattering the mango trees around the boat. He gave us the scoop on how we could potentially throw a bid coup. We took notes, sort of stunned that this might even be a possibility, our brains churning over the logistics and gravity of the situation at hand. We went out for dinner and over an hour or so weighed the pros and cons of the deal. Miranda was enamored with the boat’s immaculate condition and sturdy feel; I played devil’s advocate and discussed the price being higher than we had originally been planning to spend. We hemmed and hawed. We looked at our finances, and attacked the situation from all different angles.

Then we decided to go for it. We made an offer.

Author: Miranda

Location: Fort Lauderdale, Florida
[26°8′N 80°9′W]

Arrived in Miami from Santiago at 3:50 am and staggered our way back into our homeland. Being in South Florida is the perfect way to slowly transition from South America back to the United States. Sometimes it’s hard to tell that we actually left, as we often find ourselves chatting with someone in Spanish. I only accidentally blurted out something in Spanish twice. The nice Italian waiter at lunch was sweet, but confused, when I instinctively (but very incorrectly) greeted him with a smiling “Como estas?” Oops.

We found our hotel and immediately started setting up some appointments for this week. We plan to see boats that are both for-sale-by-owner and those being sold through a broker. Our goals for the week are twofold. We’d obviously be very happy if we found “the one” and started the purchasing process, but we are also here to make connections and meet with brokers in the industry who we can keep in contact with- even when we head back to the mid-west.

We were able to make one appointment for right-away in the afternoon, so after watching our poor Chilenos fight hard, but fall to those tall, Dutch bastards in the world cup (I’ll soon love you again my friends from Holland- but now the wounds are too fresh… too fresh…), we went to The Catamaran Company to see Steve Moore. Nothing like some delicious pizza and beautiful multi-hulls to raise your spirits after a tough loss.

Steve took us through two boats for sale: a Lagoon 380 and a Gemini 105 Mc. All parties involved knew we weren’t interested in a Gemini, but Steve was correct in assuming that making comparisons is always helpful and seeing differences in how boats are set-up is great for narrowing down what specs are your must-haves. The Gemini made is realize that beam, not length, is critical in determining a cat’s interior space and seaworthiness. The Gemini was only 4 feet shorter, but it was 8 feet narrower, and this made all the difference between our experiences walking aboard the Gemini, compared to the Lagoon.

The Lagoon was turn-key boat, pretty much having everything we are looking for in a cruiser. We could have bought the boat and began cruising without much work refurbishing and readying the boat. Being a 2006, an owner’s version, and being so well maintained, made it, sadly, a little out of our price range. It also might be a little more boat than we need. It’s not often when a couple gets on a boat and says, “wow, look at all the space.” These cats are just big! So much bigger than the monos (of comparable length) that we have taken lessons on or walked through thus far. We are curious to see how the 35 footers that we are off to see tomorrow will feel.

I’d like to close with a few laughable, yet accurate, observations from an expat without much time in the U.S. of late.

When did we get robots at the customs counters? Maybe it was the lack of sleep, but these guys rocked our world. Did you see that they raise and lower to look you in eye?! Holy crap! Like stepping into star trek movie. Moments like these always remind me of when my expat buddy came back from a trip to the states about two years ago, and said, “Oh my god! They have this box that records television and you can rewind or fast forward live T.V.” His Ti-Vo excitement was about 8 years delayed, but so adorable.

The drivers! They are so kind, courteous, and generally going the speed limit. No idiots cutting you off, weaving through traffic, and stopping where never the hell they please. Oh man- we saw our first use of the blinker, and thought it might be the second coming of Christ. Wow!

I can wear jeans and a T-shirt and not look like a complete and utter slob. This is great! Thanks to good old ‘Merica for setting a low standard on what is acceptable leaving-the-house-attire.

We can understand all the conversations happening around us- this is really distracting when you’re so used to easily being able to turn out the urban white noise equivalent to cicada chirping. This goes the other direction as well. We are often reminding ourselves to talk quieter and watch the swear words. We constantly forget that people can actually understand us here.

When you accidentally use the metric system and a fellow citizen looks at you like you’re a terrorist. Geez. Step down buddy. Calling it a meter stick instead of a yardstick is just as accurate. And we are consistently off by a factor of 1.6 when estimating driving distances. Hmm.

Service! Picture our surprise and child-like excitement when someone actually used a blinker… well, multiply that by a factor of 10 when the waitress actually stopped by after our food arrived to “check in.” Glorious!! And did I mention free refills- I think we’ve died and gone to carbonated-beverage-heaven.

It’s good to be home ladies and gentlemen. Good to be home.