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Seasons greetings to our family and friends!
Whew, what a year we had in 2004! Although frequently hectic,
stressful, and frustrating, 2004 was a great year. We achieved
important goals, albeit at the cost of a few gray hairs.
Our goal for 2004 was to sell our Hunter 36 and purchase
a cruising boat. In January, we had the boat surveyed to assess
its market value and reveal any needed repairs. The boat only
required one major repair. Unfortunately, the person we hired
to do the work turned a two-week job into three months, and
still no finished result. Ultimately, we had to pay someone
else to complete the job. Talk about stress and frustration.
The first mate was ready to strangle someone--anyone!
With the boat finally in tip-top shape, we began advertising
it on the Internet. We received a flood of inquiries, and
by the end of June our beloved Caribbean Soul was sold
and on her way to Lake Texoma. (See the June
log.)
Yeah! Now we were free to start boat shopping. In July, we
spent a week in Florida looking at all the boats we'd been
drooling over in yachtworld.com. Quite frankly, most of them
looked better on the Internet.
We returned to Texas and began negotiating directly with
a seller for a Florida boat that had originally been on Lake
Lewisville, our old stomping ground. Since the owner was the
friend of a friend, we thought this deal was meant to be.
However, the negotiation process was very stressful due to
the seller's volatile temperament. The process was drawn out
too because the boat was under a brokerage contract until
late September. We finally hammered out a deal a week before
the brokerage contract expired. Our deal would become effective
the day after the boat was released from its contract. We
scheduled a survey and made airline reservations for ourselves
and two friends who would help us sail the boat to Texas.
Then, just three days before our contract would take effect,
the seller sent an e-mail saying he was accepting an offer
through the broker. Our deal was canceled! We were devastated.
But after a few days we recovered and renewed our search for
a cruising boat. In an amusing case of "what goes around
comes around," the seller called us a week later to say
his deal had not happened. He suspected the broker had invented
a buyer to induce him to re-sign a contract. The seller was
again willing to sell us the boat, and by the way, the vessel
was damaged in Hurricane Jeanne. After a lot of soul searching,
we decided our good feelings about this boat had evaporated,
and we couldn't bear the thought of dealing with this individual
any further.
And so the hunt continued. In October, we made an offer on
a 1984 Brewer 42 located in Tampa Bay. Once again, we dealt
directly with the seller. The negotiations went smoothly,
but then, just a few days before we were scheduled to fly
to Florida to close the deal, the seller decided to effectively
raise his price by making us pay for the repairs recommended
by the survey. We were stunned but unwilling to accept his
last-minute bait and switch. Fortunately, the man's wife,
who was more eager to sell the boat than her husband, talked
some sense into her mate and we closed the deal on November
5th.
Our first attempt to bring the boat home was thwarted by
unexpected repairs and bad weather (see the November
log). Finally, the boat came home just before Christmas (see
the December log)!
Much to our surprise, we accomplished our goal of purchasing
a cruising boat in 2004. Two years of downsizing and hard
work were finally rewarded. Our resolution for 2005 is to
balance time spent working on boat projects with time on the
water sailing and relaxing. We also plan to officially rename
the boat from 19th Green to Caribbean Soul.
Now that we have a bigger boat, we hope that our family and
friends will make the trip to Corpus to experience sailing
with us on the Texas coast.
Have a great 2005!
Nick, Deanna, and Dakota
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