Operation BABSAM

In the spirit of NOT BURYING THE LEAD:  For the low, low, SEVERELY LOW price of $210,000 $175,000 $165,000, JOY, a 1993 Fountaine Pajot Venezia, is yours. At the bottom of this post, you will find links to a detailed spec sheet and a web page with tons more pictures.  Send speedy and serious inquiries to ahoy@morejoyeverywhere.com. [8/17 Update: after the lightning strike.]

Shiny new bottom paint, a couple of months ago

We’re using our two-year escape clause. Cruising reminds us of camping, which we hate. Sailing involves lots of water and nature, which don’t appeal to Ean. Beaches are full of sand, which Jane finds icky. A boat requires constant maintenance and repairs, which we are neither qualified for nor interested in.  And although they didn't officially get to vote, our middle-aged cats, like their middle-aged owners, are unanimous in their desire to live and die on land.

Cockpit - bright new bimini - and you can see
the back of the Raymarine MFD in the forground. 

We want to move on to new adventures, and thus, JOY seems less Magic Carpet and more Millstone. JOY is making us all quite crabby. It’s not her fault, really.  JOY needs a fresh start with fresh owners.

So we are initiating Operation BABSAM (Buy a Boat, Save a Marriage). We will probably list JOY with a broker, unless we can make a quick deal with some eager beaver who is ready to make the leap. Hey, maybe YOU?! ...

...if you’ve done your research, you’re seriously looking and ready to buy a 40-something foot catamaran - cash in hand - and you want to come to Panama (or possibly Mexico) to pick it up.... 

...if you know how to fix stuff when it breaks, because JOY is seriously tricked out with gobs of stuff, and it all breaks, and if we’re telling you something you don’t already know, you should NOT be buying this boat....

...if you want to be a live-aboard, blue-water cruiser on a well-equipped, safe and sea-worthy 42 ft. catamaran that has already circumnavigated the globe once and is ready to go again....

The BFFs (Big Fat Features) 

Vitrifrigo fridge, toaster (free with boat purchase),
panel to the right of the toaster is the top of the freezer

Power

2 38 hp Yanmar engines
1540 amp hour AGM house battery bank, new in 2012
654 w solar (2012)
6 kW Northern Lights generator in sound-proof cabinet
Magna 2000 watt pure sine wave inverter/ charger
Balmar high-output Alternator (on starboard engine) with ARS-5 regulator

Navigation

Raymarine E-120W multifunction display with charts for Caribbean, S. America, and Indian Ocean (2011)
Raymarine autopilot with new P70 control head (2013)
AIS 250 receiver

Radar (Raymarine RD418D 4 kW digital Radome scanner) (2011)

Galley

The dinghy behind the bimini, lifted high on the arch
with solar panels on top. Also, in the foreground,
solid handrails instead of the standard lifelines.

Vitrofrigo 2 drawer DC refrigerator (2012)
Drop-in Engel 40L fridge or freezer (2012)
Force 10 oven with broiler (2013)

And there's more...

Sunbrella bimini with dodger (2012)
Cruisair air conditioner in Salon with a Dometic Breathe Easy air purifier in-duct model (2012)
Sea Recovery Aqua Whisper mini 170 DC watermaker, 7 gph capacity (2012)
Carib dinghy and 15 hp Yamaha outboard (new in 2011)
50 lb CQR anchor with 285 ft of 10mm chain
beautiful custom arch for solar panels and dinghy - motorized dinghy lift
strong and solid anodized aluminum handrails instead of lifelines
bottom paint new in March 2013
mast height is 64' - allowing for ICW travel (NOT that we recommend ICW travel - but hey, different strokes for different folks).

And There's More!  

Starboard aft cabin - port aft is similar

For the same low, low price....  

Do you really need to know about the EPIRB, the fully-battened mainsail, the roller-furling headsail, the VHF radios, the Lifesling2, the heads, tankage, the 2 burner stove, and the rest of the 93 features that you might find if you were reading this listing on yachtworld.com?  Well, of course you do, if you are a prospective buyer.  

Port forward cabin
(Starboard forward is set up as workroom/garage)

Please email us.  BABSAM.  We'll send you a thank-you card every year on our anniversary.

Update - Spec Sheet and More Pictures!

Update, 6/17: Lots of pictures of the salon, nav station, and galley, click here.  We will be adding pics of the rest of the boat within a few days.

Update, 7/14: More pics (finally)!  This page shows pics of the deck and some tech. stuff.

Update, 8/17: Post-lightning strike, an updated spec sheet - JOY details, PDF  (If you have trouble with google drive, send us an email and we will attach the PDF to our reply.)

Our First Days of "JOY"

We did it!  We actually did it!

Yesterday, I figured out how to make flame come out of the burners on the stove.  That is my small victory for the day.  I still don't know how to tell how much water we have in the tanks, or how to "unpickle" the watermaker, or what are all those other objects in the forward locker.  But that's ok, cause

...we have "Joy"!

What ARE all those things!?

Timeline, REVISED

Our original "cast off" date was February 1, 2012. We set this date when we went to Strictly Sail Chicago. At the time, it seemed quite reasonable - and now that we have blown that plan out of the water, I am remembering, somewhat wistfully, just how reasonable it was. In the original plan, we were going to start "shopping to buy" during the Annapolis boat show, in early October. But then we got tripped up on Shiraz. Shiraz felt right. We thought about it, talked about it, envisioned ourselves on board. The reasons to wait couldn't hold up to the attractions of making the leap. Now, mid-leap, we are feeling the stress of our new, greatly compressed timeline.... Our revised cast off date is... let's say October Twenty-Something.... It is, of course our STUFF that will hold us back. Gotta get rid of our STUFF.

As I type, we are in the air, jetting towards Annapolis and Joy. We are boat owners today.

A Sign from the Universe

My mom called this morning, and I picked up on the first ring.  "Why are you answering your phone?!" she asked.  When I don't answer the phone (a more frequent occurrence) she leaves me a voice mail: "Why aren't you answering your phone?"

Anyway.  I'm close to the phone, I explained, because we're buying a boat TOMORROW, and we're still coordinating last minute details with documentation agent, insurance guy, banks, etc.  Her response is to worry about hurricanes and wonder about my horoscope.  I checked Maria (one more time) - Maria is a category 1 hurricane, heading up and away from the east coast.  No problem.  I resisted the temptation to check my horoscope.  Nonsense.  I don't need any signs from the universe.  But then, apparently, the universe wanted to have its say.  We had Chinese delivered for lunch, and here is my "fortune":

A fortuitous fortune cookie message

Wire transfers: check.  Boat insurance: check.  USCG documentation application and other paperwork: check.  Boarding passes for tomorrow morning: check.  Bags packed: ...not quite...

Our Last Day as Boatless Dirt-Dwellers

Joy will be ours tomorrow, if all goes as planned.  We certainly will be split between two worlds for the next month.  We need to finish up the house, put it on the market, prepare for our estate sale, give stuff away (this afternoon: Salvation Army comes for bookshelves, file cabinets, a TV stand, and other miscellaneous stuff), fill up the dumpster that we just had delivered, pack up a few precious items (including the cats!), and say a final goodbye to MKE.  But, in our OTHER reality, we will already be boat owners, live aboards, CRUISERS.  Never mind that we haven't yet cruised.  In our hearts, and in our bank account (ouch), we will be on our way.

We are flying to Annapolis tomorrow, so we will be ON the boat for our first few days of Boat Ownership.  Wish I had some good meds for the panic attacks that are sure to closely follow completion of the sale.  Hey, how do you work this thing?

Update, 9-17: Seems pinot grigio works okay to quell the panic....

Survey & Sea Trial

Survey & Sea Trial, a set on Flickr.

More pictures from the big day!

Put to the Test

We continually remark now upon how fast the time to our departure is whizzing by. Yet, there are standout days in this blur of time and yesterday was one such: our boat's survey and sea trial.

Rene is showing Gale the radar display.

First off, a shout out to all the boat buyers who raved about Gale Browning from Hartoft Marine Survey Ltd. She was as much of a stickler for detail as you said she'd be which was especially important to we newbies. All in all, she spent over seven hours on (soon to be) our 42 ft. catamaran.

Since the current owners were on hand, they worked with Gail, revving engines, unfurling sails, and generally exposing their boat's innermost parts to inspection. At first, I tried to peer over her shoulder to learn whatever I could, but soon gave up as I really couldn't make anything from her actions. Jane, feeling, as usual, the magnetic pull of the water, gravitated toward the bow, and Tommy, our broker, seeing that there were plenty of hands to handle whatever Gail needed hung back, always at the ready in case he was needed.

Something undignified about a boat out of water...

The good (and expected on everyone's part, I think) news was that she checked out quite well, overall. The few items on the "essential" list are all ABYC recommendations and all things an insurer will want verification of.

The final negotiations with her current owners will happen in the next few days and by midmonth she'll be our "JOY".

...As one might imagine, seeing as she is currently docked in Annapolis, we are keeping a VERY close eye, as it were, on Katia.

Buying a Boat?

It seems we are buying a boat.... After a few days of suspenseful back-and-forth, the sellers have accepted our offer. The boat is a 1993 Fountaine-Pajot Venezia, a 42 footer that has just completed a circumnavigation. We met the owners, and visited their boat, during our last trip to Annapolis. Love, love, love it. Not because it's sexy. Instead, it seems homey, settled-in. She is an old gal who has been well-loved and cared for, and she's kept her people safe and comfortable for ten years. Soon, we hope, she will do the same for us. Much more to say about Joy, but for now we are wide-eyed, shell-shocked, and mostly speechless.

Tuesday, Oh Six Hundred

Looking out from Pier 7 Marina, Edgewater, MD

We are aboard Wingsong.  Jane slept like...well...Jane; I barely slept at all. Which is all to the good as far as I'm concerned - I get more waking hours aboard and I've enjoyed every minute of them so far, even the ones during which I thought I'd lost my brand new, uber-cool bolle marine sunglasses. And we are still onshore!

 Here are a few things we have learned about the cruising lifestyle:

1. Heads, as they are known, are noisy, very noisy.
2. Space is even more limited in practice than in theory.
3. When drying your clothes ondeck, turn colored items inside out if you don't want them to be bleached by the sun (no, this one we did not learn from our own experience, but from that of our "next-door" neighbors, Renee and Steve aboard Shiraz who have spent the last 10 years circumnavigating.  As an aside, their extremely tricked-out FP Venezia also happens to be for sale).
4. This one is more a matter of re-learning: If you like bugs, turn on all your salon lights.  We have LOTS of bugs on the bridge now, many of them deceased since last night.

Captain Rich will be by in a few hours.  We set sail around 10:00.  On a sad note, the Blue Angels, for undisclosed reasons, canceled their flyover.  So, now our itinerary is to follow the wind and the currents.  Details to follow.

Sitting here, in the cockpit, in shorts and a T-shirt, admittedly only playing "yachties," it seems pretty unlikely that we'll be able to wait until the end of hurricane season to buy our boat.  But it is the prudent thing to do and perhaps when we are back in Milwaukee, a little distanced from all that we counting down for, it will be a bit more--just enough more--tolerable.  ...we'll see.

Road Trip!

We're on our way to Annapolis for a two-day charter on a 38' Lagoon that just happens to be for sale. What joy!

It is Commissioning Week at USNA - bizarre that this bit of my ancient history is popping up on our way to the imminent future. Twenty-four years - to the day - after I sat with my family in the grass on Hospital Point, watching the Blue Angels air show, we will sit on a catamaran, out in Severn Bay, Ean and I, and watch another air show.

Rich the broker will be our captain. We will sleep on the boat on Monday night, and then he'll join us and we'll be out and about for Tuesday and Wednesday. We'll stay on the boat (docked) on Wednesday night, and on Thursday, regrettably, we return to the Midwest. Instead of going straight home we'll drive directly to Madison, where we're signed up for a three-day Hoofers sailing course that will lead to ASA 101 certification.

We're thrilled to be taking such concrete, positive steps towards the Boat Trip - but all these sailing-related plans and activities remind us that we have A LOT to do before we can "cast off." (The nautical metaphors are really hard to avoid, we find.). Preparing our house for sale and getting my prelims and proposal done are tops on the list.

But let's not worry about that just now. Now, we will enjoy our road tripping and our sailing.

Haste Ye Back!

Royal Poinciana in front of the TC bank

On the road departing Treasure Cay, there's a sign that says, "Haste Ye Back!". Never have I taken the sentiment more to heart. I feel like we're getting so close, now, to this new life of ours. Actually, our countdown stubbornly sticks at WAY-more-than-200-days.  (257, to be precise.)

My Last Landlubber Birthday

Ean at the helm

This morning we woke up at the Villa Paradiso Hotel in Miami Beach, Fl.  Tonight we are going to sleep at home in Milwaukee.  In between these two events, we celebrated my 49th birthday--mostly at the airport, due to a several hour flight delay.  Our main reason for this trip wasn’t to look at boats, as it happens.  Our main reason was so that I wouldn’t have to be cold on my birthday.  Unfortunately, due to scheduling constraints, I did end up being cold for part of it.  But any birthday hour spent somewhere warm is better than that same hour spent cold, so I take whatever I can get.

We flew into Ft. Lauderdale and immediately hightailed it for St. Augustine in our rental car.  Not our smartest move considering that we were driving on about 4 hours’ sleep.  Ultimately worth it, though.  St. Augustine is nicknamed “The Ancient City” and has the distinction of being the oldest city in the U.S.  It’s a great walking city with Spanish architecture, streets and streets of shops (in one of which Jane found the perfect sun hat and in another one of which I got my Tilley), and attractions such as the restored St. Augustine lighthouse and the Castillo de San Marcos, a Spanish Fort that, despite many turnovers in local government over the centuries (The Spanish, the British, the Spanish again, etc.), had never been taken over by force, only by treaty.

St. Augustine also has a beautifully maintained municipal marina, wherefrom we went on our first catamaran ride.  Not on a cruising cat, however, this was a 27 foot racing cat owned by St. Augustine Eco-Tours.  Beside Captain Aaron, just 2 sisters shared our two-hour dolphin-spotting tour of the inlet leading to the ICW.  It turns out that Aaron and his family live aboard their boat, so we had a lot to talk about.  Considering it was our first time aboard a cat underway, it didn’t feel new at all, really.  Just one more experience to further convince us that we’re making the right decision.

The Good, the Bad, and the Broker

Wow, we've been back from our trip to Annapolis for nearly a week already. And what a successful trip it was!  Although, it was touch and go at first.   Bobby, the broker we came to see, the broker who knew we were coming, took us onto exactly 3 boats: 2 FP Liparis and one FP Mahe-all docked in his agency's marina.  One of the Liparis we couldn't even get into.  When we asked him to make a phone call so that we could--on our own-- see a boat that was similar to the kind we were thinking of buying, he demurred, saying that it was all the way on the Eastern Shore.  Because, after all, we'd only flown 660 miles, why on earth would we want to drive 20 or so.

A Trip to Annapolis

We have made reservations for a quick trip to Annapolis during UW's spring break.  We are using reward points for car and flight, and choice points for our stay at the Quality Inn.  A bit ironic to be shopping for a $200K boat while money-less.  But the estate settlement is on track, as far as we can tell.

Our favorite broker Bobby will have two days to show us around, get us on to as many cats as possible, and educate us about the boat buying process.  If we trust him, we'll sign an agreement with him to be our buyer's broker.  On the Cruisers Forum, I have read a lot of negative crap about brokers, but especially for inexperienced buyers like us, it seems quite foolish to turn down expert help.  Yes, of course there are slimy, dishonest brokers.  Yes, of course brokers are looking out for their own interests.  But if Bobby helps us buy a great boat, that's win-win, right?

Last time I talked with Bobby, since we were talking about the Annapolis trip, I finally owned up to having a bit of history in Annapolis.  Ha... unexpected.  I occasionally enjoy playing the "Naval Academy" card.  Just like Mrs. Pollifax, I find it satisfying to be "unexpected."

Bobby the Broker

Last Wednesday we filled out an online form with Bay Yacht Agency about what kind of catamaran we wanted - purposes, budget, desired equipment, etc.  We did it together, and it was a good chance for us to talk through our priorities and our vision of what this boat will be like.  Things are firming up pretty fast.  Good for us.  The next day, of course, I got a call from Bobby the Broker.  Bobby calls me Janie and Hon, and I somehow forgive him.  Just as we will accept the mores of the locals wherever we cruise, I will acknowledge that anyone who calls himself Bobby is apt to call me Hon.

Becalmed

Waiting to start my swimming lessons, waiting to go to Strictly Sail in Chicago, waiting for all this to get underway, we spend hours poring over pictures of cats online. We're pretty sure our first boat will need to be 36 feet or so, have two staterooms (no more), and two heads with separate showers. We want the galley up, non-slanted windows, no louvers.

Of course finding out things like who makes reliable engines, or fuel pumps, or water pumps or light bulbs or any of the other innumerable things that makes boats "go" isn't often listed, or if it is, I still don't know what to look for. So, more reading of more books on basic sailing, more discussing how we'll finance this wacky plan, more getting excited about ebaying all our possessions and sailing into the world. We talk about weaning ourselves off coffee (have even started on this), weaning the cats off kitty litter and onto sand, (not this yet), and how impressive we assuredly will not look pulling our boat away from the marina for the very first time (that should make for a delightful future post).

We really are moving into this life and moving out of our old ones as well--Jane, less so than me as my current schedule has enough commitments to make it impossible to look for or learn how to operate a boat for more than two years. We can't wait that long; our "real" lives fade behind us as this not-as-yet-real-life becomes clearer all the time.

I try to be patient and make do with what progress I can. At least I'm making headway on one of the items on my list...