Last winter Marion and I fell into the company of the TMCA Power
Boat crowd. Everyone was talking about doing the Great Loop Cruise. It's
something you can't do easily in a sailboat, and we were dyed in the wool
sailors.
About every three years we sell the boat we have, and move up to a nicer one. It's not a matter of any grand design in our lives; it has just worked out that way. Our three years on Great Ketch were up. Marion had boat fever, and we both were ready for a new adventure.
One warm February evening, after dinner at the Classic Cafe, I said, "Let's tromp down the docks and look at the Stink Pots."
There were about a dozen boats on the sales dock. All were locked up. There were no witnesses to tell on us, and no salesmen to make us feel obligated. We walked the docks slowly. At each boat I walked out the finger pier, took in the general layout of the boat and paced off the length.
At the 60 footer I said, "That's much too big."
At the 36 footer Marion said, "Nice, but too small."
I paced off a 46 footer and said, "Let's go aboard and walk around on the deck."
It was a sundeck model and had the largest enclosed aft deck we had ever seen. I tried the door to the enclosed sundeck.... it was not locked. We stepped into the beautifully furnished sun room. It had seating for 9. And room for twice that number at cocktails.
Then Goldilocks said, "This is just right. If I have to get a Power Boat, this will do."
We found our way to the fly bridge.. it had seating for 10, plus standing room for half a dozen. I had never stood behind a wheel at such a vantage point above the water. The height made me feel giddy. I could imagine cruising down the bay, sipping a cool one, my honey by my side. "Yes, Marion," I said, "this is a fine boat. It would really be a step up for us."
We went back down to the sundeck and peered into the window leading to the salon. We could see very little in the semi - darkness below. At this point we did not know the price, the size, the power plant.... or any of the important facts. But the boat had made a great impression. Her name was Permanent Wave.
The next day we returned. Jay Bettis, the broker, gave us the tour. We liked it even more. We found out the price, picked up the spec sheet, and all the information Jay had on the twin 3208 Cats. The boat is a 48 foot Seamaster, built in 1987 in Taiwan.
"Any way we might trade our Morgan OI 41 Ketch for this boat?" I asked. "Or take an offer contingent on our sale?"
The answer was -- probably not. We went off to ponder a Big Decision. We could not act on anything until we came back from our annual week at our timeshare in Cancun. That was over a week away.
Several times we went down to the docks at night and just looked. We told our friends, and they went down, and just looked. We invited Sally and Tom Curran to come with us to dinner at the Classic, and then look. We even brought along a bottle of champagne, and drank it on the aft deck with them. "This is a test... This is only a test... If this was a real emergency ...." I said proposing a toast.
The following Saturday we went off to Cancun with Sally and Tom. That's another story .
When we came back from Cancun the boat was missing from Jay Bettis's
dock. An offer had been made..
sea trials.. some repair work underway. We were disappointed
and for the next month, searched the Clear Lake area for a boat.
We were open to everything, and saw a couple of dozen boats in the 42 to
50 foot range. Then three weeks later Permanent Wave reappeared on
the dock. It was back on the market.
We decided to buy and informed Jay of our decision. We made an offer which included Great Ketch in trade. That did not fly, but it established our intention to buy.
We then went about selling our beloved Great Ketch in earnest. The successful formula was a very detailed sales brochure, complete with pictures, on the Internet, with an ad in the Houston Chronicle pointing to the Internet web page.
Within two weeks the current owner found the ad and made arrangements to come from Alabama to buy Great Ketch. He was so enthusiastic about her that we knew she would be in good hands.
The following day we put down our earnest money, and started the buying process. In the three weeks between the offer and closing the deal, we agonized over naming the boat. Finally Marion came up with Remedy... It would cure the pain of missing the sailing on Great Ketch.
Bob Floyd took delivery of Great Ketch on May 13, 1999 at 8:45 AM. It was a melancholy event... happy and sad. We took delivery of Remedy at 12:00 noon. We were without boat for three hours and fifteen minutes. We moved it gingerly into a slip at Seagate where our town house is located.
For the next five months we would be learning the boat in familiar waters, upgrading equipment and moving semi-permanently aboard. We decided to rent out our town home with option to the renters to buy. On August 1 we left Seagate and moved the boat to Blue Dolphin Marina. On August 27 the last of the moving was done, and our renters started moving in. All that we kept from our 1600 sq ft townhome was literally piled into a 10x10 storage cubicle.
Moving aboard means cutting a lot of ties. We have a mail service to
forward the mail, a cell phone for voice communications, a satellite dish
for TV, our wireless modem for internet access, and a genset to make
our own electricity. We are capable of autonomous operation.
It's a neat feeling....