We Bought a Liveaboard Boat - How'd We Get Here? (Post 6 of 6)

We arrive in Sebastian, FL on Mon Sep 25th, and started looking at boats the next day.  Over the next 4 days we drove over 1,000 miles from Fort Lauderdale to Cocoa Beach, with no luck of finding what we wanted or what we could afford. After exhausting all the boats on the east coast of Florida, I decided to post a question about our search on Facebook. On both the Live Aboard Boats page and the Trawler Living & Cruising page, I told them what type of boat we were looking for and asked if anyone has a boat for sale to give me the sales link online or PM me the information. One nice gentleman PM'd me that he had a 40' Heritage East trawler for sale and was asking $40K for it. Way under our budget! I responded and asked if he had any pictures and where it was located. It's located on the west coast of Florida, in a boat yard in Placeda which is north of the Fort Myers area. I told him my husband would be calling him.

The picture of the boat that the owners sent us.

After Tom talked to him and asked more questions about the mechanics, we decided to go look at it on Friday.  After seeing the boat, we saw that she is in pretty rough shape cosmetically, but the mechanics were all good.  The wood veneer on the walls was either peeling off or had been removed, due to moisture from the humidity in Florida and not running a humidifier when she's sitting in the boatyard. Come to find out, the owners live in Michigan and are considered "snowbirds". They only use the boat from December to May, and leave her in the boat yard for the rest of the year. The air conditioning was removed because it didn't work, so we would have to replace it. After discussing it, we decided to make him an offer on Saturday for $38K and pending sea trial, we would take it. The owner agreed to that, and they got in their car within a few hours and started their drive down from Michigan.

We headed back to Sebastian on the east coast (since our stay there was free), and was able to have a day of rest, waiting for the owners to arrive from their 2 day drive. We were exhausted from all the driving, so it was nice to relax and get some laundry done. When the owners arrived, we drove back to the west coast of Florida and met them for the sea trial. Unfortunately, it started raining shortly after we left the dock and we didn't have the canvas up, so our time on the water was short. Tom did get to dock and undock the vessel, which was cool since he had never driven a boat that big. He did it like a pro, with a little guidance from the owner on how to pivot it in the narrow channel. Over the next few days, we finalized the sale transaction and the owners proceeded to remove their personal belongings from the boat. After all was said and done, Tom and I headed back to Texas to get our belongings that we had in storage.

So all in all, this whole experience has been a real whirlwind! Literally! It's been exhausting, but also invigorating! Since we've now bought the boat in Florida, instead of Texas, we are going to stay in Florida and do a little work on it while it's in the boat yard. It needs a bottom paint job, the generator head is rebuilt but needs to be installed, and air conditioning needs to be added. We're hoping to be here for just a few months, while we work with mechanics who can assist Tom with the installations with guidance. Tom and I are going to do the bottom job ourselves. Friends and family have asked if we're coming back to Texas with the boat, and the answer's no. We were going to stay in the Kemah TX area when we were going to get the Port Aransas boat. The plan was to stay in Texas for about a year and get use to cruising the boat and practice anchoring out before we head out to cruise to Florida, the Bahamas, and do the Great Loop. But with all the changes and since Tom wasn't able to work remotely with his job, and we are both unemployed and going to start our own business, we just didn't see it feasible to spend the money to get to Texas, when Florida is where we wanted to start cruising.

So there you have it! Sorry there are so many "Posts" on How'd We Get Here?. This blog is mainly for my own personal diary but we've had so many people ask questions on what's going on, I decided to make this blog so I can share it with my friends and family. And hopefully give some useful advise to any other cruisers out there who are also living the dream as a liveaboard, or for anyone who aspires to do it. We are learning as we go, so if you have any advise or questions, please comment below. And if you'd like to tag along on our adventure, please subscribe to the blog so you'll be alerted on any new posts. Thanks for reading, and Happy Cruising!

PS.... Below are more pictures of the boat. And if you've missed any posts from this beginning series, I renumbered them as Post # of 6 (ex. Post 1 of 6) so you can determine how many there are total.





 










Comments

  1. What an ordeal. We have a book in Rockport Harbor and she faired very well. The town took a big hit but they are working like crazy to rebuild and it looks 100% better. Rockport is a great place. You really should think about bringing your boat here....we have a 48' Hatteras and our yearly rate for docking is $2700. That includes electric, water & wifi. All essential stores and most restaurants have reopened. https://sscruisingadventure.blogspot.com/?m=0

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  2. I follow your blog, Susie. I'm sure once we are able to complete the Great Loop, we might take it back to Texas for awhile. Right now, we want to cruise. I'm so glad to hear Rockport is rebuilding well. Port A is gradually rebuilding too. Love both those towns. Happy cruising!

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  3. Once I left the message I remembered we'd talked online before. Have fun. I'll be following along. Maybe we'll see you along the way somewhere. We'll be in Ithaca, the western Erie and the 1000 islands this summer.

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