We're (not) gonna need a bigger boat (yet)...

So my dad has been dreaming a lot lately about a new boat, apparently. I got an e-mail Friday with the subject heading, "Wanna Catalina?"

... Particularly nice one. And six feet nine inches headroom in the cabin. http://www.sailboatlistings.com/view/18334

I figure Misty plus a 65,000 loan with a 600 pmt at 5.75% would pay off in 13 years. With 700 pmt, 10.5 years. With 1000 pmt, 6.75 yrs.

As long as you live on it, even if only on weekends, the interest is tax deductible, so at 700 a month, uh, 3612 is tax ded. If your tax rate is 15% The first year pmts total 8400 but take 542 off that for the tax saving and the first year acquisition cost is less than 8000.

Lots cheaper than a house, and LOTS cheaper than a mortgage.

Now where can we find the 700/month.

Maybe not yet, but someday. There are always deals like this boat somewhere. In this one we could sail to the islands.

- dad –

And two days later

(with names changed to protect the innocent)

...

…and wouldn’t it be fun bringing it down from Massachusetts? (I’m not nuts: we’d take the canal and skip going around Cape Cod to seeward.

It’s probably got a shower inside as well as the one in the cockpit. Most boats with radar do, I think.

I could get the old crew together. I’m sure blank and blank would go, and we could fill out with blank and one or two others. Five or six would be perfect. You’d be Skipper and Second Cook. Wow. I can’t wait.

(Misty + 15 years of $352 pmts.) $20,444.76 in tax deductions on top of all the good living and great cruising.

There will always be a deal like this around. This one looks good.

I’d like 36 feet rather than 34. Think coastal! Think Hilton Head, the Outer Banks, Block Island, and Florida. The Gulf! – Tampico! Vera Cruz! Campeche! Cancun! (well, we could skip Cancun, its touristy) I know! Playa del Carmen and a hike into Yucatan! Then back. If the weather gets schnooker, we go up the ICW to Coinjock, out into the Sounds, across the Noble Neuse, and on to Norfolk

If we got adventurous, put Havana after Playa del Carmen! Then Miami and up the ICW to Charleston or Jacksonville, counting alligators all the way, and go on to Savannah in the ditch or sail. Next Myrtle Beach. Wilmington, Norfolk, and up the Bay.

‘Course we could just go to Hilton Head or the OB and back. Then next to Block Island or Maine. Mom would fly there and we’d all go to LL Bean.

Me, I’ve always wanted to transit the Panama canal. Baha! San Diego! Santa Barbara! Monterey and Carmel! San Jose, and through the Golden Gate! Seattle? Vancouver? Ketchican (sp?)? the North Pole? Baffin Bay? (not sure you can do that from the NP) Across the Great Lakes to the Erie Canal? And on home. We just circumnavigated the United States!

‘Course we could be satisfied with the Delmarva peninsula.

My response:

I have no desire to make any more payments until A) I get better pay or B) I pay off my car.

He's starting to scare me, readers. All this talk of bigger boats and loans is making me nervous. It's 35 degrees outside and I think I'm sweating...

The arrival of an old friend...

Well, folks, today is the first day of spring, and I could not be any more giddy. (Well, maybe if it was 70 degrees outside and I had an old-fashioned Baltimore snowball in my hand...)

This was my first real winter aboard. I made it through the entire winter (with an occasional night at my parents' house or a friend's house) on Misty Rose -- and I lived to tell the tale! Last winter I wussed out and spent almost two months at my parents' house with blizzards and sickness. But this year, I managed to make it through. I didn't fall in and become a victim of the dreaded ice. No, readers, I made it with an electric blanket, two West Marine heaters, a down blaket, a faux Snuggie, some hiking socks and fleece pants, countless cups of tea and the kindness of the staff at Tidewater, who moved me to the sheltered dock close to the bathrooms for the duration.

Baltimore is starting to get warm, and you boaters out there know what that means -- work time!

Projects planned for my spring haulout include: replacing the floor inside the cabin salon, painting the bottom, painting the non-skid portions of the deck, re-varnishing the door boards, caulking the port holes, replacing some lines and cleats that aren't working well and, of course, going sailing!

Jeez, I'm tired just thinking about it all. Maybe we should stay with this whole winter thing for a couple more weeks...