To the Boat Survey in Charleston--or Bust!

At the end of the survey day. That’s Pete with us. He’s our broker who flew in from San Diego. He’s Mike’s second cousin. That's our boat behind us.

We continued our 6 drive days across the U.S. Our goal: drive from San Marcos, CA to Charleston, SC to meet with the surveyors on Dec. 8. I pick up the story as we left Austin, taking Highway 20.

We saw many oversized windmills and some large solar farms along Highway 20 in Texas. And saw only a handful of oil pumps!

THE DRIVE CONTINUES

The only surprising incident on the leg to Shreveport was during our exit off the highway for BBQ lunch (more about lunch in a minute). It was a perfectly clear day. However, it was so windy that in addition to dodging tumbleweeds, our F150 was hit on the broadside by a flying sign.(1) When we got out we saw faint marks on the door, but neither of us saw where the sign went or what it said. It probably read, “Danger, wind ahead.”

Something we regret missing is a stop at Buc-ees. The first one we drove by bowled us over with a huge amount of gas pumps. The parking lot for the Buc-ees store was packed. We were so eager to make good time that we didn't turn around. We stopped some time later at a highway gas station and convenience store. I was shocked by the clean, spa-like bathroom. I thanked the cashier later for my positive experience. She explained, “We have to compete with Buc-ees...you have to stop at one on your drive through the South.”

The enormous line-up of gas pumps at Buc-ees. Pic courtesy of the Internet. We saw maybe 40 pumps as we raced by.

SHREVEPORT, LOUISIANA 

As the hills subsided, you could hear our childlike joy as we passed into Louisiana. To be frank, we voiced the same joy every time we passed into another state, as the signs marked our progress. We closed in on Shreveport, LA after about 6 hours of driving. 

Bienvenue en Louisiana!

As I drove, Mike searched for a hotel in Shreveport. We were shocked by the relatively low prices of hotels. However, the online reviews were glowing for The Margaritaville Casino along the Bossier City side of Red River(2), so we took a chance and reserved a room. Incidentally, the room was very nice. We were a little concerned about someone breaking into the truck where we parked it in the back forty of the huge lot (remember we had everything with us for the next year or two), so we brought everything piled in the truck cab into the room. 

The obvious choice for dinner here in Louisiana was Creole food. However, so many online reviews of Creole restaurants warned us of bad fish, so we opted for a local Greek place. We greatly appreciated friends in other cities who took us to their favorite haunts. We needed friends in Shreveport. 

BIRMINGHAM, AL AND FOOD

Welcome to Sweet Home Alabama sign. Sorry, we missed the Mississippi welcome sign because Mike was sleeping when I was driving.

After a slight pause in our march East (3), we continued on Highway 20, drove relatively fast through Mississippi (which I recall had fairly rough roads), and hooted into Alabama. After about 7 hours we arrived in Birmingham in the dark. We left first thing the next morning. Sorry, I have no stories to tell about Birmingham.

It was clear that as Mexican restaurants dwindled, BBQ spots increased--to our delight. We’re not huge fans of fast food/road food so if we can't find a Mexican spot, we learned that roadside BBQ is more than a great substitute. We just don't seem to have these types of BBQ joints on the West Coast. At these local, rough-around-the-edges joints, we enjoyed “taters”(4) with brisket or smoked turkey, sides like baked beans, collared greens(5), flat green beans, and coleslaw. There are always a variety of red and mustard sauces at the table. Every joint we’ve been to has slightly different sides and sauces. And the people in these joints have always been friendly and cheerful.(6)

Typical BBQ joint menu.

On the sixth driving day, we drove 7-plus hours from Birmingham, through Atlanta (”yeah Georgia!”) to Charleston. We finally made it to the Low Country and our friends’ P & C’s house. 

Charleston has many waterways. Most seem to be surrounded by peaceful marshlands. 

THE SURVEY DAY

The day finally arrived when we could bring in the pros to examine the boat inside and out--just like you do when buying a house. Meeting at 6:00 a.m., to accommodate the engine surveyor’s busy schedule, were the aforementioned engine surveyor, Mike and I, our (buyer’s) broker, the seller’s broker, and to our surprise, the boat owner, whom I’ll call Ralph.

Oh dark hundred as we pulled out into the Charleston bay.

Ralph was a soft-spoken, retired gentleman from the interior of South Carolina. He had owned the boat for 10 years and had taken many trips up and down the ICW as well as to the Bahamas. He was selling the boat because his wife said she “was done with it.” He wanted to get a smaller boat that he could handle on his own. 

We needed to pilot the boat about 5 miles away to where we had a haulout appointment. The sun was just starting to rise on this calm, clear, and brisk morning. As Ralph skillfully piloted the boat out of his slip he said, “I’m not used to doing this in front of an audience.” Ever so slowly, he glided the 50’ boat out and then rotated it 90 degrees in a narrow fairway(7). He headed down the fairway out into the river. 

We had the boat pulled so the surveyor could look for hull issues. It definitely needs some fixing and painting.

By mid-afternoon, the engine surveyor spent about 2 hours in the engine room, altogether. The hull and systems surveyor spent about 4 hours checking everything else out. As we expected, some issues needed addressing, but nothing that would be a deal breaker. Deep breath out!

TAKING POSSESSION

It has been almost 2 weeks since the survey. The clock is ticking and we are waiting to get the keys. It takes time to get the written surveys, negotiate a little, move around the money, get a good insurance policy, and formalize the paperwork with a title company. It’s just like a house purchase. 

While waiting, we spent a few days down in Jacksonville checking out marinas and boatyards.(8) We also checked out some storage units so we could tidy away our truck for a year or so. We are also doing some nesting; getting new sheets and kitchen stuff.

We were cozy at our friend’s house during the large and heavy rainstorm that came through. During storms, we will be staying put either at a good anchorage or tied up at a marina. It will depend on the tides, wind, and what is available. It was sobering to think through the logic of how we would handle a storm like this.

We have been so appreciative of our friends in Austin and Charleston who have opened their lovely homes and comfy guest rooms to us--and without much warning (both get 5 stars!). Both times we didn't know exactly how many days we needed to stay. Yes, that was awkward. I don't recommend it! We tried to be helpful to show our appreciation. We loved their company and their advice about making the most of our time in their towns.

We visited The Slave Mart Museum in Charleston. We learned that there were many more enslaved people than colonists and their descendants during Colonial years. Most of them were in South Carolina and at plantations. The wealth of the Colonies centered in South Carolina at that time.

The Jolly Roger flag was a real thing among pirates! This was from an educational exhibit we visited in The Old Exchange and Provost Dungeon. So much early colonial history in Charleston.

During our short trip down to Jacksonville, we made a side trip to St. Augustine. Behind me is the draw bridge and moat of the super-interesting Castillo de San Marcos fort. It was originally built in 1672. Now it’s a National Monument. St. Augustine was colonized in the mid-1500s. 

In the next travelogue, you will read about our first ventures on the boat. And, we’ll reveal its new name.

FOOTNOTES FOR FUN FACT FANS

(1) And some of you think boating is more dangerous than driving!

(2) The Red River looked pretty brown from the perch of our hotel room, but it is impressively wide. It has a long history as an important marker and enabler for native Americans, Creole people, and later farmers.

(3) Mike had a cough from a cold for a week so he visited an urgent care center. There was about no wait. Some of you have asked how this works when traveling full-time. It is not any different from visiting Urgent Care in your neighborhood. Mike received some prescriptions for bronchitis at the local pharmacy and he was good to go!

(4) Taters are whole baked potatoes sliced open and topped with your favorite meat or beans. They are not tater tots.

(5) I can't wait to make collared greens when I get settled. Did you know that the greens simmer with a smoked turkey leg?

(6) For example, at a highway BBQ spot I ordered just Rice & Beans, which were quite a meal on their own. The charming lady behind the counter said, “Darlin’, you need a little sumpin’ to go with your side.” Me, “The side is my something!” We enjoyed a little laugh together.

(7) One rotates a 50’ boat clockwise on a dime by engaging a bow thruster intermittently to starboard. At the same time, you put the port engine in forward gear and the starboard in reverse gear. It takes some getting used to, but Ralph demonstrated this well.  Mike is used to oprating boats with twin engines, so having a bow thruster in addition to them will be great.

(8) The boat needs  a little fibergalss tepair on one of the stabilizers, some gel coat patches, and bottom paint. It also needs a new coolant part. We thought Jacksonville may be a good place for this.

Travelogue Extra

Humourous Buc-ees billboards along Highway 20. These pics are courtesy of the Internet.

Searching for the Goldilocks Boat

Could this be our Great Loop boat and home for the next year?

It's time to catch you up on our adventure. 

Our 32 Nordic Tug is still up for sale with Seattle Yachts in Anacortes, WA. Tell your friends! Great, well-taken-care-of boat!(1) 

We shut down our cabin on Decourcy Island in mid-September and have been traveling in our packed-to-the-ceiling Ford F-150 ever since. You may recall, we established residency in Washington state and we've been staying with friends and family. It's not ideal to be living out of duffle bags, but it's been relaxing, frankly, to leisurely see the sites and share meals with family/friends in all of these places(2):

• Edmonds, WA (our official domicile -- thanks Cuz!)
• Chelan, WA (visited a friend in wine country in Central WA)
• Beaverton, OR (lots o’ my family)
• Newport, OR (old buddy on the coast)
• Tiburon, CA (my sister--and caught up on doc & dentist visits(3))
• Orinda, CA (ol’ college buddy)
• Santa Barbara, CA (Mike’s sister)
• San Marcos, CA (Mike’s mom)
• La Mesa, CA (Mike’s cousin)
• Coronado Island, CA (convenient stay at the Naval Amphibious Base(4))
• Orange Beach, AL (flew here to see boat #2-- more on this later)
• Charleston, SC (drove from AL to see boat #3 and stay with Mike’s ol’ college buddy)
• San Marcos, CA (flew back to Mike’s mom’s house)
• Oro Valley, AZ (began drive East to further check out boat #3; my dad's house)
• Las Cruces, NM (saw my Second Cousin)
• Austin, TX (ol’ college buddy)

On the drive from Edmonds, WA to Lake Chelan, WA. Driving along the gorgeous Skyhomish River with its fall foliage.

One of our favorite on-the-road vistas. Mount Shasta, in all its glory, on the Southbound Highway 5 drive from Oregon to the SF Bay Area.

At the pinnacle of our steep, hot hike to The Hippy Tree in Tiburon. Way behind my lovely sister Jeanne and friend Natalie is the SF skyline and Golden Gate Bridge. It will be a while before I return to the Bay Area.

Just to remind some of you, we are on the midst of looking for the best, i.e. Goldilocks, boat for our year-long, Great Loop adventure.

The Great Loop is circumnavigating the Eastern side of the United States. We will be in rivers, lakes, and inter-coastal waterways (ICWs). So please don't picture us on the high seas crashing over swells and hanging on for dear life in a squall. We’re going to be pretty darn comfortable in a stable power boat, in mostly calm waters. There will likely be windy days and rainy days, but we will not be in a hurry. We will wait out sketchy, windy weather. 

So back to the boat shopping...picture our boat needs.

We'll be living on the boat for about 1.5 years. Think: storage. To make it through shallow waters and under low bridges we need less than a 5’ draft(5) and 19’ height. Mike also requires a roomy, clean engine room where he can crawl around with minimal contortions. I require a good-sized fridge/freezer and no carpeting. 

After looking at many brands and sizes we've narrowed it down to 42’ to 48’ power boats.(6)

Nice-to-haves are things like beautifully varnished woodwork inside and minimal teak to care for outside. We want to be proud of our boat and make it pleasant to come back to after a day of sightseeing. 

We’ve kept an eye glued to the online boat sale sites for about 2 months. We were a boat length away from making an offer on boat #1, a 48’ Ocean Alexander, but before we got some key questions answered, someone else snatched the boat from under us. 

We flew to Pensacola, FL to check out boat #2, a 42’ Nordic Tug in Orange Beach, AL, but made a difficult, game-day decision to not buy it because it didn’t seem to be cared for as we would have liked. However, we love all the practical storage and roomy, inside pilot house of Nordic Tugs. 

Walking along the beach in Orange Beach, AL after examining boat #1. We were excited to get our first glimpse of The Great Loop here. We’ll be here this time next year on our boat! We were were charmed by our first taste of Southern hospitality. If you look closely at this pic, you can see rows of sand. It seems that the white sand beach is groomed regularly?

We immediately found boat #3, a 48’ Ocean Alexander Classico, and drove 2 days in a rental car from Pensacola, AL to Charleston, SC to examine it in person. Bingo! It passed our sniff test and the owners accepted our offer. 

We enjoyed the drive from Alabama to South Carolina very much. The roadside flora was green and the plethora of billboards advertising accident lawyers became hilarious. Our stops were Jacksonville, FL and Savannah, GA. 

On our drive from Alabama to Charleston, SC, one of our stops was Savannah, GA. We enjoyed an afternoon strolling through the historic district and seeing the 18th-century squares and buildings such as this one. Most of the plaques in the parks memorialize the revolutionary and Spanish-American wars. (7) Savannah, GA is also on the Great Loop.

After looking at boat #3, we strolled the historic quarter in Charleston, SC. Every single home has a Historic Places plaque. Our favorite plaque said that the original timbers showed damage from Revolutionary War cannon balls. The colorful pastels of the homes and their wrap-around porches were enchanting. 

We enjoyed a BBQ, water-front dinner in Charleston. This is on the Great Loop and is exactly what we anticipate in most stops--water access docks at restaurants. (8)

We want to be in person for boat #3’s inspection, so this triggered a fly back to our stuff waiting for us at Mike’s Mom’s house in San Marcos, CA. Mike engineered a re-pack into the F150 and we firmly set the truck East on Highway 8. This will be our cross-country drive East to start The Great Loop, which will officially start when we take ownership of our boat. 

A cool site in the hot desert between San Diego and Oro Valley, AZ. Here we saw precariously balanced boulders. Closer to San Diego we drove on curvy freeways, skirting giant-sized piles of boulders. 

Funny-looking twin Saguaros on a hike near my Dad’s house in Oro Valley. Are all Saguaros so funny? Did you know that Saguaros of this size are likely hundreds of years old?

 

Typical view on our 9.5-hour drive from Oro Valley, AZ to Austin, TX. The speed limit on this mostly straight freeway was 80 MPH. Really, really fast for us. We observed a plant we never recalled seeing before: a Soap Tree Yucca. 

From Las Cruces, NM to Austin, TX we marveled at the buttes and mesas towering above the desert. We found sites of this leg much more interesting than we anticipated.

Currently, we’re a few miles West of Austin, TX. We learned that this area, known as The Hill Country, is filled with fantastic wineries! I find the wines very drinkable-- many at a lower alcohol (e.g. <13.5%). 

Picture perfect view from a winery in Hill Country (Driftwood). Looks a lot like Napa and our former town, Portola Valley.

We will continue with our drive this week. We are just now trying to decide what East-bound route to take through the South. 

If boat #3 has some sort of time-consuming, costly set of problems, we will take a break from finding the Goldilocks boat until after the holidays and head to somewhere like Costa Rica for a month or so. I’ll let you know how it goes.

FOOTNOTES FOR FUN FACT FANS

(1) Probably the worst time to sell a boat; in between boating seasons in the Northwest. 

(2)  It looks like a really long list, now that I see it in black and white.

(3) We’ve volleyed many questions about healthcare. We have insurance. It uses our domicile location in Edmonds, WA. If we need to see a doctor, either urgently or as an emergency we get covered at the same rate--like we pay only 10% and it’s part of our annual deductible. If we need to see a specialist we will get a referral from our regular doctor in CA. We will pay out-of-area rates, which will be applied to our deductible.

(4) Our buddy is a civilian employee who is able to use the armed forces hotel chain. We stayed at the base where the Navy Seals train. Unfortunately, we didn't see them running with logs on the beach. But we did shop in the Navy Exchange.

(5) Draft is the distance from the waterline to the lowest point of the boat below water. 

(6) We also prefer a single diesel engine boat, to keep fuel and maintenance costs to a minimum but it has been very difficult to find single-engine boats at this size. Most days on the boat will be spent at slow to moderate speeds, so that is another reason for not needing a double-engine boat. 

(7) The squares in the historic district were every two blocks. There’s something to having a common area that a neighborhood shares, isn’t there? Today’s equivalent in neighborhood planning might be a strip mall...but that addresses a larger group of people, I think.

(8) We often wondered why there weren't more dockside restaurants in the SF bay. So many boaters and relatively few fun destinations.

(9) Bonus fun fact: Buying a liveaboard boat is a bit like buying a house. You make an offer, negotiate if needed, and hire a marine surveyor to check it out. An insurance company needs to see the inspection report. And getting insurance is not straightforward. Not all insurance companies offer boat insurance. And if you can get a real agent on the phone, they may know little about boating terms and they are not interested in your business, it seems. The good ones are overwhelmed with requests. The industry seems inundated with claims, perhaps, from hurricane damage.