Blue Pearl

Out of the blue, we decided to ask about one in Florida that had been sitting for a while… with quite a considerable price tag.  We put in a stupid bid and the next thing we knew we were in the boat buying business again.  We went to Brad’s grad from Mechanical Engineering at UBC on Tuesday evening and then brought him with us as we flew from Vancouver to Tampa on Wednesday.  We saw the boat on Thursday morning and it was hard not to grin.  As we walked up to it we could see that it had been kept up.  Getting on we noticed several small jobs taking place… fixing the sliders on the hatch and some damage on one of the rub rails.



The sea trials were great; the survey is fine.  There is a long list of things that should be looked at… just like my lists at home.  There is another list of things that we would like to do soon and then another list of things we need to someday.  The surveyor told us three times… cruise it for six months before you decide to do anything.  Get a sense of what is a wish and what is a need.  We think we NEED solar panels so that might be our only extravagance.


We will cruise it this summer – in the Florida blast furnace heat and put it on the hard in Georgia from September to December.  A potential itinerary might include bouncing down the west coast to Sarasota, Port Charlotte, Fort Meyers and Marathon.  Then up the east for a bit – maybe a crossing to Bimini and up to Freeport.  Then back to Florida and up to the Georgia border at St. Marys.  We’ll see.