Retiring- we bought a boat July 2005 to Jan. 2006

1/19/06
We finally have a name on the boat. Als, we’ve had lots of people out here working on the boat. Bought a new refrigerator and had new shelves made to go around that area. A flooring contractor will be installing new flooring in the salon and carpet in the staterooms this week. Another contractor is going to put on a new windlass along with other miscellaneous things that need to be fixed.
My Aunt Jan celebrated her 70th birthday on Friday the 13th. Aunt Alice (their sister) and her husband, Sam, flew down from Michigan. We spent the weekend with them and Dad and Joanne and took them all out on the boat on Monday. Thanks to them for helping us with our first cruise. It was a nice day and uneventful trip down to Sarasota. Along the way we saw dolphins and pelicans. A fun trip with a good crew.
1/6/2006

Happy New Year! Jim and I are now somewhat settled on the boat here at Regatta Pointe in Palmetto, FL. It’s hard to imagine that we got all those boxes onto the boat and the items stored in some kind of order. Thanks to Joanne and Amy for helping me organize and unpack. Amy was brutal in arranging the galley and making me whittle down my collection of gadgets. We have been working with a captain this week and even took the boat out on Thursday. More lessons this week – Captain Ray is amazingly patient. We also have some time to provision the boat – already bought a new refrigerator and ordered new carpeting and flooring. I added some pictures to the Shutterfly account – click on the link to see holiday pictures and some more of moving to the boat.
12/26/05 Merry Christmas. Jim and I and our pets are in Florida! We hauled a U-haul trailer behind my Impala; we left Tuesday and got down to my Dad’s home on Thursday. Took delivery of the boat in St Petersburg on Friday and moved it over to Regatta Point Marina in Palmetto. Unpacked everything Friday – the boat is filled with boxes. We just left them and headed to my Dad and Joanne’s home for Christmas. Next week we’ll spend arranging our possessions on the boat. Love it down here, it’s warm and sunny.
12/17/05- We plan on leaving the morning of the 20th. Moving our furniture and long term storage items to a climate controlled unit here in Lansing on the 19th. Loading the rest of our items into a trailer and the pets into our car and heading south. We will take three days to get to Florida. Everything is set for us to take delivery of the boat on the 23rd and then spend Christmas with Dad and Joanne. Amy and Ed will be joining us. Merry Christmas to all.
11/21/05- Events are progressing. We are set to do a sea trial and survey on November 29th and then close in December. Tomorrow we head to Amy and Ed’s for Thanksgiving and then to FL to be there for the survey and sea trial.
11/17/05- I’m sitting at my Dad’s home in Clermont, FL after spending the last two weeks looking at about 22 boats all over the south. We stared in Charleston, SC, went to Brunswick GA and then to St Petersburg, Naples, Ft Lauderdale and Ft Pierce. Along the way we had a great time visiting friends and relatives. Saw Chris and Sandy in NC, Mike and Susan Harrison in Naples, Sue and Jerry Janaro in Ft. Lauderdale, and Dad and Joanne in Clermont. We are down to two boats – a 44’ Atlantic in Jensen Beach and a 44’ Seamaster in St. Petes. To make a long story short, we just made an offer on the Seamaster and after some negotiation, we now have a boat. We need to it surveyed and do a sea trial so we will be back in Florida in a couple weeks to have that all done. Flying home today and will be spending Thanksgiving with Amy and Ed in Kentucky.
October 2005
This is my first attempt at a website but we want to keep our friends aware of our travels. Soon the adventures will begin. We plan to move aboard a boat to live and cruise the waterways of the USA and Canada. We’re beginning the end of the first phase which is to actually buy the boat. First, a little about the past few months. It’s been a busy summer and promises to be an even busier fall.
After retiring on July 1st, we spent most of July on our boat, Water Dancer, on Lake Michigan. Found out that friends at the marina along with people from the Traverse City Power Squadron were taking a boat trip to Wisconsin’s Door Peninsula so we signed up for that and left the end of July. Had a great time with a good group of people, about 10 boats in all. We learned a lot about long distance boating so it was a fun experience.
We had been trying to sell our home ourselves and did have an offer contingent on them selling their home. After we got back from Wisconsin, we found out that the deal on our home had gone through so we had to quickly decide what to do. We needed to close on our house on August 25 to give them occupancy. We decided it would be best if we just rented an apartment locally. We were fortunate to get a short term lease on a two-bedroom apartment. It also worked out so we could just store our ‘extra stuff” in the second bedroom. Later we will move some of the stuff to my sister’s and store the rest into a storage facility. We also put our boat, Water Dancer, up for sale in Onekama.
Then we left September 1st for Europe. We went with four other couples on a Viking River Cruise on the rivers of Europe from Budapest to Amsterdam. Then we took the train for Paris for an additional three days. It was totally awesome. The riverboat had 75 cabins and held 130 passengers and 34 crew. We saw a lot of Europe, ate wonderful food and had a delightful time with our friends.