Sunday 29 May 2016

Bye Bye Aguatherapy, Hello Pearl

Bye Bye Agua Therapy, hello Pearl


Well as they say "all good things come to an end" sometimes.
However, let the next chapter begin. This is what we have been doing and although its been a while since the last blog we thought we would stay off the radar for a little while to see how things turned out.

As of mid May Agua Therapy went to her new owners, we hope that they have as much fun and use her as we did.

At anchor somewhere in the Caribbean. 
We had already started our search for the next boat, in fact we had been looking at others for a few months but not seriously until the deal was closed.

The next adventure will be completely different, a boat without those big white flappy things to push us along. Some say we are moving to the "dark side", we don't see it like that, in fact the opposite.

While we looked at boats the search confirmed all the "boxes to be ticked" so we could narrow the search. The hunt took us all over Florida, over to Tennessee, up to Virginia and Maryland, so we went through several US states.
As we had booked a rental property in Naples Florida, we were on the way back there but passing by Jacksonville on the east coast of Florida and there was just one boat to see, we had discounted it as it looked as if the galley was down below which is what we didn't want but we went to see her anyway.
Thats when we saw Pearl, what a very unexpected surprise!
There was someone onboard doing a service on the generator which is always a good sign to see a boat being well maintained.  In fact its pretty obvious by the look at everything in more detail that she has been well taken care of.

As we have had a power boat before, the requirements, apart from 2 engines are very different, the old one did 38 knots and used way too much fuel, the next one we need it to sip fuel.

Reasoning: So what's it all about then I can hear you asking, well comfort and being able to live more above decks. Not having to wait for the wind in the right direction but that will still be a consideration, we want little wind if none. As much as we like to travel we found that Agua Therapy couldn't go to the places we had in mind for the future, for example the "Man Friday Islands"(deserted, uninhabited places) in the Bahamas where the water is, lets say, very "skinny".
The ICW which is the inland waterway and the route named the Great Loop is way to shallow and there are lots of bridges too low for a boat with a big 60ft plus stick with bits on top. So the only way is to explore with a shallow draft boat without a mast.
I will explain the Great Loop in another post, its not something we intend to rush and there is so much planning to do anyway.

We consider ourselves extremely lucky to have found another boat in such a short time as we know its taken others years to find theirs and that was out of the question trying to live in the US without a home.

So the next step is an Ocean Alexander 48 Classic, equipped with 2 Yanmar 240hp engines. We close the deal in 2 weeks ( June 10th 2016) then we are ready to move onboard.

Pearl is a trawler style but with a semi displacement hull, the top speed of 10 knots, its not that we need the speed and we won't be travelling at that rate. What's the point we want to see things not whizz past.
Not only have we found what we consider the boat for us but, she is pretty much turnkey, just add the toothbrush so to speak.

Here she is, not my picture but she will have many many more taken of her.


"Pearl" yes we like the name so we are keeping it.
Before any comments, yes, she has a mast but it lowers so we can go through those low bridges, having a draft of 4ft means chilling in the Bahamas and the Florida Keys.

So I won't go on until we are back on the water, more photos on the next blog.
We are keeping the domain aguatherapy so e-mails are as usual.

BFN
Glenys and Don.