The Dream

THE DREAM

“Rusty, do you want to help me bring my newly bought boat to the Tennessee River from Florida?” This was the question posed to me by my younger brother several years ago. He had just recently bought his “live aboard” 52’ Harbor Master and was now enroute from Melbourne, Florida to Iuka, Mississippi. My brother, Chip had started the trip with one of our other brothers (Gary) who is the more experienced cruising Captain in our family. Gary was to leave Chip somewhere around Tarpon Springs, I was to join him in the Florida panhandle and finish the trip to Mississippi.

Immediately and eagerly I answered YES!!! Wow, a chance to experience the cruising life during the summer time, in the comfort of a secure and roomy boat, how great can this be!!! Then the tiny little voice in my mind began to question the “saneness” of this immediate and eager positive offer to assist. You see, although the “Bliss boys” are pretty close (our parents raised 4 boys and my mother would always claim she wouldn’t know what to do if she had a girl), I was going to be on a vessel 16’ wide and 52’ long, that reached the top speed of 8 knots. To top all this off it would be for the better part of two weeks. The voice of apprehension was now nagging at my brain.

We as a family were blessed with the opportunity to grow up and around water. We were never without some type of ski boat and spent many summers of our youth fishing the gulf waters near Destin, Florida. My brother Gary worked his way thru college as a charter boat Captain while one summer during my college break, I “filled in” as the first mate and deckhand on the Follow Me charter fishing boat. But the more I thought about this, the less I understood my eagerness. Only then I didn’t know how WRONG and misplaced my apprehension I was!

My first experience of cruising wouldn’t be considered a sought after cruising experience in today’s environment but is was for a teenager wanting to catch up with his peers on Spring Break in Panama City. During the 4 day break our father, my brother Gary and two of our high school buddies started down the Chattahoochee River in our 18’ Gibson ski boat from Columbus, Georgia to Panama City, Florida during the 4 day break. The nights were spent camping on the river bank and the days were spent screaming down the river at 30 mph. Wow! We spent less than 18 hours in Panama City before returning up the river to Columbus. I guess you can say that is where it all began.

I joined Chip in Bluewater Bay, Florida and we began our trek to Iuka. What a blast…. To put it mildly, I was hooked! I truly took to the leisurely pace of 8 knots as I marveled at the scenery we passed. The people we met along the way allowed me a small peek into the close knit family of “cruisers”. I knew immediately this was something I wanted to do.

Now many years later my wife Kris and I begin to seriously discuss the idea of doing the “Loop”. The “Loop”, the “Great Circle” or the “Great Loop” or whatever name you wish to call it, it is the navigation of mostly protected waters in the Eastern United States that encompasses thousands of miles, many different States including time spent is Canada. If you haven’t heard of it, the first place I would go is to the book “Honey, let’s get a boat” written by Ron Stob. There is even a very informative support organization that I find invaluable for their resources, the AGLCA. (http://www.greatloop.org/)

We needed to decide what kind of boat is best for this adventure but the more we learned the more we had questions. I paid my subscription to the AGLCA, the magazines Passage Maker and Yachting. I spent hours and hours surfing different boating web sites, looking at what is available and what is in our price range. I even followed many boaters via their blogs and lived vicariously thru their words. All good resources for gathering information about live aboard boating, but the best resource is the person either on the loop or having recently completed the loop. We fortunately had the pleasure of meeting current and former “loopers” as we doggedly picked their brain for any type of information that would help us. This behavior went on for several years.

We finally decided on the type of boat we wanted. Our criteria was simple, we wanted something a cruising couple can easily crew; room enough to live aboard continuously for a year without wanted to commit some sort of evil felony on your spouse and offered room enough for “short term” guests. Of course it had to be simple enough to complete minor mechanical repairs should you find yourself away from the dock and need to get back. But, whatever type of boat you choose, it will be the one that is right for you.

The boat we decided on was limited in its availability. Not because there weren’t many made, but because of their reliability, livability and general popularity many present owners just kept this type of boat! As I searched all the electronic boat markets, read every page of the advertised boats located in the back of the boating magazines, I soon knew of every Defever 44 that was for sale in the United States. Finally we found one that met all our criteria and I made the call.

The boat we were looking at was located in South Florida and belonged to an owner who purchased it from the original owner 14 years ago. This would make us owner number “3”! In my opinion I considered this a real plus. This boat was considered “family” by the present owner and it was maintained exactly as if it was. The owner had retired and his children and grandchildren were living on the West Coast which would draw any loving grandparents focus to. He would spend the summer months enjoying his grandchildren in the moderate climate of northern California while spending the warm winters at his home in South Florida. There just wasn’t time for the boat.

We were fortunate to find such a good boat and equally impressed with the assistance of the selling owner. Since his time was being spent with his grandchildren on the West Coast, most of our communication was accomplished via email and phone calls. Kris and I made our initial trip to see the boat 8 days after I underwent a radial robotic prostatectomy, so as you can imagine I was moving a little slow, but the need to see this boat was immediate.

Once on the boat, we both liked what we saw and now needed to move to the next step of obtaining a survey and sea trial. Those two issues can be an entire other essay, but they are similar to an appraisal, home inspection and test drive. We scheduled necessary appointments and arrangements were made for us to have the survey completed along with the sea trial using a professional captain. Great news, the survey was exactly what we expected, some minor items to be repaired and the sea trial went as planned.

If I said it before, I can’t say it enough; the previous owner was a delight to work with and provided much needed information to complete our transaction. There was also a host of others who provided their time and collective experience in guiding me along the way and many thanks to all. Now we had completed the sale and I am now the newest owner of a Defever 44.

FIRST NIGHT ABOARD

Kris and I made it to Fort Lauderdale and began the process of provisioning the boat for our trip home with a proposed departure on September 2nd, 2009. As with anything new, you want to make it “your own” and the way Kris does this is to clean it beyond all reason. The boat had been maintained exceptionally and truly very little cleaning needed to be done, but we cleaned anyway. During the cleaning process we would find little storage areas that contained special items needed to operate our Defever 44. It was almost like a treasure hunt when we opened a newly found storage area. There were spare parts, there were special tools and the list could go on, but to say the boat came well stocked in “extras” is a truism.

Once the boat had meet the criteria Kris required then the necessary food items for our multiple week trek needed to be purchased and boarded. By the third day everything was done and September 1st, my younger brother, (Chip) and my dad, (Don) joined us to begin the trip home.

Our plan was to leave on September 2nd at approximately 9am and arrive at our first dockage in Stuart, Florida somewhere in the vicinity of 5pm. This should be plenty of time to complete the tasks of putting the boat to bed and enjoying a cold adult beverage before getting some rest ourselves. Of course the best plans seem to always have some glitch and ours did not disappoint.

STARTING THE TREK

Don and Chip made it in to Ft. Lauderdale on schedule and I picked them up at the airport. We spent some time stopping for last minute supplies before delivering them to the boat. Since there are only two staterooms, father and son will be sharing the V berth in the bow of the boat for the trip. After getting them unpacked and settled in, we began to secure items for our departure the next morning.

Ready, set, wait…. Not yet! The day had come to start and there were just a “few” last minute items that needed attention. First we needed to return the rental car back to Enterprise which didn’t open until 9am and then we needed one more stop at West Marine for a grill. We thought both these things could be accomplished without much fuss and we set a departure time of 10am.

After accomplishing both these items we had just “one more” thing to do and that was clean out the “sea strainer” for the Air Conditioning system. The strainer had been running 24/7 for who knows how long and there were many “animals” growing on the inside which had the potential to reduce the cooling flow to the A/C units (we have three separate units for each area on the boat). Usually this job should take about 20 minutes to shut down the water, remove, clean and replace the entire strainer, however it took us almost two hours to get this done. The reasons are many, but the main driver for the leak was a distorted cap which should be replaced when we get to Pickwick. We finally departed the dock at 12pm for an eight hour trip to Stuart, Florida.

Because of the many bridges and no wake zones, we didn’t arrive to the Stuart City dock until 10pm and after securing the boat we all crashed for a short night before starting the Lake Okeechobee Water Way early the next morning. Whew… first night on the road complete...many more to go!

SEPTEMBER 2ND

One of the constraints we knew we were up against was the closing of the Coffeeville lock which was scheduled for September 11th to October 1st and the opening of the Moore Haven lock on September 3rd. The window was tight and we needed to clear the Moore Haven lock on the 3rd and travel hard to the Coffeeville lock on the Tombigbee. Before we left Stuart I called the Moore Haven lock to verify they would be open on schedule September 3rd and they reconfirmed they would be open on time!

We departed Stuart on schedule and anticipated spending the night in Clewiston, Florida at the Roland Martin Marina. Going thru the Okeechobee Waterway was interesting with the many types of wildlife from alligators to the different types of exotic birds.

As we began to lock thru Port Mayaca which is located on the Eastern shore of Lake Okeechobee, the lockmaster inquires about our destination. When he hears us tell him we are heading to Tennessee he asks if we have “heard the news”? Of course the response was we hadn’t heard anything and then he proceeds to give us the bad news the Moore Haven lock opening has been delayed until September 14th! Ugh, there was no way we could retrace our path and go around the Southern tip of Florida and still make it to the Coffeeville lock before September 11th.

We go ahead and lock thru Port Mayaca and enter Lake Okeechobee making our way to Clewiston since we had made reservations at Roland Martin’s marina. Since it now looked like we needed to leave our boat in a secure marina for at least three weeks before returning we began to reaccess our plan to proceed to Clewiston. After traveling about an hour into the lake we decided to reverse course and return to a small protected marina on the waterway.

The next day Kris, Don and Chip catch flights from the West Palm airport back to their homes and I stay to make final arrangements to have SeaQuinn (BlissFull) pulled out of the water to have her bottom repainted.

That evening I spend several hours cleaning out the refrigerator and freezer of perishable food items ( I found a few full time marina residents who gladly accepted the foods and drinks). The next morning I over see the “hauling out” of our boat and putting her “on the hard”.

Watching the pros at Indiantown Marina place SeaQuinn into a set of canvas straps and gently lifting her 44,000 pounds is like watching a well orchestrated team of professionals. I don’t think I breathed a sigh of relief until she was set up on blocks and the giant lift was removed.

Since it had been quite some time since SeaQuinn had her bottom repainted and I was planning on having it done at Pickwick, I decided to have it done at Indiantown Marina while I awaited the reopening of Moore Haven lock. I discussed my options with Eric Bamberg who is the Yard Service Manager for Indiantown Marina and he quoted me a price and date the job would be finished. In the past, every quote I receive from a maintenance manager is usually taken with a bit of skepticism, but in this case Eric was spot on and even finished the job one day ahead of schedule. If anyone is looking for a good marina service yard, I highly recommend the guys at Indiantown Marina.

Well, I leave SeaQuinn to capable hands in Indiantown and I return to Tennessee to celebrate my oldest daughter's wedding. Until then.... stay tuned.

Rusty and Kris