After leaving Aisling in winter storage in Brewerton, NY on October 10, 2017, we were driving home to Maryland in a rental car. Thinking over our event-filled year boating. We had an adventure, but not the one we thought we were going to have when we bought the Ranger Tug in January of 2017. We wished we had more time to leisurely cruise the Erie Canal. Instead we had to get through the canal before they closed it on October 11 for scheduled repairs. We were looking forward to continuing our adventure on Aisling in the Great Lakes and visiting my friend, Delight Scouten, who lives in Corning, NY.
On the way home Jeff made the comment that Aisling would never be worth more than she was now with the new engine that was under warranty and had been correctly broken in. This made Barbie slightly concerned that he was thinking of selling the Ranger Tug, but didn't think about it too long. However, after 48 years of being married to him she should have realized that this was something that might mean a BIG change!
Our plan was to take the RV sometime in November and travel through northern and central Florida to arrive in Titusville by Thanksgiving to cheer daughter Emily as she ran the Space Coast Half Marathon on the Sunday after Thanksgiving. We would then continue to travel through Florida and be in Markham Park near Ft. Lauderdale to spend Christmas with Emily's family. We would leave Emily Christmas afternoon and drive home to Towson in order to have a Christmas with son Eric and family and celebrate the New Year.
Just before we left for Florida, we went to the Nissan dealership in Timonium for a recall on our Nissan Versa. We found out that the driver's airbag was defective and needed to be replaced. We were told the part would not be available until "Spring"! Nissan would supply us with an Enterprise rental car until the part arrived. Our Nissan is the car we tow behind the RV so we have transportation without having to take the RV everywhere. This meant Barbie would drive the RV and Jeff would drive the rental car. We used our phones and bluetooth to talk to each other, keeping both of us awake and focused while driving.
Our RV and rental car in Florida
The day we had planned to start driving south we received a recall notice from Mercedes Benz, concerning our RV. We put the notice (unopened) in a folder, took it with us, and left the next day. We were afraid it was an airbag recall notice for the RV and we didn't want to know about that! When we were in the Daytona Beach area we noticed a large Mercedes Benz dealership. We then read the notice that we had received and it was a recall for the RV airbag. We called the Mercedes Benz and they told us we could get it replaced in a couple of days! We were skeptical, but made the appointment. It took the dealership about an hour to put in the new airbag!
We had a good, uneventful trip south and spent time in various campgrounds in central Florida before arriving at Manatee Hammock in Titusville. Barbie made a wonderful Thanksgiving dinner of turkey breast, stuffing, mashed potatoes, cranberry jello, home made rolls using the microwave/convection oven, pumpkin pie. Barbie also made German stollen, a tradition in our family, using the convection oven.
Our Thanksgiving Dinner in the RV
Emily and family came down the day after Thanksgiving. We spent Saturday together. Sunday morning we took the RV and parked it near the race. We cheered Emily on in the 13.1 mile half marathon.
Emily and family at the Space Coast Marathon
From Manatee Hammock and Titusville we went to state, county, and National Forest campgrounds. We spent a couple of nights at St. Lucie South, at a lock on the Okeechobee Waterway canal. There is an RV campground and boat slips run by the US Army Corps of Engineers. This was the same campground where last year we saw the boat, a Ranger Tug, that got us into boating again.
This year we also saw a boat that would change the course of our lives! In a slip we saw My Bluegill Heaven from Alabama. It is an Endeavour TrawlerCat 36. Jeff talked with the owner and got a tour of the boat. He then got Barbie and she also got a tour of the boat. It is a VERY spacious boat! There is a large main saloon with a table in the center. In the port (left side) haul there is a galley with refrigerator and freezer, two place sink, electric stove and oven, forward of the galley a small head (bathroom) and a queen size berth aft of the galley. The starboard haul has a large (for a boat) head, separate shower, a generator and storage area aft of the head a hanging closet and electrical panel and a queen size berth. There is large queen size berth with opening hatches forward of the main saloon.
"My Bluegill Heaven" at St. Lucie South
Jeff was very interested in the boat! We had reservations to camp on the West coast of Florida near Tampa and St. Petersburg. While in St. Petersburg we contact Bob Vincent, who founded Endeavour Yachts and visited the factory. We enjoyed seeing how the boats were made. However, a new boat costs half a million dollars. We decided that we would look for a used Endeavour! We knew about Endeavour yachts and their seaworthiness since 35 years ago we had access to a 40 foot Endeavour Sailboat with a center cockpit. We sailed her to New England and Maine with the kids. This gave us some good off shore sailing experience and also helped feed our bug for long term cruising which we did on Cynosure in 1989-90.
A new Endeavour TrawlerCat at the factory
Jeff found a used 2001 Endeavour TrawlerCat 36 on Yachtworld.com. The boat was in Melbourne. We contacted the broker who got us in touch with the owners, Joe and Monika Bradley. They agreed to meet us at the boat and show the boat. We were staying in a campground about 2 hours drive away. We asked if we could bring the dogs. We spent about two hours on the boat. We liked the boat and the dogs seemed very comfortable. We then started the process of putting an offer on the boat.
Our first view of the boat we would buy
We the week before Christmas in South Florida at county parks. Jeff and I participated, along with Emily and family, in the Ft. Lauderdale 5K Jingle Bell Jog. We went ice skating with Alex and Cindy and Emily a couple of times. We had Christmas with Emily and we stayed the week after Christmas in Florida since our plans had changed with the interest in the Endeavour Catamaran. Also, Eric and his family left for the Philippines on Christmas day.
Alex, Emily, Jeff, Craig, Cindy's friend, and Cindy
Barbie at the helm of "Moonbeam"
Moving to Harbortown
On Friday, January 5, we started driving the RV and rental car home. However, there was a cold front and the temperature, in South Carolina where we planned to spend one night on the way home, was going to be in the low 20's. We had to winterize the RV and stay in a motel! Since boats and RVs do not need to be winterized in warm Florida, it was difficult to find the pink winterizing fluid, but we we did find it at the West Marine in Merritt Island. We got home on Saturday, January 6.
On Sunday, January 7, we drove the Nissan rental to Brewerton, NY. We spent all day Monday getting ALL of our things off Aisling, the Ranger Tug, since we plan to sell her. Somehow Jeff was able to get EVERYTHING in the Nissan.
Winter Harbor boat storage during January
The car is LOADED ready to drive to Baltimore
We got home Tuesday night. On Wednesday we flew to Orlando, rented a car, drove to Cocoa Beach, FL. Thursday, January 11, we had the marine survey done on the boat. The preliminary result of the survey was showing nothing major. We received the completed survey the middle of the next week and completed the process of buying our new boat. We will name her "Aisling Gheal".
The marine survey includes a short haulout
Meanwhile, we flew back to Baltimore on Friday, January 12. On Saturday, January 13, Barbie flew to Denver to visit her sister, Deloris, for a few days. We had a very hectic and busy first two weeks of 2018!
