The Dream

Gil and Debbie (Sea Trial on Last Affair)

The Dream

Deb and I decided to find a hobby that we could do together as the kids grew up.  A co-worker had bought a 22ft Sailboat and invited us out on a calm day where we just motored.  That started our search for our own boat and our first time to sail on a boat was at the Sea Trial of our 30ft Laguna Sloop.  We met some of the best people in the world including a couple that had lived aboard a 41ft Morgan Out Island and cruised for over 5 years in the Caribbean. Add to that the lifelong friends that all came together as a boating community.  We spent every weekend together.

We fell in love with our boating lifestyle and spent every weekend at the lake near Dallas, TX where we kept our boat.   After 2 years we decided that some day we would buy a bigger boat and live aboard and cruise in some fashion or another.  The first step was to sell the house which we did in 2009.  We moved to an apartment within a few miles of where we kept the boat in Lewisville, TX.  we signed an 18 month lease and about a year into that lease we started traveling to the Texas coast to look for "that next boat".  We would make the trip about 1 weekend every couple of months and never found something that met what we wanted AND fit into our budget. 

My job was flexible and Deb was good about keeping us focused on our long term goal and I recall her saying "If we are not taking steps toward our goal, than we are going backwards.".  We started to look for places to live rather than boats on those monthly trips and soon found a place to keep our boat as well as a place to move.  We settled on Kemah, TX and really love this town and surrounding area.

We packed and shipped the 30' Laguna here and enjoyed a few sails on Galveston Bay and were finally sailing on "bigger water" though still hadn't sailed in the ocean yet on our own boat.

Things settled down and we got into the swing of daily life and then the urge to find that "Bigger boat" started to hit again.    Spending time many nights a week  sitting side by side with Deb, each on our own laptop, engaging in what we call "Boat Porn".  That is what we call the process of browsing Yachtworld.com.  

Then we found it.  a Gulfstar which is one of the boats we knew we  liked and agreed on.  And as a Bonus the seller was willing to trade for a smaller boat increasing our buying power.  We contacted him and made the trip to Panama City, Fl.  We liked it.  A Lot.  We arranged a survey and sea trial and worked out the details of the trade. 

Then the fun began.  we made all arrangements for the Laguna to be shipped to Florida and started to plan the route we would sail our new boat home.    So like our introduction to sailing, our first ocean sail was to cut across the corner of the Gulf of Mexico on our way from Florida to Texas. 

She lies safely in her berth in Kemah, TX and we are actively working on boat projces that we want to do to get ready for us to move aboard.

(update- Sept 2012) - So far we have gutted the owners stateroom and rebuilt it.  From there we moved forward and did the same with the Walkthrough, Galley and Navigation station.  We are just starting the same process on the Salon and will continue working forward.  I am not sure if it is a good idea to do the Engine Rooms and Heads last, but that is the current plan.  The thought is to work on those in the winter when it is not as hot working in such a small confined area.