No, not the same catamaran; a new one, well new to us anyway.  Dare I say that one of us felt the tidal pull urging him (oh gave that away) to return to cruising? I suppose this was inevitable as we loved the community and friendliness of cruising; not to be found (maybe under a rock) with RVing at all.  While sailing was a challenge, more exhilarating and exasperating at the same time, I could check that off my list and had little problem agreeing to return to the water in a power cat.

We found “the one” faster than expected and so the last month or more has been a whirlwind of activity and traveling.

The boat is a PDQ34, hull #100. Built in 2006. She’s in great shape and while she needs some additional equipment to meet our needs, she’s almost good to go as is. And boy can she go! Two 100hp Yanmars move her along swiftly, especially in calm waters. Ideal top cruising speed is around 14kts, while her ideal “slow” cruising speed is around 7kts. With only 17ft of beam compared to Ortolan’s 23 she won’t be as stable but she is wide for her 34ft length and will fit easily into many slips unlike Ms Ortolan.

Twin Sisters, fka Endeavour, fka Volare, recently completed the Great Loop with her last owner who purchased her solely for that purpose, checked that off his bucket list and is moving on to the next item.

 

Russ got to make the relatively short trip from Edgewater, MD to the marina while I drove Bonny and got to hang out with our friends on Traveling Soul who spent the summer at this lovely, friendly and safe marina.

 

 

Every day seemed to bring another thing to fix. The fridge had turned off once or twice so Russ pulled it out and cleaned off some connections and since then, knock on wood- which we do have! it’s been working fine. A bit too small, but we are going to add a small fridge up on the flybridge (replace the current icemaker – boohoo), and, are you ready??? Buy an Engel – not a faux one- the real deal –  to have more freezer space.

We slowly moved aboard, making space and storing things in strange places as we went. The rain and wind-filled front that preceded Joaquin kept us inside for several days with claustrophobia a given what with all that stuff piled up. Of course we had to order stuff, mostly from Defender but Amazon was there too. Boy aren’t they slow now? Russ tried to do Prime, but long story short, it wasn’t going to work due to the marina having a physical shipping address AND a PO box.

We got so silly – thought we’d have a sleepover in the galley!

But really, we were just blowing up the new air mattress to be sure it was OK. The original mattress and many, many other things the prior owner left behind, got put in the “Freecycle” box at the marina for someone else to use.

During all this moving aboard activity we had several inquiries about the RV and two showings. One was VERY interested and as I write this Russ is now into hour # three of showing them Ms Annie.  If this doesn’t pan out we have Plan B- so no worries.

Attending the boat show this weekend but since we already have the boat, we can concentrate on the vendors and the food and a Painkiller or two!

 

Busy, distracted, bored, dismayed. All explain why the blog is so pathetically out-of-date. And spending a bazillion hours creating an hour-long DVD that encapsulates our four cruising years aboard Ortolan; that was an epic undertaking that I will never do again. Maybe a year at a time, but more than that, no way Jose.

Because I know we have interesting news and events on the horizon, the blog gets a kick in the pants with a short (ha ha) photo presentation that will get you all caught up. Quickly yes, but not fully. Oh well; maybe it’s better this way.

Apologies to those who I omitted, those who I included :-), and for not including the one thing you perhaps wanted to see but since you can’t miss what you don’t know about, no worries then.

Presented chronologically beginning with VT/NY to visit with Benj and Lily mid-July; back to Maine’s coast with stops in Freeport, Bucksport, Trenton (near Bar Harbor); westward to Shelburne, NH, then at Lake Erie’s Evangola State Park approx 27 miles south of Buffalo; finally back east to celebrate Benj’s birthday Sept 2. I did leave out one small detour, but that is best saved for another day.