Getting into Boating

 

Getting into Boating

After years of nose to the grindstone, we suddenly had our last three children leave home within months of each other.  The two older boys, who had been commuting to college, both joined the Air Force, and our youngest, daughter Amy, landed a job in Seattle and moved in with roommates.

“Wow,” we actually have money left over this month”, I mentioned to Ron.

“It sure takes a lot less time and money to just take care of ourselves.” He agreed.

At first the transition to being empty nesters was strange and kind of sorrowful. But  I finally quit cooking meals to serve a large family after a couple of months, and we used some of our new found freedom to go out to eat, and we even took a couple of mini-vacations.  We didn’t have much practice with mindless entertainment, so it took a while for us to realize that we didn’t actually have to work ten hours every day. We also needed to develop some hobbies.

So when Ron announced one day, “I think we should get a boat.” I thought it sounded like a good idea.

“I didn’t know you had boating experience.” To me, boating kind of felt like flying, but I was happy to go boating with someone who knew how to run a boat and read a chart.

“I don’t, but how hard can it be – and look at the places we could go if we had a boat.”

“Well, that sounds good, I guess.  What kind of a boat are you thinking about getting?  We already have a row boat and a paddle boat for the lake.”

“No, I’m thinking a much bigger boat – something we could use to explore Puget Sound, or Lake Washington, or even further. Maybe we could take a boat through the Panama Canal one day.”

I had a moment or two of alarm – panic could maybe be a better word to describe my response to this.  I knew from the 20 years we had already spent together that once Ron had an idea to do something, the most I could do was mitigate the consequences.  So I immediately signed us up for a safe boating course with the Power Squadron. 

“We’ve sure learned a lot!” I said after the first couple of classes.

“Most of it is pretty elementary.”

“I guess – but knowing about the channel markers, and all the different types of boats, and general rules of the road is pretty much news to me.”

With the class under our belt, we began to look in earnest for a boat.  We prowled all the local marinas and boat shows and began to firm up an idea of what type of boat we wanted.

“Most of the used  boats I think we should look at are in Florida.” Ron informed me.  “Maybe we should arrange a trip to Florida.”

“I like that idea! I’ve never been to Florida and it should be nice there even though it’s cold and rainy here.”  So I enthusiastically arranged a trip to Sarasota, Fl. 

After a week of looking at boats all the way from Tampa to Bonita Springs, Ron began zeroing in on a huge old wood boat we found in Sarasota. 

“Do we really want the 3 bedroom 2 bath model?” I asked skeptically as I imagined us trying to dock such a monstrous boat.  In spite of my reservations, we ended up making an offer on the big boat.  Fortunately, the complicated offer where we traded property for part of the purchase price confused the seller and they didn’t accept our offer.

“We probably should be thinking about where we would keep a boat.” I suggested.  “We can’t haul a big boat around on a trailer, so if we buy something big here, we would probably need to moor it in Florida.”

“I was thinking the same thing.” Ron said.  “Look at this ad!” 

The ad was for a condo in Emerald Pointe where dock space was included in the monthly homeowner’s dues.  Long story short, our boat search trip to Florida ended with us buying a condo in Florida.  The homeowner’s dues were very high compared to a typical condo fee in Florida at the time, but moorage fees for a large boat dwarfed the homeowner’s fees.  On top of that, the demand for condos during “the season” (January through March) far exceeded available condos.

“We can’t be here in the season anyway, I have taxes to do in January, and I start planting the garden in February.”

“Exactly,” Ron agreed.  “We can spend September or October or November at the condo. Did you see they have three tennis courts and two swimming pools?”

“I sure did – there wasn’t a single soul in the pool by our condo, so it’s almost like having our own private pool.”

So we returned to Washington proud owners of a fully furnished condo with a rental agreement for the season that would pay our condo fees for the entire year.  It looked like our venture into boating was off to a great start.