So we bought a boat yesterday. Found it on ebay... contacted the seller and it turns out the boat is in Padre Island and the guy needs money fast and is willing to let it go for a steal if we can get him some dough fast. I have been looking and researching for a year and a half now so I have some idea about how much this boat is worth... And the boat is pretty much what I have been searching so diligently for. So Kendra and I hopped in the car and sped down there, crawled around on the boat, and then paid the man. We both felt a little bad that the man was in a bad spot -he was just recovering from prostate cancer and owed a bunch of money. And it was clear that he loved the boat that he named "Spirit in the Sky" He bought in new in 1994 and told of his adventures on Lake Erie with 12 foot swells and then how he sailed her across the Gulf of Mexico to get her to Port Aransas. But the price that we paid was at the limit of our budget. So now, we have a boat that is much more than we ever though we could afford at this point. We are giddy with excitement.
We went and had a celebratory drink at a local grill and we were so excited that we decided to go take her for a spin right then and there. Now neither of us really know what we are doing, but I figured we would just motor around a little bit. And this is a big boat for me... I've motored my share of 12 ft. fishing boats, but this boat is almost 36 feet long with a 42 foot mast spiking up into the air. The moter fires up... Kendra casts off, and we are off, driving though channels lined with houses, waving at everybody we pass and looking for some open water. We have no idea where we are going or what we are doing.
At some point, the channel starts to open up and we see a glimps of open water... so Kendra goes up to the bow to stand lookout while we exit since the depth finder is reading just slightly deeper that the draft of the boat - about 4.5 feet. And then... yeee haawww! There opens up Laguna Madre and all her splendor .. and we are exultant!
And then? swiiiiisshhhh..... dead stop. Depth finder reads 2.1 ft. We are grounded. Now, I had just happened to have read the section about getting grounded in my Sailing for Dummies book... so we start trying to rock the boat -not happening. Boat is too big. We put it in reverse. Nothing. So, after some contemplation, I jumped out of the boat holding a lifeline and started pushing the bow back and forth while Kendra is jamming it down into reverse. And voila! She is backing away.... real fast... and I am hanging on to that line being dragged along. This is a critical moment and some passing boat sees us and yells out to Kendra "Go Forward!" So obeying, and since I gave her a crash course in driving the boat, she, for all practical purposes for the first time in her life, drives the boat forward, right past me and back in to the mud bank. Deep breath.
This time, the rudder and the prop at the back of the boat is grounded -so we are cranking it up full speed ahead and swishing the rudder back and forth and churning up all kinds of seaweed and black stinky mud (the same mud that is squished in between my toes from pushing the boat) And, alas, the boat is freed and, with a deep sigh of relief, we decided to head straight back in to park the boat.
Thus concludes our first sailing adventure... as we head back to New Braunfels, we both agree that it seems fitting that we both ran the boat aground on our first trip away from the dock.
Kendra and I both see this as a whole new chapter in our lives. We fully expect to have a wild awakening to a host of new experences as we embark upon this new life of traveling and living aboard a sailboat. In fact, it has already begun.
