SSSSM - Part Deux

[Bdozz]

In that case I will tell you all the story of the SuziQ

[Bdozz]

The first thing you need to know, is that I've always been somewhat of a vagabond adventurer, these last 10 years has been the longest time I've been in one place since I turned 18, and I do believe it's killing me.

[Bdozz]

Captain Ron has always been one of my favorite movies, and every time we watched it my ex-wife would always say wouldn't that be cool if we did that. My answer was always we are into bikes ,not sailboats and besides we'd never be able to afford a boat like that. Fast forward a few years, the ex is gone and I'm living back in Wisconsin watching Captain Ron for the first time in years and for some reason it hit me that I only live 30 miles from lake michigan, and I know there has to be a way to get out of lake michigan with a boat.

[Bdozz]

So on to the Internet I went, I found out I could go down the Chicago river and onto the tenn - tom waterway to the gulf.Then I asked Google how much it cost to live on a boat, and through forums like this I've learned that it isn't totally out of reach, I also learned that I could find a boat in need of some work for a reasonable amount of money or possibly even free. And so the search began, I scoured the Internet , called boat yards and looked at a few 35 to 45 foot boats all of wich were in various states of disrepair then almost a year ago I saw an ad on my favorite website, craigslist, for the SuziQ. She was smaller than what I wanted, and a lot farther away then I wanted to drive to look at her, but the price was right, and after talking to her owner I drove the 5 hours around the bottom of lake michigan to check her out , she was covered with shrink wrap and sitting on her cradle in about 8 inches of snow, and I had to search the marina for a half an hour to find a ladder to get on board, and when I did I sounded out her decks and then went below, the cabin walls and ceiling were covered in mold and the cabin sole was coming apart from having water sitting in her and I swore I wasn't going to buy her, that I would keep looking for the larger boat that I wanted, and I knew where there was a 36 foot wooden boat that I really liked and was in good shape and if I waited long enough I could get at a good price.

[Bdozz]

On the way home I stopped at Crawley yacht yard in chicago and looked at a 36 foot c&c that they had advertised for cheap, but the whole drive home so far all I could think about was how solidly built the SuziQ was , and how her cabin had almost as much room as the larger boats I'd looked at , and all the posts I'd read on this forum about smaller boats , and after climbing and crawling around on this decrepit c&c that they wanted more then twice what I could get the SuziQ for that seemed to me needed very little more than a cleaning , I called the owner to tell him I'd looked at her and how impressed I was with her , and somehow instead of telling him I was going to keep looking, I ended up telling him I'd take her. I must add that the Po was one of the reasons I fell in love with the boat, he was the nicest most honest and sincere person I'd ever talked too when responding to a craigslist ad and I could tell he had really loved the boat.

[uncle stinkybob]

Originally Posted by Bdozz

I'm a mechanic , I've been doing it for over 20 years aftermarket and dealership. I'm pretty burned out on it though it's not what it used to be that made it fun.

Agreed. I quit 8 years ago, when I started it was on Shovelheads. Retired now and bought a boat, moved aboard. Kinda funny, after riding more than 50 years and wrenching 35, now I'm selling the last bike. As my commitment to the boat, cruising and living aboard has grown, the bike has a rather anchor like feel to it. I'm heading south to Mexico this year, not sure if I'll be back this way on any permanent level anyway so who needs a harley? What I really need is a new jib sail or two!

[Bdozz]

So now I owned a sailboat that hadn't been in the water since 2008 and was 100 miles across lake Michigan from me and 300 miles by land. I looked in to having her trucked, but it seemed kind of silly to me to pay more than the boat cost to have it trucked around the lake, after all its a boat they were built to cross oceans and lakes and I was sure she was seaworthy, then I thought about just leaving her there until next season and taking sailing lessons over the summer, but I new if I did that I'd want to go back and forth to Michigan to work on her, and it also seemed silly to pay someone to learn to sail their boat when I had my own so the decision was made to sail her over.

[Bdozz]

This is my first mate Tater

[Bdozz]

Tater and I have been friends for several years now and we are also partners at work , so Tater has known about my plan to get a sailboat as long as I have and has gone with me to look at a few. For about the first 6 months of me looking at boats and talking about the feasibility of taking one south for the winter, he tried to talk me out of it. I've tried for years to get him to bring his daughter to the lake by us to go tubing and boating , but he always insisted that he hated being on boats and got seasick, but after I finally bought the boat it was his idea as much as mine that we'd sail it over. I spent a few weekends over in Michigan getting the boat cleaned and running and checked over and the final decision was made that she would probably make the trip. I've been on the water and around boats all my life, but never on big water, and I have only sailed a few times as a kid, but we figured if we picked a good weekend to go when the weather was good we could motor her over, besides we had plenty of safety equipment on board, the only thing we wanted was 1 more crew member, preferably someone with experience with bigger boats and lake Michigan, as some of you may know crossing lake Michigan can be quite the undertaking, and is not something that should be taken lightly.

[uncle stinkybob]

Originally Posted by Bdozz

Attachment 139544 This is my first mate Tater

Howdy Tater.

[Bdozz]

This is Pinstripe Dave the third member of our crew, and you'll have to tune in tomorrow for the rest of the story.

[Bdozz]

So plans were made, we'd go get her o the weekend of June 24th. I called the marina where she was stored and asked them to launch her as close to that date as possible as I wasn't comfortable with her being unattended very long, I checked the weather several times a day, and almost called of the trip due to storms being forecast, but as the Friday that we were going to leave came the forecast changed from serious storms to chances of scattered early morning storms only lasting an hour or so, so off we went. I had my son pick me and Tater up after work on Friday with plans of picking up Pinstripe Dave on the way. We planned on getting to the marina by 11:30 Friday night, getting a good night's sleep on the boat, provisioning and putting things in order on Saturday morning after wich I had planned on taking her out and giving her a shake down cruise up towards Grand haven as that's where the car ferry to Milwaukie runs from , I thought that if there was any problems, we could put into a marina there and hitch a ride home on the ferry.

[Bdozz]

The other reason for the shake down cruise was the thunderstorms, I didn't want to leave michigan until evening, as l estimated the crossing would take us 16 to 20 hours, and I thought if we left in the evening we wouldn't be anywhere near shore at the time the storms were supposed to hit, that way if there was a lot of lightening and rain, we could ride it out safe and dry in the cabin without worrying to much about hitting anything.

[Bdozz]

Those were the plans, here is how it actually went. My son showed up to get us right on time, however everyone at work new about our plans, and apparently did not have as much confidence in our abilities to carry them out as we did, so between picture taking , well wishing, and final goodbyes it took us an hour to get out of there. Then we had terrible traffic all the way over, and did not get to the boat until 2am and it was after 3 by the time we all got to bed. We all were up again by 8, and headed to the store with the list of things we decided we needed, we got enough food and water to last a couple extra days, just in case anything broke , and the rest of the stuff on the list, except for the rain gear. Then we went to breakfast, and back to the boat after loading everything, going through the sails and picking out what I thought was the jib, we said goodbye to my son Derrick and headed out across the harbor for fuel. It was about noon when we cast off I was a little nervous as I had never driven a boat this big, and the channel was packed with boats and quit a few of them were rentals, if you know what i mean. We made it to the fuel docks, and into the channel with no incidents and almost out to the lake before the first one.

[daw_two]

Originally Posted by daw_two

So.....last Wednesday, I along with all the other employees learned the parent company to us had sold half of our company. So, here's the impact (to me):

1. My position has been eliminated.
2. All positions in Memphis office have been eliminated.
3. Memphis office is closing.
4. I have a job until about early Summer 2017, then standard severance package.

Did my 7 year plan just turn into a 1.5 year plan?

My trip to Sint-Maarten, Saint-Martin was amazing. I managed to become a certified open water scuba diver, lose my iPhone 6, buy a cheap Android and get a French number, spent about 5 hours with the owners of a sailboat in the lagoon, toured their boat (great experience), and rented a hobiecat for 3+ hours of sailing on Orient Bay.

So, while I was traveling back from Saint-Martin, my revised exit letter arrived via email. So, the first thing I did when I got home was log into work email and read.

October 20th is my date.

Hmmmmm......... So, I've been looking at jobs and all the jobs in my profession mean relocation. Now, I have a philosophy about relocation since I still have a 13 year daughter that I share custody with her mom. The philosophy is if I relocate, I'm retiring. Then when she comes to visit, we can have fun together! We can sail, fish, cook, eat, shop, visit new places & cultures, etc. And she can bring a friend down for weeks at a time. It remains to be seen how my time with her will be readjusted if I'm living a plane ride away.

Anyway......I'm starting to formulate a more detailed plan. Sell my house in early summer, rent a small place for a while, and if no job appears then find a boat.

Subject to change, of course.