A twofer!

We looked at two ships today. The pretty green schooner is Taya, a 50' steel schooner. Yes, she's built of metal, just like the Hubster's ship. While steel isn't as common as fiberglass or as romantic as wood, it is easy to maintain, extremely durable, not very susceptible to critter damage and not likely to be severely damaged in an accident (although pulling dents would be a pain).

The downside of Taya is that she's currently owned by a hard-core sailor. This means that even though she's been across the Atlantic multiple times, all around the Caribbean and through the Panama Canal, she has almost no luxurious little amenities. Like showers. Oh, she has a shower compartment, but her owner never saw a reason to actually hook one up, since he preferred sun showers on deck. You're welcome to that mental image. The walls are all marine plywood with a coat of paint. So are the floors. In other words, she is extremely functional without being pretty. That would have to change. Good thing I'm handy with a Sawz-All and a hammer.

The other boat we looked at today is a historic 54' Skipjack. There are only 13 of these boats left from the original fleet, and Fortune here is one of them. She was originally built for fishing and clamming in Chesapeake Bay. She's over 100 years old, all wood, with very little work done on her beyond routine maintenance.

While she has this nice connection to a bygone era, she needs extensive work. We found water damage, interior condensation and mildew damage as soon as we went below decks. She's also not designed to carry more than one or two people--the v-berth is a dank little cave with foam mattresses spread on the floor, the salon only has seating for 2 and there is no dining area. Oh, and the galley is directly adjacent to the double berth located in the center of the ship, with only a privacy screen in between. I have a feeling fried chicken and bed linens would not go together well.

All in all, Fortune would be a great boat for anyone who wants to pick up a living piece of sailing history for a restoration project. Not so good for a family to live on right out the gate, though.

K remembered what a hard time he had getting off of Sixpence, so he decided to make sure the same thing didn't happen with Taya. No worries, though--there were no boarding mishaps this time around.

I claim no responsibility for his outfit, either.

The kids and I went to see a 74 year old 56' pilothouse ketch a few weekends ago. The Hubster is the "boat expert" so we went with the express purpose of checking out the living space. The kids took this idea very seriously. They tried out every berth on board--all 9 of them.

Dmitri, the current owner, has had this boat for 30 years. He's used her as a family fun ship, a charter cruiser for kayakers and as a liveaboard. He's spent more time on her than off. The last year he was undergoing cancer treatment and has to downsize to a smaller vessel. He's also relocating to the West Coast, and taking a ship this size through the canal would cost ~$40K. He has a 35' catamaran in Seattle and left for there a few days after introducing us to this ship. It wan an introduction, too--the ship has a definite personality. She felt very warm and welcoming to us, literally and figuratively. I can see living here.

We did have one little oopsie when we were getting ready to leave. K (bottom bunk) hesitated a bit when stepping from deck to dock, and nearly fell in. Luckily I was holding his hands, so I hauled him back up on deck before he hit the water, but he was pretty shaken by it. He cried a bit and didn't want to get off the boat. I told him that obviously the boat didn't want him to leave either, since she'd pulled away from the dock to keep him on board. Eventually we all managed to make it back to dry land and head home. K's requested a gangplank in the future. I can't say that I blame him.

Hubster will hopefully have some time to go up and look as the ship with us before he leaves on business again. I hope we can make this work.