The First Mate Speaks: Take 1

Several years back I came up with the idea of buying a lobster boat and converting it into a craft we could live aboard with our two cats, Georgie and Sophie. I envisioned us cruising the intracoastal waterway along the East Coast, and perhaps taking it to the Bahamas.

We've spent a lot of time on the East Coast, especially in Maine, taking photos, and a lot of that time was spent in harbors. I was always looking at boats and talking about going to sea again. So we began looking at lobster boats and trawlers. Lobster boats seemed too small to go cruising in. We looked at Grand Banks trawlers, but I didn't like the design, especially the high bridge from which you pilot the craft. I also had a hard time listening to the diesel and smelling the diesel fumes. Not my kind of life on the water. I did like the Nordic Tug; they seemed closer to sailboats, but still there was the diesel. Anyway, they were way out of our price range.

But every time we looked at boats, my eye would go to a Hinckley or some other beautiful sailboat. So why were we looking at power boats? We talked about motorsailers but I really don't like the design of that kind of boat—halfway between a true sailboat and a power boat.

About 5 years ago, Jim said that he thought he might be getting too old to go cruising on a sailboat. But ever since we spent the year on Escapade I've yearned to go to out to sea again. In my heart and soul, I am the Water Gypsy. So now, Jim has decided he's not so old, and I get to go “down to the sea again” with The Old Man of the Sea.