One boat, two boat, we got a new boat!!!

Sea Trial Day with our new boat!

Here we are on the sea trial day, with our new {to us} 1983 Endeavour 40'!!!

As you can tell, hubs is over the moon excited about the new boat, as am I!! I told him, "I'd like to think this photo shows his love for me, but I really think this photo shows the love between a man and his boat!" To my surprise, he responded with, "it's the love of a man that has a wife that lets me live on a boat!" ....yeah, he's a keeper!!! ;)

Enough of all that sweetness, let's get to the real reason you're reading this! 

We got our new boat the Wednesday afternoon before Christmas! (Whew, just in the St. Nick of time there Santa!!) We unloaded all the things out of both of our cars onto the boat on Thursday and then left Friday morning to drive to Fort Worth to spend Christmas with both of our families! Hubs really didn't want to leave his new boat, right after getting it, but neither of us wanted to call our mom's and tell them we wouldn't be home for Christmas, after telling them both, "we would be there for Christmas!" So, off we went for a few days...  

So, what did we buy? We went with a 1983, center cockpit, 40' Endeavour sailboat. For you non-boaty people, a center cockpit simply means, the helm {a.k.a. the wheel}, from where you drive the boat, is located in the center of the boat. Unlike our two Catalina's, that were both aft cockpits. 

The benefits of a center cockpit are mostly interior, giving better access to the engine and allowing for a bigger, roomier, aft cabin! Exterior wise, the center cockpit means you sit a little higher out of the water, which is good for both visibility and more likely to get sprayed by crashing waves! You'll have to remind me of that last one being a good thing when I post about how soaked we get!! 

Here's the layout in case you're not familiar with the Endeavours.... 

What are the differences between this one and the other two? 

• 1st boat: 30 foot long and had a beam of 10' with 5'8" headroom. Vberth, quarter berth, 1 head. 

• 2nd boat: 36 foot long and had a beam of 11'6" with 6' headroom. 2 cabins, 1 head

• 3rd boat: 40 foot long and has a beam of 13' with 6'6" headroom. 2 cabins, 2 heads

Is this boat, our forever boat? Only time will tell, but I do know that, the more time we spend on it, the more we like it! And, I do see us going cruising in this boat!! 

She needs a little love and attention on the outside, but the inside teak has been well taken care of and was just recently varnished! 

We even have a hallway!!! And the best part is, I don't even have to duck or crouch down to walk through it. Hubs has to tilt his head, slightly, but that's really the only spot. The rest of the boat has 6'6" headroom, so that is something we both appreciate, since we are both tall. 

The other major upgrade is that this boat has two heads (a.k.a. bathrooms). She's a two cabin, 2 head, layout, with plenty of storage and can sleep 8 comfortably, before we have to send anyone outside, to sleep in hammocks!!

Now for some more photos....

Starboard side of the boat

Port side of the boat

Navigation area | looking down the hall to our cabin

Hallway with control panel, engine room access, & more storage

Aft cabin | closet/storage

Aft cabin | bed

Aft head

Vberth | there's much to be said about this part of the boat, but for now, let's just call it the garage ;)

Forward head

Port side settee

Starboard side settee

Each settee folds out & makes a full-size bed

The galley

Closeup of the galley

The cockpit | albeit, somewhat messy

The aft deck | or what i like to call it, the back porch ;)

We still have a little settling in to do, but we are mostly moved in! Besides, I just couldn't handle keeping our blog readers in suspense any longer. So, now that you've seen our beautiful boat & disorganized cockpit, what do you think of our new digs?? Let us know in the comments! ;) 

Happy New Year & thanks for following along on our journey afloat!!!

Quick {next boat} Update....

I did it! I broke the cardinal rule of looking at boats, I got attached and now it's a no go. Back to the drawing board. Ugh!

I'll admit it, we were enticed by that 40 footer with a great price, but even with its great price it was still pushing our budget beyond its max. We decided to use that blasted hindsight everyone's always talking about....so, we retracted our offer and walked away. 

On the flip side, we found a 36' that was about to be put on the market....saw it, liked it, swooped in and put in a more budget friendly offer on it! If this one goes through, then you'll get all the deets, but until then, I think it's best to keep things under wraps. Otherwise, the pity party might get a little extreme! Haha ;) 

Making progress....

Well, we wanted a bigger boat and we may have found one! Eek!! We've put in an offer on a forty footer....40', that's ten foot bigger than Irie was!!! :]

Last weekend our broker called and asked us to come and take a second look at a boat he had showed us before, because the price had recently been lowered and he thought it might work for us. I remembered that I had loved the galley in that boat and even though hubs wasn't overly thrilled with the brand, we went and gave it another look see....and, we decided it wasn't for us. Luckily, our broker was prepared for that {he knows us quite well} and was ready to show us another boat with a recent price drop as well! It was older and not bad, but also not for us. 

We then took another look at yet a third boat and loved it....only problem was, its price was still the same, no price drop and way over our budget...so, we walked away. Not exactly what we wanted to do, but we know what our budget is and we are confident that we do not want to be boat poor. It's absolutely wonderful living on a boat, but when you're too poor to do anything else, that's not so great. 

We hung out at the marina a little bit, saw some friends, went and had lunch at a new place and ran some errands. That night, we were back at the box when our broker messaged us and asked, "what if he could get the price down a little, would we be interested then?" Again, it was incredibly hard, but we said no. We knew it wouldn't be lowered enough to be in our budget, so as much as we want to get out of the box, we told the broker it wasn't going to work for us. 

Another hour went by and our phones dinged with a new message from the broker. He said the seller had agreed to accept an offer at 40K below the asking price and all we needed to do was come in and sign & submit the offer. The next morning we went up there and officially put in the offer, contingent of course on financing, but, if all goes well we will close at the end of the month and be back to living aboard!!! Yay! 

I'm sure by now you've noticed that I managed to write this whole blog post without mentioning any defining details about the boat, other than how long it is. I know, I know, you want to know everything now, but, I've got to keep something a secret until hopefully I can do a big reveal post! So, keep checking back and please keep your fingers crossed for us, as we are so ready to be back on a boat....our boat!! 

Until next time....