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First day of boat shopping

December 9, 2006
Port Aransas, Texas
27º 50.20 N
97º 03.50 W

By: Scott Stillman

For years we have been following the adventures of Pat and Ali on bumfuzzle.com, living vicariously through their blog. They live and are circumnavigating on a Wildcat 35. There is a good picture of one here. We actually tried to buy Bumfuzzle but I guess we were out bid. Imagine our surprise when one came available for sale just 5 hours away, just down the street from Jennifer's parents house. The perfect boat, at the right price, just down the road. ROAD TRIP.

I called the broker and setup a time to view the boat of our dreams. 2 weeks. Ah the agony. We spent 14 days talking each other into a glorious buying frenzy. Every morning and night we would wake up and fall asleep discussing our dream boat. Where to keep it, toys to buy, etc.

The first sign of trouble was sent by Jennifer's dad. Living down there he decided to go out and do some scouting. He e-mailed us some pictures. Not so bad just a little paint we told our selves.

On the drive down we worked up a buying frenzy to rival all buying frenzies. Flush with the hope of buying we got up bright and early to meet the broker on the perfect day to buy our dream boat. Well almost, it was about 37 degrees out and blowing hard.

Man did this boat blow hard. It was cosmetic little things but they were everywhere. For instance, when a port hole started to leak he fixed it with plywood. The boat was strictly sound but everything inside needed to be replaced.

This perfect boat for the right price turned out to be the wrong boat priced at twice what it was worth. Shitty death. This boat was shit. All the wood needed to be replaced. The whole boat needed to be repainted. The saloon looked like a biker bar just after closing time. We believe there were engines under the blackened tar. Here are a few pictures.

***WARNING - Make sure you have a bucket near by before opening. Wildcat 35

It was listed for 124,900 we offered $80,000. For some reason we haven't heard back from them.

Second day of boat shopping

December 16, 2006
Seabrook, Texas
29º 33.09 N
95º 01.32 W

By: Scott Stillman

One of my buddies was getting married... Since we were going to the coast anyway we decided to go looking. After the previous disastrous weekend we needed to get the bad taste out of our mouths.

Jennifer did a few searches on the internet and found an Endeavour 34 in Seabrook that she wanted to go see. Learning from prior experiences we decided to not get our hopes up. Just something to do until the wedding. Not a big deal.

We showed up at the Marina an hour before our appointment, drooling having talked our selves into another buying frenzy. :)

This boat was a 180 from the previous week's experience. Shoot the whole week was 180. Last week it was freezing. This week it was in the high 70's. Shorts and t-shirts. The weather might be part of the reason we were in such a good mood.

This boat was immaculate and well taken care of. There were a few problems, but nothing major. Jennifer was in love. I liked it but if you look at the specks it is only 15 feet wide. Not a big deal until you are stuck in that secluded cove that's too rolly, or in a storm at sea. Not written off but not at the top of my list.

Here are some pictures. Our camera girl is improving in her presentation. Endeavour 34

Unless something else comes available in Texas we might have to wait until after tax season to go on a road trip. There is a PDQ and Wildcat in Florida that we would like to see.

On the money front, there is still some property that we need to sell to buy our boat. If you've been reading the news it's a little hard to sell property right now. That could be another reason we are dragging our feet.

September Log January Log

Revised: January 16, 2007