More Palm Beach

5/30/07

I have been waiting for the paperwork to show up in the mail so I can actually take possession of the boat and get her ready for the trip. I figured that I will have plenty of down time over the summer so I drove to Singer Island to pick up a very cheap guitar that I found on the internet. The guy who sold it to me was a University of Wisconsin alumnus but was a bit strange. I drove down to Fort Lauderdale in the afternoon to buy a used dinghy for pretty cheap. The guy who sold it to me was also very strange. One entire wall of his living room was covered in fish tanks with exotic fish in them. He kept talking about his fish even when I was asking him questions about the dinghy. As I was carrying the boat out to my car, he made sure to follow me out and began a long lecture about the origins of the shrubbery in his yard.

I drove back up to Palm Beach and decided to go for a walk on the beach at sunset. I came back to the parking lot and discovered that it was closed for the night and someone had closed and locked the gate to the parking lot for the night. I began to get worried because it was several miles from my camp site and I had no way of getting the car out the gate. I drove down the entire length of the parking lot and got to the end before the guy could lock the last gate for the night.

I was reading in the camp site in the car because it had a light. All of the sudden I heard a tremendous rustling in the woods right next to my tent. It sounded as if two enormous beasts were having an epic battle. I naturally wanted to see what was going on so I grabbed my flashlight and ran over to where the sounds were coming from. I just saw the brush wiggling for a minute or two until an armadillo popped out. He lazily waddled across the camp site. I decided to get a photograph of him so I ran and grabbed my camera. I turned it on and crouched down and just as I was about to push the button, my phone rang. The armadillo’s leisurely stroll instantly became a frenzied sprint for the cover of the bushes. His sudden movement startled me so I jerked the camera up and to the side and just got a picture of some bushes.

Boat Search, Day V

5/28/07

I got up in the campground and began to prepare for the day. Since I was planning on looking at one boat in Palm Beach and possibly one in Marathon, I did not know where I would be spending the night so I packed up all of my things and took them with me. I made the drive up to Palm Beach and met the broker in the parking lot of a marina. He showed me the boat, a 25 foot Triton built in 1984, and I liked what I saw quite a bit. I spent about an hour going through the boat and found a few things that could use some fixing. When I was finished looking at the boat, I told the broker that I would call him and then spoke with my dad. We decided that this boat would be a god one for my trip, so I made an offer to the broker. We set up a sea trial for tomorrow. I went to West Marine to buy some supplies for my trip and then drove to Jonathan Dickinson State Park, which has a campground where I set up camp. I called my mother to tell her about the signs in the campground that tell people to leave the alligators alone. I saw plenty of wildlife including rats and tons of lizards but unfortunately no alligators. I did some research on dinghies to buy in the area and then went to the local movie theater since there was no wind in the campground to cool me down.

Boat Search, Day IV

5/27/07

When I got up this morning, I was still very frustrated at the situation I was in. I had spent lots of money and lots of time trying to find a boat and I had absolutely no solid leads on a vessel so I was on the verge of giving up. I spoke with my father who encouraged me to give it a few more days. I drove to the University of Miami, where I told the librarian that I was a prospective student so that she would let me into their library. I went in and continued to do some more research on boats in the surrounding areas. I found an interesting one in North Palm Beach and began to look more into it. She was a 25’ Pearson Triton with all sorts of nifty features that would come in handy for my trip. I called the broker and set up a showing for tomorrow at 10:00am.

I went over to Burger King for lunch and while I was eating, I got a call from a fellow named Jason who I had left a message for several days ago. He apologized for the late reply and told me that he just got a new phone after dropping his in the water while sailing. He had a very interesting boat in Marathon, Florida and I spoke with him for a while about that as well. As disappointed as I was in the morning, I was getting very optimistic about the summer after my several disappointments. With nothing much else to do in the evening, I went to a movie theater and saw the new Pirates of the Caribbean movie before heading back to the campground for bed.

Boat Search, Day III

5/26/07 –

I got up this morning and took a shower. I spoke with my grandpa over the phone about having him possibly come visit me within a week if I end up buying Richard’s boat. We both were getting excited and looking forward to it. Then I called Richard and asked him for copies of the three documents that he showed me yesterday. “I don’t know about that,” he said, “What do you need those for?” I explained to him that I wanted to take them to an attorney just to make sure that everything could be taken care of in a timely fashion. After a lot of uncertainty, he finally agreed to email me some Adobe Acrobat files with the documents in them as soon as he got home in a couple of hours.

Satisfied and excited about the prospect of getting a very nice boat, I checked out and went to the University of Miami campus to explore and use their library. I did some more research on boats and unsuccessfully tried to contact some more sellers. Since it is Memorial Day weekend, it is extraordinarily expensive to stay in a hotel so I went to Target and bought a tent and drove down to Larry and Penny Thompson campground, the same one that Bryce and I stayed at when we came down in January. There were far fewer RVs and far more tenters and the grass was about as high as my knees. I set up my new tent and realized that it was far bigger than I thought based upon the little mini show model that they had up in the store.

I called Richard to see why he hadn’t sent me the copies of the documents and also to schedule a sea trial for his boat. As soon as he realized that it was me calling, he sounded somewhat nervous and told me that he had decided to keep the boat after all. I was very shocked and disappointed. I asked him if he was sure, because I was very interested in it but he assured me that he just decided that he wanted to use her rather than sell her. I will probably never know why he suddenly changed his mind after being very eager to sell the boat the day before, but I will undoubtedly conjecture for some time to come.

Boat Search, Day II

5/25/07 –

I woke up this morning in the hotel on South Beach and took a shower. I immediately began working on trying to find a boat on the internet again and made a few more phone calls before I had to check out. While I was walking over to the beach to my car, I got a voicemail from a guy named Richard who has a pretty nice 30 Pearson Flyer sailboat. I called him back and set up a time to go look at her. I killed some time by going to a library and stealing wireless internet outside of people’s houses.

That afternoon, I arrived at the marina where Richard was keeping his boat and climbed aboard. The first thing I noticed was how huge she was compared to Lazaro’s boat. There was ample room inside for several people and all of their things. I was very interested and told him so. Almost as an afterthought, I asked him if he had a clear title. He looked down and fidgeted as he explained to me that he has only owned her for a week and thus does not have a title. “Oh,” I replied, “well then you have the previous title that has been signed over to your name then?” He fidgeted again and explained that the guy he bought it from had not transferred the title from the previous owner. This all seemed a little fishy to me so I asked to see any documentation of ownership that he had. He pulled out three crumpled and waterlogged pieces of paper from a bag and showed them to me. The first was a title from 1982 that was in the name of one owner, “Bill,” and had been signed over to another owner, “Frank.” The second was a bill of sale from Bill to Frank, and the third was a handwritten bill of sale from Frank to Richard. I pondered this bizarre situation and told Richard that I would keep in contact with him.

Later that afternoon, I called my father who suggested that I obtain copies of these three documents and bring them to an attorney here in Miami. I checked into a hotel and called my sister to wish her a happy birthday. The family sung to her while I was on the phone and began eating cake while I ate a donut hole. I did a little more boat research and then went to bed.

Boat Search, Day I

I got up in my hotel and immediately got very excited to go see the boat I had seen over winter break and have had my eye on for the past several months. I checked out of the hotel and drove to the seller's house. I got there and saw him crawling around inside the boat. I was somewhat surprised since he said that he was going to have it ready to go for a sea trial as soon as I got there. There was apparently a problem with the electrical system that had recently appeared. After the two of us fixed that problem, a few other issues with the electrical system became apparent. Rather than trailering the boat to the ocean right away, the two of us worked for a couple of hours fixing things and getting her ready.
We finally hooked the trailer up to his truck and I followed him to a public boat launch. We had to hit the trailer with the tire iron for a long time to extend the trailer tongue that was completely rusted. Once that was finished, we tried to step the mast with his homemade winch thing. After the mast nearly fell over, he called his friend to come help us. His friend showed up and helped us steady the mast as it was raised. When we were finished, he backed the trailer down the ramp and put the boat in the water. I crawled inside and immediately started checking the hull for leaks. The propeller shaft began to leak so I kept that in the back of my mind as I kept checking the rest of the boat.
Next, I checked the head. I opened the seacocks and filled the bowl. As I pumped the bowl empty, the contents of it began spewing out all over my hands and onto the floor. I was getting very worried about the boat at this point so I crawled into the tiny engine compartment to see what was in there. I reached my hand down into the bilge and came up with a handful of rotten wood so that was about the final straw.
I decided not to buy the boat and told the owner this. He was visibly disappointed but understood that his boat would not be the best for a long trip. I helped him derig the boat and came up with a new rope system that made it possible for a single person to take down the mast.
I was completely disappointed that the primary boat that I had been looking at fell through. I went to a hotel and started from square one searching for boats again. My parents helped me out quite a bit and I tried to contact several people that are trying to sell their boats but was only able to leave messages.

The Flight

My mom drove me to the airport early this morning. I forgot my glasses on the boat last night so we had to stop there on the way to the airport. The flight was pretty long and connected in Charlotte. I took a shuttle to a hotel that the car rental agency was located and I picked up a car. Then I drove to my hotel and got dinner at Wendy's. I spoke with the guy who owns the boat that I want to buy and set up a time to meet him tomorrow morning. Tomorrow will be a very important day.

Winter Road Trip

At around noon on New Year’s Day, Bryce and I packed up my parents’ car and started driving. As we drove through Madison we ate dinner and picked up some mead, a honey liquor that Bryce has been brewing and perfecting all year.

We left Madison and started driving south. The drive down there was very long but rather uneventful. We had to stop once or twice to take a little nap in the parking lot of a truck stop but we were just excited to be on the road. We drove through Wisconsin, Indiana, Kentucky, Tennessee, Georgia, and then finally Florida. We arrived in Miami at about 3:00 am in the morning after a day and a half of driving.

We had found a campground on the internet before we left that cost only ten dollars per night so we decided to go there and wait for it to open so we could set up the tent and sleep. We parked in their lot and tilted the seats back to nap for a few hours. We were awakened by a groundskeeper knocking on our window. He told us that there was no need to wait and that we could just set up our tent and pay for the site during the day. We gladly obliged and slept like logs for most of the following day.

That evening, we drove to Miami Beach to do a little exploring. There were lots of interesting people and very expensive homes and cars. I bought a few cigars made by a cool Cuban guy and had one as we walked along the beach. After a night of exploring, we went back to the camp site and went to sleep. The following day was just another day of exploring, swimming in the ocean, and talking to interesting people that we met. I also set up meetings with a few of the people I had been communicating with over the internet so I could go see their boats for sale.

The two of us woke up the next morning and ate a quick breakfast of oatmeal. We were meeting a guy so I could look at his boat. We found the marina where he told us to meet him and waited. He finally showed up and introduced himself as Rex.

Rather than keeping his boat at this marina, Rex had his boat anchored in an unused harbor in Biscayne Bay. We walked over to a very rickety old metal dinghy on the shore that he untied. We helped him push it into the ocean and got in. The oar locks had long since broken off and there was one oar that had broken in the middle and one that seemed flimsy but was nonetheless in one piece. He sat in the front and Bryce and I sat in the back. He paddled on the port side and I paddled with the broken oar on the starboard side. We finally made it to his boat after zig-zagging back and forth and we tied up. He invited us aboard and what we found was very surprising. There was junk everywhere: broken boat pieces, a disassembled bilge pump in the sink, cigarette butts everywhere, and not a working piece of electronics in sight. I poked around the boat for a while and finally took the floorboards off to look in the bilge. I found the bilge nearly filled up to the floorboards and the water smelled very strongly of feces. I asked him why the bilge pump was not working and he replied (from outside where he couldn't see the filled up cesspool that was the bilge,) "This boat is tight as a drum; I don't even have a bilge pump because I never need one."

I finished looking through the boat so we all got back in the dinghy and began to row towards shore. I asked him if he usually towed the dinghy behind when he went on sailing trips. “Oh yes, I've never had a problem with it,” he replied. A very small wave hit us as I shifted slightly. The dinghy was so poorly constructed that the hull twisted and water started pouring in at an alarming rate over the stern. He was not aware of the swamping that was in progress since he was facing forward and paddling ferociously with his broken paddle. In between frantic strokes with my own paddle, I asked him whether or not he ever has ever had a problem with water getting into the boat. To my astonishment, he replied, “Oh no, this little boat is unsinkable, it would take a hurricane to get any water inside this thing.” As soon as he was finished uttering those words, another very small wave hit us at the wrong angle and water gushed over the stern at a rate which would cause any seasoned mariner to abandon ship. We somehow barely stayed afloat and continued the now very difficult paddle to shore. As we were nearing shore, the second of the two paddles snapped in half.

We tied up the dinghy and began walking back to the car. I had earlier expressed an unwillingness to leave a boat I buy anchored for five months until I was able to come back and begin my trip. Rex, in his infinite wisdom, decided to show me another harbor owned by a friend of his that I could keep the boat anchored. He told us that it was a very protected harbor and would be very safe there. He then went on to explain that I should not tell the owner of the bay before I anchored it there because he was trying to keep derelict boats out of the harbor. I was again floored by this since it was quite clear that the few boats that were in the harbor were most definitely derelict and were horrible eyesores. When I told him this, he replied, “Oh, those are just fine because they are owned by [names random people that neither of us knew.]” I had had quite enough and told Rex that I would call him the following day with my decision and we drove off.

After this very interesting and humorous adventure, we visited a very cool boat that is cheaper, in better condition, and not owned by a crazy idiot. I am considering buying it but have several kinks to work out beforehand. In the evening Bryce and I drove up to Miami Beach and walked along Ocean Drive and the beach. On our way back, Bryce refused to go with me to sneak into the fancy hotel pools and hot tubs on the beach so we just drove back down to the campground. As we got in, a ranger pulled up to out site in a pickup truck and started talking to us. At first I thought that we had broken some sort of rule (like we did earlier in the day when we hung up a clothesline) but he turned out to be a crazy old man that was desperate to talk to someone. He told us about all the best strip clubs in town and knew exactly how much each of them cost. Even as Bryce and I slowly backed up signaling him to leave, he continued to talk to us about Britney Spears' new boyfriend and Jenifer Lopez's child support payments. He finally left and Bryce and I had a cool glass of mead before going to bed.

I eventually looked at a couple of other boats, all of which were better deals than Rex's. I found one that I liked in particular but for a variety of reasons decided not to buy it at the time, but instead to keep in contact with the seller over the next several months.

The Idea

Last summer I was talking with my friend, Jake and it somehow came up that we should plan some sort of grand adventure. We discussed a motorcycle trip to all of the nation's national parks, a canoe trip down the entire Mississippi river, and backpacking all around the Yukon. We finally decided that the coolest trip would be to sail up the east coast of the United States in a little sailboat. Over the next few months, this idea grew into a serious plan as I decided that it would be feasible after all. I determined that I could use the savings from my past several jobs to afford such an adventure, while Jake decided that being employed would be more valuable to his future, and thus the trip became singlehanded. As I continued to plan in the fall, I became convinced that it would better to purchase a boat during the winter and have it stored until spring. My parents agreed to let me use their car to drive down there on my winter break so I recruited my friend, Bryce, to join me.