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Bob and
I have been boaters since Mandy was about a year and a half (1970).
Our first boat was a 16 foot closed bow power boat that we bought
used. Mandy spent many hours asleep below the bow of that boat or
was tethered to Bob’s ankle tied to her “Fish” life jacket and
enough line to keep her from falling overboard.
From the closed bow we moved to open bows. In 1996 when thinking our
deal to buy Eddy Creek Marina had fallen through, we bought a 34
foot Mainship trawler to put in a charter fleet and use ourselves
when time permitted. The boat was docked at Miami Beach Marina and
the Keys were an easy destination from St. Louis.
Low and behold the deal on the Marina proceeded as planned so we
then had a trawler and a marina. We toyed with the thought of
bringing the trawler back to Kentucky but decided against it. We
ended up selling the trawler and buying a 24 foot and then a 29 foot
Pursuit so we would have a lake boat again.
In the summer of 2002 Bob started looking for a bigger boat. He was
looking for a boat to “DO the Loop”. I was my usual enthusiastic
self. I believe my response was something like “What do we need
another boat for already”. Despite my enthusiasm, he surfed the web,
ran the printer out of ink several times printing boat pictures and
leaving them lay around for me to study. After several months he
suggested we go look at some of these boats.
His initial search targeted 39 foot sea Ray Express Cruisers with
twin caterpillar engines. OK, I said, where do we go first?
Our first trip was to Little Rock, then north of Chicago. The
Hylskys at our marina suggested we look at Sea Ray at Green Turtle
Bay which we did. From there we did a week’s tour in Michigan in
October of 2002. After all the traveling and looking we settled on
the boat at Green Turtle Bay in Grand Rivers, KY. (About 30 minutes
from ECMR by land). The boat is a 1990 44 foot Sea Ray Sun Dancer.
It needed some love but the engines were healthy and the hull and
other important pieces were in good shape so we bought it in October
of 2002.
During our shopping trips I started thinking of our calendar for
this trip. After much deliberation I suggested we plan our departure
for October 18, 2003 (Bob’s birthday). Kelsea will be a junior so
we’d be home for her senior year. Taylor is 3 and not involved in
other activities as yet so October of 2003 was set.
After we took delivery Bob started his electronics shopping spree.
New autopilot, chart plotter and transducer were first on the list.
The winter passed and Bob could work on modernizing his new toy.
The marina and restaurant took up most of the summer but we did
manage to use the boat as our Monday day off escape. The boat has
two staterooms, one head and ample galley and salon space. The
interior was updated and ready in august. Bob added a new flat
screen TV. I added dishes and cooking utensils and groceries and by
Labor Day we were ready to go. We began the countdown to our
departure day.
Our friends on pier 5 were planning a crab boil and send off so we
postponed our departure to the 19th. On Sunday morning armed with a
new laptop, Verizon Mobil Office, pictures of Kelsea and Taylor and
other sundries we sounded the horns as we left the harbor and were
off.
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