Boat search

As my 1st post on the S/V Bora Da blog, I thought I would talk about my boat and sailing history and where I am today with finding 'the boat'.

I began sailing in  the UK on the last weekend on August 1997. How can I be so specific ? Well I crossed to the Isle of Wight from Portsmouth in the English Channel and found on our arrival that Princess Di had died in a car crash. I was invited by a sailing enthusiast friend from our days in the RAF, who assembled a crew to spend a few days at sea in a RN training sailboat. I admittedly had no idea what I was doing. As a pilot I understood the principles of lift and that a boat essentially has a big wing sticking out of it. But the practicalities and mostly the language of sailing left me a little bewildered.

I didn't get to sail again until 1999 when I moved to the USA to work at NASA. As you may know Johnson  Space Center is south of Houston ( Houston we have a problem) in a suburb called Clearlake, right next to Galveston bay. As I settled into the area and my new job and began to look for hobbies I started to fly again and took a sailing class- ASA 101. I began to sail with friends and acquired a Cape Dory 25. She was a great learner boat and I spent many a day out on the Bay. Like everyone else I made numerous mistakes and managed to ground the boat a few times.

ASA 103,4 and 5 followed and I then went sailing in the BVI. Wow that was liberating, and as I sailed to Anegada from Virgin Gorda I realised that I had truly found a passion in life. I vividly remember loosing sight of land as we made the crossing and could not have been more exhilarated.

I subsequently got a Catalina 30, which I called Bora Da ( Welsh for hello) and continued to sail in Galveston Bay. In 2007 I sold the boat and moved to Florida with the intention of getting a new boat. Life got in the way and while I continued to sail in Florida at Sarasota Bay, Tampa Bay and the Keys , ownership eluded me. I decided to relocate to Va in 2011 to take a new job , and with the intention of sailing on the Chesapeake, however life happens when you least expect it and I ended up back in Florida at the end of 2012. So the hunt is now on, and I am actively looking around the state for a boat.

Of course as everyone interested in buying a boat knows , its a thorny path filled with pitfalls, rotting decks,  and missed opportunity. Then of course one has to ask what is the boat intended for ? Coastal cruising or perhaps further afield to the Caribbean and beyond. There is the perennial argument go small and go now, or go big and later  ? Fin or full keel ? The possibilities are endless and the options can be paralyzing  I have recently tried to narrow things down an placed an offer on a boat. That didn't work out for a variety of reasons and the search continues.

So what am I looking for ? A boat that is around 38 feet capable of the Bahamas and the Caribbean. I have a financial limit for purchase and upgrades, and as I sail alone much of the time it has to be able to be single-handed. So we continue the search and the next update will be to confirm a purchase !!