OUR FLORIDA BOAT

 

As soon as we reserved our Winter spot at Upriver RV Resort — and saw that it was on a canal — we started talking about buying a boat when we got here.  It took us a while after we arrived to find the perfect one (where perfect means:  runs well, has a cabin,galley, and head, is clean and well-kept AND is affordable).  In other words, one that cost less than it was worth. 

Bill did the research and had a couple of brands picked out.  We looked at those (and some others) at every dealer in the Ft. Myers area and made two out-of-town trips to look at boats that were advertised on the Internet.   We bought our boat from one of those advertisers, a private owner in Titusville (where Cape Canaveral is).  She was clean and well-kept, but needed some work.  The boat (that's it, above, docked at its spot here at Upriver) is a 1990 Carver 23.7. She's about 26 feet long overall, and 9.4 feet wide, powered by a Volvo/Penta outdrive with a 260 hp 5.70 liter engine.

                                     

The table makes into a V berth bed, and there is another bed behind the curtain under the clock.  The enclosed head has a marine toilet, sink and shower.  The cooktop operates on 120 volts or alcohol, and the refrigerator on either 120 or 12 volts.          

 

 

 

 We made an as-is offer after finding  some things that we (Bill) knew would need immediate repairs.   As soon as we got back to Ft Myers, we took it directly to the boatyard.   Of course the repair work cost a little more than we'd thought and (also of course) it took a lot longer than we'd expected.   

But even including the extra repairs, we think we still did OK cost-wise.  We are so happy to finally have her in the water! We are already planning to come back next year so that we will have a full-season of boating fun. 

These picture are from when we went for our test drive (sea-trial we mariners call it) at the "boat hospital" after all the repairs. They put the boat into the water with the forklift, then used the slings to pull it and place on our trailer.  

 

 

 

 

 

  The picture at left shows the front of our boat; we are  approaching the railroad drawbridge about 3 miles from our house.  We were on our first trial run the Sunday after we brought the boat home from the repair shop.  (This was the week before we went on the overnight trip with the boat club.)  We just went out our canal and onto the Caloosahatchie.   This is all familiar territory that we pass on the road several times every week —

                                      but on the boat, everything is more fun.