Tuesday, March 15, 2011

Avalon is looking for a new home

Avalon is looking for a new home.  Unfaithful me has purchased another, younger, prettier, larger, faster boat.

Her name is Ship of Fools.  She is a 1982 Hunter 33 Cherubini design.  Plans, graphics and photos to come.  She was designed to sail the coastal areas of Florida, the Keys and the Caribbean with a four foot draft and a ten and a half foot beam.

She has been lovingly maintained and kept in her original condition by attentive owners and is up to date with all her charts and nav gear.  LED lighting in and out, high efficiency fans, all ports can open and are screened as well as screens for both deck hatches.  This is a live aboard ready cruiser that is well surveyed and Coast Guard Certified.  I do believe it's time to go sailing.

A little background about where the money came from.  Years ago I made a very stupid decision and decided that I wanted to see Vietnam.  I did.  I got a very close look.  I brought something home with me; a chemical that is now making parts of my body go haywire.  The Veteran's Administration has decided, in a strange throw of guilt, to declare me 100% percent disabled, total and permanent.

This declaration came with a large lump sum of money and a very healthy monthly stipend.  With this money also comes the knowledge that my time here on this plane is very limited.  This is a relief as well as very frustrating.  The relief comes from knowing that I'll be out of his mad house before too long.  The frustration comes from now having the means to see the world but not the long term health to enjoy all of it.  Guess I'll just have to be satisfied with what I can reach.  Hence the boat.

So, here I am with a good, steady income, a seaworthy boat and a desire to spend lots of quiet hours listening to the sound of wind and wake while I move my home from exotic sounding place to exotic sounding place.  It could be worse.

No one gets out of here alive, so live it like ya mean it.