It's about a quarter of 3 a.m. under a cold South Carolina sky. The temperature is hovering right around 32 degrees and there will be frost on the
boat by sunrise.
It seems almost inconceivable that a week and a half has passed. It's been a time filled with checklist and chores and has disappeared all too quickly. A week ago Monday, I woke up and checked all of the
internet sites for used sailboats. I have been following a listing for an
Endeavour 32. Witnessing the asking
price plummet past $10,000 then $7,500 to stop at $2,850, I grabbed my
phone.
I called the number on the listing and reached Mitch Pruitt. We spoke at length about the
boat and I told him I was coming to see it. Within hours I departed
Houston and landed at the Myrtle Beach
airport to pick up a rental car. That night I spent aboard the boat at Cricket Cove Marina in Little River, South Carolina.
The poor old girl was dirty and damp. It was easy to see why she was hard to sell. But as I investigated further, I found her
maintenance log. The more I looked, the more I knew this was worth so much more. By Wednesday she was mine.
I have resolved to make right the indignities this yacht has suffered. Indeed, many of her more pressing issues have already been resolved or are in process. But this is neither the time nor the place for a blow-by-blow description of that process. There will be much more coming soon.
Now that I have acquired “Nauti One”, I must take her home. So I have an extensive Punch-Out list to complete and a 1675 mile, single-handed journey down the Intercoastal Waterway from Little River, South Carolina to
Kemah,
Texas on Galveston Bay.
There will be a Blog, a YouTube channel, a Facebook page and semi-regular updates at CruisersForum.com. If
boating is not for the easily embarrassed, then this next month will certainly test that theory.
Special thanks goes to Steady Hand, for his extensive help. He is surely one of the most remarkable people I have ever had the pleasure of knowing.
I would also like to mention Mitch Pruitt, the
Broker, Saul Shavitz, the previous owner, Breno Lima and his wife Holly (all the best, you two) and a host of good-hearted people at the Cricket Cove Marina and in the greater Myrtle Beach area, for their kindness, hospitality and material support. Although
Texas hospitality is renown, I have never met a more hospitable group of people than those that I have encountered on this trip.