We made an offer on a boat

So, here we are back in Port Townsend. Back at the same exact site at Point Hudson – which we left not too long ago. Here is where it all began a few weeks ago, and now we are full circle and having looked at all the boats – plus some – we wanted to see. We were ready to rank them and make an offer on our top pick. It wasn’t all that difficult for us. We had decided pretty firmly on one of the boats we toured in Bellingham – a 1979 Baba 35. So on Friday we filled out the paperwork and sent it in to our broker to make an official offer on the Baba. A few hours later we got word that the offer was accepted!

So excited we were that we spent a good chunk of a weekend day on-board, going through every nook and cranny and even getting the engine started for the first time (for us). Everything looks better and better each time we go on the boat, and the motor started right up and purred for the 15 minutes we left it running.

We are only part way to owning our first boat. The next few weeks are going to be rough. We have to get a general surveyor (inspector) out to inspect the boat both in and out of the water as well as a sea-trial (test drive) – now scheduled for the middle of October. This will tell us more about the overall condition of the boat; if there is any rot, leaks, age of wiring, holding tanks, etc. Then an engine surveyor will tell us more about the diesel motor onboard, which appears to be the original motor from the late 70’s. We both suspect that it will be time for a rebuild or replacement soon down the road, but that still fits in the offer amount as well as our timeline. We have years before we would do any over-ocean sailing and it is only before then that we would have to do the deed. In the meantime, we can putter around on an aged motor while we learn and explore the Puget Sound.

It is all very exciting. It isn’t easy to keep focus on anything else at this point, the boat just creeps back in. In the few week wait before our surveying appointments, we are going to head back into the wild as van dwellers in hopes of taking our minds off the imminent purchase (or not).