And the water leg begins?

So, I finally tracked down a boat. I've spent about a month touring the coast of Florida by car, hitting marinas and looking into local boat sales classifieds and brokers. After rounding through the Everglades and up through Miami and Ft. Lauderdale, I stumbled onto and advertisement for a J/24' in Melbourne, FL. I drove up and took a look. Took a sail, and closed the sale. I'm now the timid owner of a small racing sailboat.

After looking at around 20 boats, I settled on this one because motel and driving costs were really starting to add up, as were inexpensive nights of sleeping in the cramped back seat of a saturn. The J/24 isn't meant for crusing, but it has enough space to live in, especially if you don't plan on standing up while inside. It is a firm boat and I got it for a reasonable price. After some repairs, I think I'll be able to sell it for a little more, and move on to a cruising boat that will fit a live-aboard better and be able to get me up to NYC.

I've moved the boat from the prior owner's slip over to a new marina where I'm living in Indian Head Harbor. It's the cheapest rent I've paid in years, and it's cheaper than even weekly motel rent. I'll be living here until at least the end of March; doing repairs and learning to be comfortable single handing a sailboat.

I went out yesterday for my first solo sail, and... well, it will get easier. I'm still very anxious about and while docking, but in fair weather I feel safe on the open river. When coming back into the slip yesterday, I failed to slow down enough and really bonked the bow into the dock. I thought I had slowed enough. The outboard motor I have has no reverse so must be spun around to power aft, and I just timed things wrong. Need more practice. Much more.

In any case, I'm still alive, in case you were wondering.

Back to School

Finally found a school that was fitting my schedule in Sarasota. Cheers to the "Sara Bay Sailing School". I've been in Sarasota a week and had my first sailing lesson; my second and last is coming on Monday. I'm hooked. I'm spending too much on hotels, but the weekly rate is $300 where I'm at and should get me through the schooling. Then I'm out to find a boat. I may already have one in my sights.

The Heat

I've been sweating since I got into Florida. I made a mad dash down to St. Augustine FL after a last good by with the family in KY. I arrived early in the morning 3 days ago and had a series of good encounters that led me to the sailing school in town, and put me in touch with some other folks in the sail biz in town.

The sailing school will let me audit the courses I want, for half price, but that will be in mid February. There is also a large chance that I'll get bumped out by someone willing to pay full price. So, I started wandering south on the A1A route looking for marinas as I went. Haven't been very lucky finding free sailing lessons or even inexpensive ones. I finally broke down and did the "planning" thing by looking up phone numbers and addresses of schools on-line. I had been doing my searching by phone book and word of mouth, but gosh... I can only move so slow :)

I've met a few drunken sailors that had lots of advice... mainly that I should just buy a boat and go for it. Folks at the marinas and hotels are very helpful... People are great!

I'm done looking up schools, so I'm off again to call all these schools to see if I can audit something tomorrow instead of next month. I'm too impatient sometimes. I should work on being eager and patient.