Buying a Boat
19 August 2014 | Ft. Pierce, Florida
Helen
Catching up. In February, 2014, Mark and I drove 3 1/2 hours to a Ft. Pierce, Florida marina to take a look at a 38 foot French built Catamaran named Charabia. A deal was negotiated and Mark requested a survey and sea trial, during the week that Helen was on a ladies' cruise out in the Eastern Caribbean. The survey revealed a long list of issues, but no show stoppers. Each weekend for the next two and a half months, saw Mark and Helen in Ft. Pierce. The boat yard work included a bottom paint job, engines and sail drives servicing. Mark installed new bilge pumps, mast steps, antenna, lightning chaser, as well as several repairs to the lights, while Helen cleaned up some of the rusty spots as well as painted a new boot line on each hull. We had some help from Helen's sister, Chris and her husband, Robert. It was an interesting task to get a second key cut, as the boat is French and so was the lock. We finally got two keys cut by a locksmith in Vero Beach, after trying several other shops in the area. The locksmith had to manually make the keys as they did not match any key blanks available in America.