Things have really progressed since my first blog. The survey went reasonably well. A number of substantial problems were found, but structurally the boat checked out real good. A list of the key items was created that the seller agreed to fix them at his expense before we take possession of the boat. This has turned out well for us, as a number of these items have resulted in some major parts getting replaced. The alternative was to reduce the price by a set amount, leaving me to deal with getting all of the items fixed and watching the costs mount.

What this means is that getting these things fixed has taken much longer than expected and the boat was not ready when we flew down to Jacksonville on Aug 29 to take possession. Plans continued to change over the five days and continue to change on a daily basis. On the positive side we did get to spend some substantial time on the boat poking around, reading manuals and checking stuff out. We also got to spend time with a great couple that we met on our first Sail & Learn course and who have also just purchased their own catamaran and are currently in the Brunswick Landing Marina where our boat will be kept. We spent a great evening having pizza and beers that resulting in spending the night in their spare cabin.

The rest of the time was spent in St Augustine Fl. which is a great city with a lot of character and history being the oldest city in the USA (443 yrs). While on the boat we saw manatees and dolphins and large fish were jumping around all over the place. I can hardly wait to get my fishing rods down there. Holy crap is it hot down there. We sweat A LOT. Working inside the boat is worse. The boat has hatches and port windows in each of the cabins and fans, but we still find it HOT. They tell us that we will get used to it. Our broker (Tom) and Chris and Derrick seem to tolerate it quite well, so we are hopeful. We also got to meet Captain Nasty (Robbie), who has been hired to move the boat back and forth between Brunswick and St. Augustine. At one point we were a couple of hours away from leaving with Robbie to take the boat back to Brunswick. We went with Robbie to provision for the trip, which was to include overnighting on the hook, but 1 hour before we were to leave, we got the bad news that the boat would not be ready to leave. We have encountered a number of interesting characters since we have taken up sailing and Robbie will definitely be counted in that group. We were very disappointed that we did not get to spend 24 hours on our boat out on the water and to hear more of "Captain Nasty's" Stories.

The new closing date for the boat is Sept 12 which should give them time to get the last of the repairs completed and get the boat moved back to Brunswick. Which brings us to Hurricanes. Planning the move back to Brunswick will need to involve negotiating the string of hurricanes currently in the Atlantic Ocean. As Gustav makes its way across the country, Hanna is bearing down on the Bahamas and on its way over to the USA. They expect Hanna to track north and not hit landfall until further up the coast. That means this thing needs to make a right turn around 200 miles off shore, so hopefully Hanna knows where to turn. At one point they said it was heading directly for St Augustine! And following hot on her heels is Hurricane Ike, already a category 3 with sustained winds of 115 mph. This one looks like it is on a track that will hit the southern Bahamas and southern Florida. So we are kind of glad that we don't own the boat just yet. Even though we have insurance, the deductible for damage from a named storm is $18,000. Yikes! So we have our fingers crossed that they can get the boat back to Brunswick safe and sound.