I've got to get rid of the rat nest of wires going every which way, so today I start cleaning and organizing the engine compartment. The cooling system issues have been corrected but operation of the engine has been plagued with electrical problems. The ignition system will be replaced and the engine rewired. The goal is to have a clean, neat, organized compartment that will be a joy to maintain. I must say I'm impressed with the service from Moyer Marine. They are friendly, informative and have all the parts needed to have your A4 ready when you need her.

It's been a rough couple of weeks. Work and weather has kept me from spending as much time on the boat as I would have liked. The time I have had has been difficult and not very productive. I have found one short cut after another and fixed one thing just to find two other problems. Engine and electrical systems are not places to cut corners.

It's amazing how much one can fit on such a small boat. I spent the day cleaning and sorting though everything the previous owner had stored on board. Most of this went in the local dumpster but there were a few gems to be found. First off, there were 4 brand new PFD's in the water holding tank area of the V-berth. There was also a 5 gal bucket of various teak pieces stashed in a closet. The best thing has to be the ships log.
Now it's time to clean myself up, sit down with a glass of Merlot and see what the old girl has been up to.

To call her a project boat would be an understatement but she sure is beautiful. We have been looking for the boat that would take us on our adventures for about a year and a half. We were looking for a bluewater capable vessel between 27' and 32' that would fit into our budget. After much study and soul searching, reality set in and we decided on a wonderful 31' coastal cruise/racer.

Go small, go now... just go.

Luna Sea is a 1967 Columbia 31, hull # 83. It was love at first sight. She has nice classic lines and a low draft that is perfect for the local waters of Southwest Florida. When I first sat at the helm she just felt right and when I found out she was hull #87 I knew she was the one. You see my boys wore the jersey # 83 for football during their high school days, destiny. She is a Charles Morgan design with an overall length of 30' 9" and a 9' 10" beam. Powered by the famed 30 HP Atomic 4 she has a displacement of 8500lbs, and with a waterline length of 21' 9", should be a joy to sail.

Join us as we bring Luna Sea back to her sailing glory and explore the Straits of Florida.

Hi, my name is Ed and I'm a hopeless dreamer. When I was young a wonderful woman told me I could do anything I wanted, if I was willing to do it. I took that to heart. I've have had to opportunity to do some amazing, crazy ass things, my wife would say. Anyway, I have this dream that I've put off for a long time and now it's time to get on with it.

This dream started when I was stationed in Hawaii in 1984. As a young private in the Army, married with 3 young kids, I tried to talk the wife into living on a sailboat. My thinking was it would be a lot cheaper than living on the economy and we would own a home that we could take with us as we went off to see the world. Needless to say, she was not having any of that. We can do that when the kids are a little older she said, so I tucked my dream away for a later date. On our second tour in Hawaii the dream returned. How about a small sailboat that we can explore the local waters and island hop as our skills grew. Now with 4 kids now and funds the way they were, we settled on a VW bus and family time at the beach. So here we are in 2010, 25 years after the dream was born, it has returned. We have downsized and worked our way to sunny Southwest Florida. The kids have grown up and moved on with their lives and it's time to start another chapter on our own.