M-V Wild Blue a Selene 53 Ocean Trawler in Icy Strait, SE Alaska, June 2008(Source:mvwildblue.blogspot.com)
"If you want to build a ship, don’t drum up the men to
gather wood, divide the work and give orders.
Instead, teach them to yearn for
the vast and endless sea."
—Antoine de Saint-Exupery
I've been yearning lately. Ever since Coll brought up how much she would like to retire and live on a houseboat. Not a houseboat like Tom Hank's character in "Sleepless in Seattle." More like a renovated shrimp trawler, or a custom-built liveaboard trawler, like the Wild Blue pictured above. And not that we're anywhere close to retiring. But it is a dream to work toward.
I've been looking at lots of boats, and there appear to be lots of boats out there. I'm not sure if it's always like this or it's just a symptom of this economy, but there seem to be a lot of great boats available at reasonable prices.
I'm thinking we'll need a vessel between 45 and 50 feet LOA (length overall) to live aboard comfortably. It should also have a beam (width) between 14 and 16 feet--to fit into most berths--and somewhere around 4 feet of draft (depth of the keel below the water's surface). It should have at least two staterooms so we can accommodate periodic guests. I'm still studying on engines (gas vs. diesel, one vs. two). I think I'd like it to have a flying bridge, but I'm not sure if it will make the boat too tall to travel certain places. Above all the vessel must be seaworthy and capable of not only sailing along the coast but cruising to the Caribbean--I so want to cruise to Puerto Rico.
I'm already making travel plans for this future boat. We knew we want to cruise the Atlantic Intracoastal Waterway along the East Coast, but did you know there's also a Gulf Intracoastal Waterway? There is also The Great Loop (or Great Circle Route) that incorporates the Atlantic and Gulf Intracoastal Waterways along with a cruise through the Great Lakes and journey through the country's interior down the down the Illinois, Mississippi, Ohio and Tennessee Rivers and the Tennessee-Tombigbee (Tenn-Tom) Waterway to Mobile, Ala.
I can't wait to take this journey. Who knows when that will begin or what the vessel will look like, but we do know what we'll name the boat:
The Caliente Colleen
Anchors Aweigh!!
