The First Passage Beers

Everything about this process has happened faster and easier than expected. We never thought our house would go under contract so quickly or that I’d get a job offer for an awesome, fully remote position the same day we signed the contract. We definitely never anticipated that we would find a boat so quickly.

The buyers for our house sale also got their funding approved earlier than expected, allowing us to move up the closing. The way it worked out, we sold our house on a Friday and bought the boat the following Monday. Talk about doing all the stressful, big life things at basically the same exact time.

While it has certainly not been free of stress, things have truly fallen into place. For that, we are incredibly appreciative.

We had to wait for a good weather window to move the boat from Fort Lauderdale, closer to home. On Saturday, we picked up the boat, gassed up and sailed to West Palm Beach. The previous owners were kind enough to accompany us on our first sail to help pilot the boat, so we spent the day firing off questions to absorb as much of their knowledge as possible. They are truly the most incredible people. We are so grateful to now have new sailing friends and the boat of our dreams.

It was a beautiful downwind sail from Fort Lauderdale. We got to try several different sail configurations. We sailed wing-on-wing for a while until the winds began to pick up. We practiced our jibing skills and got acclimated to the boat. By the afternoon, the winds picked up enough that we reefed the mainsail.

For the first month, we decided to find a slip at a local marina to make moving onto the boat a bit less daunting. As we got closer to the entrance of the Palm Beach inlet, we could see the weather starting to turn nasty to the west. The wind was howling out of the south too.

It was only my second time docking the boat. The first was just 10 hours earlier at the fuel dock. Luckily the team at the marina came out to help us with lines. With about five feet of space off our bow and five feet off of our stern, we successfully maneuvered into the spot without a scratch in +20 knots winds. My heart may have been in my throat, but I’m so proud that Tom and I piloted the boat the entire day.

We checked on our dock lines, adding some additional spring lines and adjusting the fenders to align with the pilings. Once it began to rain, we settled in for a round of passage beers. A cold Corona never tasted so good!