So, how many of you figured out what happened to the crew of the Touch of Class?  We have had an interesting and crazy month.  As you all know, we have been exploring the river systems from Minnesota down to Orange Beach, AL for the past 2 1/2 years.  With the next logical step of shooting across the Gulf to Florida, we had some decisions to make. First, Florida has no covered slips and when they calculate dockage it is from the tip of the bow to the end of the swim platform, 54 feet, rather than 50 feet.  And the price of gas is very high there and along the East coast, so this makes boating there very expensive.

Then add to that my need to stay out of the sun (sure, so you’re looking at the Sunshine State 😉 ).  I didn’t feel I could live on the boat with no covered slip.  I figured it would be too hot during the summer months and I’d probably have to close all the blinds to keep the sun out, then it would be like living in a cave.  I wouldn’t like that at all.  So we have been bantering around the idea of getting a condo on a canal in Florida.    Of course what ever condo we get would get would have to accommodate a smaller boat.  To that end, we have been looking at condos in Cape Coral, on-line, for the past 6 to 8 months.  We had a very specific list of wants, the first being a place we can take our crew to

Ahoy Mateies

Cause what would life be like without our sweet Smokie?   You’d be surprised how many condos don’t allow pets!  Then we needed a place to put a boat, which has also been hard to find plus it all has to fall within our meager budget, which again, made the selection small.  Finally one that met most of our needs popped up on the radar so we contacted a Realtor.  To bad it didn’t allow pets  Of course now that we have contacted a Realtor, they were able to set up a search list the met our needs.  Now we had a bunch that met all of our needs.  We actually drove down from Chattanooga to Cape Coral to check out a bunch of them all in one day.  We found one that checked all of our boxes plus it faced north so there is plenty of shade for me and my face.

Lanai

We put an offer in, after some haggling, some inspections, some more haggling, we finally agreed on a price.  Holy Hoot, there was no going back now.  We drove back to the boat figuring we’d have to sell the Navigator in order to swing the condo deal.  We were planning on closing on the Condo on October 16th so we only had a few weeks to get our stuff together and put the boat on the market.  We crunched some numbers and figured we could afford to support the condo and the boat for at least 2 years.  Let’s face it, it takes some time to sell a boat and it is heading into fall.  If the boat didn’t sell, then maybe we’d rent out the condo and move back on the boat.  It is always good to have options.  In the mean time we talked to a friend of ours in Chattanooga who’s has a friend that was a broker who actually had his boat directly across from us in Chattanooga.  He came over on a  Monday and talked to us.  Between the two of us we figured out what a fair price on the boat would be.  He also said he was showing a couple of people some boats in the area and would we be willing to have them look at our boat cause he thought they would be interested in it.  Heck yah!  So one guy came and looked the following Wednesday, a family came to look on Thursday (they were both impressed with Gary’s white board in the engine room 🙂 ) and by Saturday we had an offer from the family!  Well knock me over with a feather!  Holy Hoot!  Settle down Colleen, the deal is not done yet.  Well, we haggled with them over the price, using text messages, and came to an agreement.  Wow, were we shocked.  Now we just have to pass survey and oil sampling tests.

So here is how the timeline went:

September 27th – drive down to Cape Coral to look at a come condos, spend 3 days there, find the one we want, make offer, have it accepted, drive back to Chattanooga

October 1st – drive back to Cape Coral to meet with inspectors on Condo, haggle some more with sellers, drive back to Chattanooga with a closing date of October 14th.

October 4th – Meet with boat Broker

October 7th – first guy comes to see the boat

October 8th – second guy comes to see the boat

October 10th – we have an offer

October 12th – we rent a U-haul to pack up our stuff in 28 boxes plus miscellaneous bags and plastic totes from the engine room.

U-hall packed to the gills

We didn’t quite take everything off the boat, it wouldn’t fit.  We’ll have to make a return trip to get the rest.

October 13th – find out survey on boat will be on the 16th.

October 15th – drive to Cape Coral at a much slower pace :)., closing date on the condo has been changed to the 16th.

October 16th – take possession of the condo in Cape Coral.  Meanwhile, back in Chattanooga, the boat undergoes survey and sea trial.  Get a call from our friend who showed and drove the boat for us while we were gone, and he said the boat passed with flying colors but there is a big nick in one of the props

Ouch

Still have to wait for the oil samples from the engines, trannys and the Generator.

October 17th – 22nd – frantically try to put away everything (did not succeed ;( )

October 22nd – We get an E from the broker, all oil samples are AOK!  Yahoo!  We close on the boat on the 29th.  By the time most of you read this we will be traveling back to Chattanooga to close on the boat and train in the new owner.

Did I mention that the condo came furnished?  Not only furnished but every nook and cranny had shit crammed in it.  I know one person’s trash was another person’s treasure, but not too much of the stuff here was a treasure, so we filled up a lot of trash cans.  And dirty!  Man!  If you walk around bare foot your feet get all dirty!  So, lots and lots of cleaning and scrubbing.  Plus we discovered some hidden surprises :(.

Master Shower

Can you tell what that is?  It’s a dead salamander!  Oh boy!

Smokie helps

Wham Bam Thank You Madam.  Holy Crap, in a little less than a month we found a condo, bought a condo, moved our stuff and sold the boat.  I think someone was watching out for us and it was meant to be.

Sooooooo, we are officially landlubbers now and we are also Floridians.  We have the driver’s license to prove it :).  We’ll still be traveling up to Minnesota to visit family and friends in December and a few months in the summer.  Hopefully we made the right decision and won’t miss the boat too much.  Now we’ll be on the outlook for a new to us smaller boat that will fit on the lift.

Our dock with a lift

Then we can continue our adventures on the little boat.  We hope to take some smaller weekend trips and maybe some 2 week trips in the little boat.  I’ll be able to post some of those adventures.  Of course there is always the exciting things to see and do around here.  I’m going to keep the blog going, cause I enjoy doing it, and I have had a few requests to keep it going.  Besides, it lets the family know we are still alive 🙂

We have a spare bedroom, so if you’re in the area, stop on in and visit the crew of the Touch of Class.  And by the way, even though we are dirt dwellers for now, the toilet will always be affectionately called…the head :).