About Us

It all started in 1974 when Gary and I first started dating.  We had really known each other since 1964 as we were neighbors and Gary was one of my brother’s best friends.  Gary had been boating on the St. Croix River in Minnesota since he was two; I on the other hand married into boating.  Of course he had to make sure I REALLY liked boating before he decided to marry me.  We were married in 1978 and started our boating career with a 24 foot Sea Ray Weekender.  We were in hog heaven.  In the fall of 1984, while I was pregnant with our daughter, we purchased a 1969 Chris Craft Aqua home from a friend of ours.  In 1987 our son was born and the family was complete.  We raised the kids on the Chris Craft.  Both Jenny and Pat were down on the boat before they were 6 months old, and another generation of boaters was born.  We spent every summer and summer vacation cruising the St. Croix with family and friends.

In 1998 there was a terrible storm on the river, the pier we were tied to, broke away from shore.  The front of the Chris was hit by the “I” beam that was located near the front of our slip.  Luckily we made it safely to shore as did the other 5 families that were aboard their boats that night.  We had been thinking about getting a “pointy” bowed boat for a while and we were just given our opportunity.   We sold the Chris and bought a 43 foot 1972 Pearson Trawler.  Quite a step up for us.  We spent the remainder of our boating years on this boat until we decided it was time to buy our retirement boat.

Gary had been searching the internet for the boat of our dreams.  Although we had a very limited budget, we set out in 2009 to do our “7 boats in 7 days”.  During that trip we traveled from Knoxville, Tennessee to Virginia Beach, Virginia up to Annapolis, Maryland, Lake Erie, Northern Michigan and home thru Manitowoc Wisconsin.  We looked at Katy Krogens, Marine Traders, Defever, Grand Banks and Ocean Alexander.  Can you see the trawler theme here?  Because we had a limited budget, many of the boats we saw were in tough shape and in need of either a complete renovation on the inside, outside or both.  Although none of those boats fulfilled our dreams, we didn’t get disappointed; we knew there was a boat out there for us.

In spring of 2010 we found a Defever in South Carolina that seemed to fit the bill.  We traveled out there to look at the boat and decided, this was the ticket.  We came home and made an offer which was accepted.  We made insurance arrangements, found a place to store it during hurricane season until we could get it back to Minnesota and arranged to have the bottom painted after we bought it.  We made the final trip out to have the sea trials and survey done.  But after the survey was completed we decided the boat was in worse shape than we thought and passed on the deal.  What a disappointment.  We returned to Minnesota and decided to wait until we sold our Pearson trawler before we looked at any more boats.

While Gary continued to search the internet, someone bought our boat in the summer of 2010.  Luckily Gary found a boat that just dropped into our price range.  A 1998 50 foot Navigator.  The boat was located on Lake Michigan.  We decided it must be a sign from above so we left that day to take another road trip to check it out.

Wow!  What a boat.  Hardly used, low hours, really good condition, we were in love but had to keep our poker face on while the broker was there.  We didn’t want to seem too interested.  We went home and discussed an offer to make.  We made our offer, counter offer, offer, and counter offer.  We finally agreed on a price.  Gary drove out for the survey, but the seas were 5 to 10 feet on Lake Michigan, too high for the sea trial, but the boat and engine survey were completed.  After we received the survey there was some more haggling and we came to an agreement on the sale price.  The boat was ours!  By this time it was late in the summer.  Gary worked at our marina, driving boats to and from their slips so they could be pulled for winterization.  We didn’t have much time to get the boat back to Minnesota so Gary could start work around the middle of September.  Luckily, our friends, Gary and Marijean were able to come with us to help bring the boat back to Minnesota.  We borrowed my brother’s van, what a blessing, packed it to the gills with maps, anchors, line, hand held VHS, etc, etc. and we were off.  While we were driving to Michigan, the survey and broker were just finishing the sea trial for us……it passed!

We arrived late Friday night and had just enough time to meet the broker, transfer the money and sign the papers.  We were now the proud owners of a 50 foot Navigator.  Time to celebrate before the work started.  The next morning we hauled all the stuff from the van to the boat and then began the process of getting everything stowed, stocking up on supplies, checking systems and figuring out how everything worked so they could leave Sunday morning.  Someone had to pay for the fuel for the return trip, so I had to be back at work by Monday.  Early Sunday morning they were off.   They traveled from Holland Michigan, in heavy seas to Hammond Indiana.  They traveled south on the Calumet River, onto the Cal Sag shipping channel, then south on the Illinois River to Alton Illinois, which is 30 miles north of St. Louis.  Then they traveled on the Mississippi about 750 miles to the St. Croix River, then home to Stillwater Minnesota.  A 10 day trip.  Once they were home, we started our 3 year final countdown to our final cast off date of September 30, 2013.  And the story begins………..