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Old 07-05-2014, 09:37 PM   #40
alormaria
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City: Trenton
Join Date: Apr 2012
Posts: 1,522
Family from Ottawa, Ontario, Canada

Quote:
Originally Posted by taime1 View Post
Thanks for the suggestion, I will look into that - I was originally thinking something a bit bigger, in the 40's, but I won't know until I see it.



I would love to do a trip like the one you describe in your link. How long did it take you? Was the 34-footer big enough for the three of you? We are four, but they are still small now. I could find something a bit smaller and perhaps with more universal appeal, fix it up and sell it for the asking price of the next boat.



Sylvian,

34' is too big when trying to pull into a slip and too small when bouncing around in 5-7 footers off the Jersey coast. It was just the right size for us 3 and the canals. We never had stay-over guests during the trip - but plenty of visitors. There were enough places for us to get together when we wanted to and enough places to hide when we were sick of looking at each other. 2000 was one of the rainiest summers on record. After a few weeks we just locked through in bathing suits. It was also one of the coolest so we didn't miss the air conditioning.

At 34' we were almost always the largest boat on the canals and yet were just small enough to get into the smaller marinas and through some of the tighter and lower areas that larger boats would have to give a miss. There are a few spots on the Rideau that if she was 34.5' I don't think we would have made it. The MT is so funky and friendly that everyone stops to chat, offer to help, give rides, translate, find free dockage, gave Yacht club invitations. Larger boats - not so much. Bicycles on the flybridge were also a great ice breaker and got us at least one free night's dockage.

It took way longer to plan the trip than take it. Planning started in December and we left on July 5th (late as usual). We had to be back by September 1st for the start of middle school. We had postponed this trip since 1993. Lots of things had to fall into place one of which was our daughter had to be old enough to understand it and not old enough to hate it.

Yeah we planned on selling the boat when we got back. Good luck with that one. It would be like selling your mother. Every time I mentioned it everyone broke down in tears. Eventually I stopped. We'll be buried in her.

The trip changed all our lives. My wife went back to the re-insurance company as the woman who "sailed around the world". Her book of business is Ocean Marine - and she actually understands it. My daughter went to college in the town she liked so much on the trip, Troy NY. I have heard that the trip has been the topic of numerous essays and themes. (not that I every saw one) I spent a year as a Yacht Broker (never again) and taught hands-on boat handling. Yeah me - the clown who would do anything not to have to dock in front of a crowd. I also had a lot of good stories for the USCGAUX boating classes I taught for the next 10 years. My career did take a hit. Not that I minded - I'd still rather be plotting the day's course than designing software. I just have to keep the whole "trip" thing on the down low. The geeks don't get it.

Wow. It's been 14 years and it's just yesterday. We retire in a year or so and we are going to start retirement with another trip. Then we're going to sell her. For sure.
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Al Johnson
34' Marine Trader
"Angelina"
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