How you end up with a Sailboat...

June 2016 - Getting Ready. The Story of Fool's Path. 

It was Spring of 2016, we hadn't even been together for a year yet, and Kevin and I were apart for a few months. We knew that when we started dating that he was going to return to Florida for the Winter. He is a musician and was in a band called the Happy Dog which played gigs in Key West, FL. (They are still there and are super fun! So, if you are ever in Key West, FL. make sure to look up the Happy Dog and check them out.) He had been there for a few months already and was getting ready to come home.  During his time in the Keys, he fell even more in love with sailing. As a kid, he would sail his sunfish around Lake Nockamixon in Pennsylvania. From a small age, he wanted a sailboat. He would talk about sailing all the time and how he loved being on the water. He regretted not ever joining the Navy (even though he wanted to have been a Navy pilot). Hearing about his love for sailing and his passion for being on the water he had me intrigued to find out what sailing was all about. I was on a sailboat only a handful of times when I was a kid. I am not even sure you could really call it sailing. It was a sunfish on a small lake in Saylorsburg, PA. My Aunt and Uncle have a cabin on Saylors Lake where my Uncle Steve would take me out on the little sunfish. The other time I was on a sailboat was when my Aunt Jen and Uncle Jay were married in Martha's Vineyard. I was 14 years old and they took the whole family out on this big sailboat. I have no clue what kind it was, I only know that it was huge and cool! Now THAT was sailing. We got a cardboard box dinner and everything. I felt like I was rich. 

    

So, knowing all this about Kevin, in the Summer of 2015 we decided to take a sailing course. The Basic Keelboat Sailing Standard (101) through the American Sailing Association. We went back to Kevin's old sunfish stomping grounds of Lake Nockamixon and took the course with Tom Hamilton on a Catalina Capri 25 Masthead Sloop. In full transparency, I totally looked back at my "Offical Certification Log Book" because there is no way that I would have remembered what kind of sailboat we took the course with or with whom (sorry, Tom). Kevin remembers, but he isn't writing this entry. This is where we insert the WTF face because holy shit it was like learning a new language and I had to remember what everything meant to pass the course. 100 questions about terminology, parts and functions of the boat, helm commands, basic sail trims, points of sail, navigation rules to avoid collisions.  Ummmm, what?   I still don't understand half the shit but I passed! I can, however, tie the shit outta a figure-8 square, square reef, clove hitch, half hitch, and cleat hitch. I have learned a few more too after a few years. Knots are pretty amazing. That act of sailing itself is liberating. Being on the water is home. After those few days on the water, I knew what was coming next. We were getting a sailboat. We didn't know how or when or where she was going to be but we knew she was coming into our lives. 

Fast-forward to Spring. Kevin was getting ready to come home from Key West. We talked about looking for a sailboat when he got back home and what we wanted in our first boat. We are fortunate that Kevin's parents live in Seneca Falls, NY right on Cayuga Lake. We talked with them about our dream of owning a sailboat and they kindly offered for us to moor our boat in front of their house when we finally found one. So, sailboat shopping began! We didn't want a big boat. We were thinking around 25 feet like the Catalina that we learned on. We didn't have a lot of money to spend either so we knew she would be a fixer-upper and would have some miles on her. Everything we looked at was shit. I mean, I am not sure they would even stay afloat but with our budget we know it was going to be hard to find something decent. We were willing to put in elbow grease but we needed a solid boat. As we were in the boatyard I spotted a beauty that was for sale. She had a big wide belly and just looked solid, plus I feel in love with the wooden trailboard on the bow. I wanted to look inside even though we didn't know the price. She was also a bit bigger then what we were looking for at 29 feet. Well, Kevin and I fell in love with a 1981 Bayfield 29. This is the one I wanted. Kevin resisted for a few minutes but then finally agreed. She was in great shape, well taken care of and serviced regularly. This is a boat that you don't sell. So, why was it being sold? What happened? Was there something wrong with her that we could not see? And, what was the price? Of course, we asked the selling agent. It turned out that the owner of the boat was a professor at Cornell University and had taken a position in Singapore. He needed to sell. He couldn't exactly take this boat to Singapore, even though I am sure that he wanted to. He took meticulous care of her, Fool's Path. He was asking $14,000. Almost 10,000 more than our original $5000 budget. We needed to think about it. As we were leaving the agent told us that we could probably just make an offer because the owner needed to get rid of it. We didn't know what was fair or what would be an insult. Kevin was asking me what we should do. We called later that day and offered them $7000, half the asking price. Kevin was also embarrassed to offer that price because he really did think it was insulting. The agent hung up with us and said he needed to get in contact with the owner to see if he would accept. No more than 5 minutes later we get a call back from the agent. ACCEPTED! They accepted that offer. We were both in shock. Oh, shit! Now we need to come up with $7000! 

We were now the proud owners of 1981 Bayfield 29, Fool's Path. We needed to get her ready to get back in the water. She was out for almost 2 years. 

Fool's Path, 1981 Bayfield 29 

Till next time! ~ Brook and Kevin