the first cruise is always the best on...for me anyways.

[hearsejr]

well what started out as a look at an old abandoned sail boat among a heaven of rich sailing yachts, has turned in to a cruise that you only read about from other people who spend thousands of dollars before they ever set foot on the docks. here's the story in it's full glory and no stretching of the truth nor any left out bit's of bud luck ..or lack of good judgment on my brother or my behalf. the second life of the ghost ship of Whitaker's creek. it all started back in December of 2001, when I discovered a copy of the "Latitudes & Attitudes" in a doctors office while awaiting my youngest brother to get admitted to the hospital. as I thumbed through the pages, and saw the clear blue water and the boats moving along with out any help from mans inventions, and seamed to be getting pushed by the hands of god. I was hooked at that second on. I tried to fight it by only looking at a few boats here and there, and as the seller would say a price I would start lifting on the door handle to head back home. this worked good up too mid 2002 when a guy said "I'll let go to a good home for $1500."..which was closer then I had ever thought possible. well I tried to to talk myself in to rethinking this thing about wanting a boat, but back fired and I was finding it harder to think about anything else. then came the day I said heck with it I'll get something! I had $1500 and a nice truck...even if it was a ford ranger ... I hate fords by the way...and a brother who wanted to go with me to look and maybe even help out with a few extra $$ dollars if need be. I made a few calls and found 4 boats , all turned out to be poop, and my truck lost a transmission in V.A., but that's another tale further down in this very board. then I saw this ad which was just posted and not to far away..it was in my own state after all. the guy said "it had water in the soles the engine was a diesel and might be in to bad of a condition to use, and it will need a lot of work to get it in ship shape." we got there and once again the decile turned in to a gas powered engine. the boat was filthy, and it had about 3 feet of fresh water in the floors. I said I like it but it looks a bit rough for the money, which they posted $900, and he said he thought the owner would drop the price to say $700. I went back to the boat and closed my eyes and a warm braze blowing in my seamed to say""""gggooo  fffffoooorrrr iiiiittttt" ..talk about little voices and strange winds.... so on July 4, I became the owner of a very filthy Coronado 27, and as I went through the loads of poop left over from the last owner, I discovered that the last time the boat went out was in 198?.!! I had my work cut out for me. my brother and myself worked our ass off, most of the time in 90+ degree days, to get this boat cleaned up. we got just about everything working except the shifting part of the powered systems, and the water tank...and I broke the pump handle on the toilet.we went an bought a kicker motor mount and and a small out board that we haven't made to run yet..that is when we noticed that we had a following out there. people would come down to our slip just to see how the boat was looking. they would talk about it in their little secret circles, and one day I over heard 2 little girls yell out hay thats the boat dad said was sinking..it looks a lot newer now.. the people started coming forword and would say stuff like "wow you guys have done what I thought was impossible" or "man she is looking new" .. well then came this week end ..the big day ...the day I both , look forword too, and feared, all at the same time....from this moment on, it will always be called "L" day. the day we launched.. well as soon as we got out in to the mouth of the creek right off Oriental green marker no.1, we pulled the sails up, and shut off the motor in the warm 5 mph winds. it was slow but was cost free so I sit back and enjoyed the ride. we left the Pier at about 2 pm, and I was still learning how to use the charts when I saw the the I.C.W. marker and mis under stood the distance and turned in the wrong inlet. I was lost and went a few miles out of the way, but it wasn't to bad. we needed to pull in some where for the night anyway. I bumped the boattom one time , but Lee turned the out board hard left, and I jumped up on the cabin top, and leaned way over the railing which helped give us a few extra inches to clear the bottom. no big deal the whole thing only lasted about 3 minutes from the time the boat stopped moving till we were around the bar. we dropped the anchor in the mouth of the river and started reading a book...I was reading scoobie doo and you...Lee read, "Archeology today" mags. the next day I was up around sun rise, and we started looking for the ICW....which was 3 miles away. we where just having fun anyway. well we asked a guy where it was and he pointed us in the right direction and as soon as hit the channel the wind was blowing, and we said heck this is a sail boat so we are going sailing. we went from the coast to the barrier islands and back again, twice. so it is safe to say that we traveled a good 50 - 70 miles out of the way under sail. well the wind stopped and we motored to the ICW, and as the sun was looking low I decided to just keep going till we hit the hickory point area. you know there is some unlighted markers there that will sneak right up on you? anyway I was right on course, and it was unbelievable how it all was falling right in to place. we dropped anchor of the pamilco(spl?) beach, and after a rocky night, we were up before sun rise, and off again. we had a about 10 miles or so to go so we took it easy and all of a sudden we heard something break beside the boat. I looked to see what had fell off or what was going when a Dolphin broke right beside me. I could have touched him , I was so close. they traveled with us for a couple of miles and and then went else where for their excitement. about an hour later we could see our new home and the adventure was near the end. as we left the docks on our way to the house, I was tired, but way to excited to sleep. this was a dream come true for me in many ways. I was doing the one thing I felt I was born to do. almost like I had been a sailor for almost my whole life. I can only dream of the day when every thing is in working order and we can head out again...maybe this time I not make plans for the following week..it took an extra day, but I think most of that was because the wind was blowing on day 2 and we couldn't get left out of all the fun. Bill

[starcrest]

iss'jus' like I always say----'snever as good as the first time.as for the dolphins-more properly called "porpoise"{anatomically termed"tersiops"}--I have seen the purposly change their direction from far far away ----justa' come rite up to the boat and"fly" along on the bow wave.in the middle of nowheresville ;D