Someone once said that the two best days in a boater's life are they day they buy their boat and the day they sell it.

Whoever that was, they obviously never owned a cruising boat.

In what seemed (to me, at least) a sudden move, thanks somewhat to less than great decisions in a challenging economy, our catamaran Hetty B was gone - sold to a person I never met.

I can assure you, that didn't rank anywhere near the top of the two best days of my life.

As Bill Murray said in the movie Stripes (yes, I am that old), "And then the depression set in." But it didn't last for long.

The ink wasn't yet dry on the sales contract when my plane touched down in Ft. Lauderdale. I had managed to squirrel away a very small portion of the proceeds - it was inconceivable for me to not have a cruising boat. I spent a few days looking around at the bottom rungs of Yachtworld and Craigslist hoping to find my diamond in the rough. It turns out it wasn't in Florida.

A week or so later I found myself in a 1970s motel in Hyannis, Massachussetts. Not only was I excited to see a boat I had found on an Internet site but it was also kind of cool reliving my childhood - the motel reminded me of the days traveling from our small, rural Minnesota town to the big city for a weekend stay at the Guest House Inn in downtown Minneapolis.

In those days, the "turbulent" early 70s, I was free to roam the city. Can't imagine that today.

But back to the present. On Cape Cod there was a 1979 Downeast 32 that called out to me all the way to Iowa. It was a cash-only deal and I was so certain about it that I made arrangements to have the cash ready before I left. Yes, I know - don't get emotionally attached in a deal, be logical, be rational - I was none of that. I'm not a "selling my boat was the second best day of my life" kind of guy, remember?

My being boatless lasted less than two weeks - but that was enough. The new boat was far, far less expensive than Hetty B but oddly, I'm somehow more attached to her already. She needs work - and beginning next month she will get the attention she so richly deserves.

From there, we will sail south. Eventually we'll figure out how we'll both be back to doing it full-time - but this is not that time.

And to where will we sail? I don't know. Somewhere out there.

Fair Winds to you!

Mitch

P.S. - I may twitter along the way. Feel free to sail along at http://twitter.com/traphagen (as an aside, I'll try to be clever and insightful and full of tales of adventure but failing that, a few words of advice: if you don't expect much, you won't be disappointed).

Click here to email me directly.  I respond to each and every email that doesn’t include a solicitation for a fake watch, a questionable investment scheme or male enhancement product.  In other words, I really do hope to hear from you.