July 2023
It’s tough to say “where it all began” with this great sailing adventure. If you’re curious, I share a little more about the building dreams and plans in our backstory post. When it comes to where it all began with our boat, it’s July 2023.
On 4th of July weekend we were in Maine to visit our friends Fiona and Jack. Tyler found a boat listing that looked interesting nearby and so we toured our very first catamaran. It was a Fountaine Pajot Belize 43 built in 2003.
The boat ticked many of our boxes – set up with equipment for long term cruising, the owner’s version (meaning we’d have a whole starboard hull as our cabin) and of course it was in our price range.
We returned to Colorado and scanned listings to see if we could find another boat that would be worth traveling to see, but nothing held up to the Fountaine Pajot.
After much consideration, we decided to take the next step – an offer and a survey. A survey is just boat lingo for a full inspection. So, we shot over our offer, hit up our favorite local spot to celebrate, and bam, our offer got the green light. We hopped into the nearest photobooth and this shoot marked the kickoff to our floating escapade.
We scheduled the survey for the end of July when we’d be back on the east coast for my college friend’s wedding. Tyler found a colorful and comical character named Angel to do our survey. His quotables are better in person than in writing, but we still laugh about his one liners.
In the images and video below, you’ll see the first few glimpses of our boat, the giant machine you need to haul out a 20,000lbs+ boat and me
