Sunset Delight - Our Next Chapter

A little less than six months ago when I said "The End" at the end of our Great Loop Adventure blog postings, I did not realize it would literally be the end of our boat travels on our beloved and faithful Sea Moss! A lot has happened in the last few months, and we made some life-changing decisions. Though she served us well, we are selling Sea Moss.

In mid-September, Clark and I went to visit our son and his family in Connecticut, and while there, attended the Newport, Rhode Island boat show - a relatively short drive away. For at least five years, Clark and I have dreamed of owning a Krogen Express, so while at the boat show, we took time to salivate over the one they had on display. We had no intentions of buying; we just like to look. The owner of the company knows us by name since we have toured his boat so many times. He did not even bother to show us around this time - he just told us to wander at will.

We have spent hours on board a Krogen Express at one boat show or another and never left port! The Rhode Island boat show proved no different. We had no interest in seeing any other vessels on display. We toured the Krogen Express, again for some rather long period of time, and at the end of the day headed back to Connecticut.  As we drove away from the boat show, I told Clark that we needed to stop attending boat shows as it was too disappointing to keep looking at a Krogen Express when the possibility of actually owning one seemed far too remote to consider a possibility. Sadly Clark agreed with me.

While at the boat show, we learned one extraordinary bit of news, however; it seemed, by the remotest of possibilities, not one but two pre-owned Krogen Express vessels had come on the market. Our hope has been that at some time in the future, perhaps a couple of years from now, one of the existing owners would decide to sell.  That two came up for sale virtually simultaneously is beyond remarkable.  Clark inquired, and the broker sent us literature and pictures of the two boats up for sale.

Interestingly, we had met the owners of several Krogen Express vessels at the Krogen Express rendezvous in Marathon, Florida in March of 2016. One couple there told us of all the improvements they had requested in their model (hull #8) when they had it built, and they advised us against buying any model built earlier than their hull number. The two boats that came up for sale consisted of hull # 6 and amazingly hull #8 itself.

The advertised differences between hull #6 and hull #8 included stabilizers in 8 and a hard top on 8. When we talked with him in Florida, the owner of hull #8 implied a number of other improvements. Perhaps, as with the multitude of enhancements we have made to Sea Moss, the changes are not as apparent as the two most notable, and advertised, differences. After studying and comparing the material on hull 6 and hull 8, we decided if we bought one, it would be hull #8 or later.

A Krogen Express almost within our grasp was too much temptation for Clark who suddenly started pouring over our finances with a "fine-toothed comb".  Much to my surprise, he decided we should go after the boat, and a little more then two months later, we find ourselves the owners of hull #8. The boat was named Wilhelmina as the owners were Danish and the wife's name Wilhelmina aka Willie. Alas, for us, the name would need to be changed.

For a while we thought about keeping the Sea Moss name and moving it to the new boat, but "No more techie names please", I begged Clark and, for once, he listened. After many choices tossed about and discarded by ourselves, we went to our children and their wives for advice on a name. Their insistence that we not use the word "Lady" in the boat name astounded us, but since both sets of families were adamant that we not use that word, we decided to comply with their wishes. Of course our first choice name had the word "Lady" in the name! Thus, given Clark's pursuit of the perfect sunset every day of our Great Loop Adventure, we have chosen to name our "new-to-us" Krogen Express Sunset Delight.

As a result of suddenly having a new boat with a new name, I found myself with a dilemma regarding my boating blog http://cmosboating.blogspot.com - should I now start a new blog for our next set of adventures? When we were on our trip, folks starting calling Clark and me "Sea Moss" as a nickname of sorts. If someone we knew saw us on the street or at a party, we would hear, "Hey, it's Sea Moss!" So, perhaps, we are as much "Sea Moss" as the boat was!?  With so many folks already familiar with the cmosboating link, I have decided to keep the same blog going.

Buying the boat turned into an adventure in and of itself! I have never seen so much paperwork from a bank for the loan as we did for this one. We signed well over 30 disclosure statements. I know we signed some of them multiple times just to update the date on the paperwork. The good and bad news was that we could do the documents electronically. Good news because of convenience; bad news because the web site said "max file size of 15 meg" but in actuality it was 10 meg. The bank repeatedly requested we transmit files 1 thru 10 of 30, and we did multiple times. After the third or fourth try, and much loss of valuable time, we found out the files were not being received due to file size. Instead they were just being thrown into the "bit bucket" by the computer!

During our frustrating banking experience, the broker applied a lot of pressure on us to speed things along which only added to our stress. With fall boat shows in full swing, if our sale fell through, the broker did not want to miss out on the next buyer. We literally had a race against the Fort Lauderdale boat show. If we could not get a commitment from the bank before the show, the broker threatened to put the boat back on the market. Somehow, and what feels like somewhat miraculously, we got the commitment just in the nick of time.

In the midst of all this chaos, we drove to Florida to see the boat, have an inspection done, and take it out for a test run on the water. Needless to say it met with our approval. In fact the inspector said he was desperately looking for something to put in his report! On December 7th, after much nail-biting on my part and lack of sleep on Clark's, we finally took ownership of our dream vessel - 25 years to the day after moving into our dream home. It must be a lucky date for us regardless of its normally dismal remembrances (12/7/1941). I'm no more likely to forget 12/7/1991 when we moved into our new home than I will 12/7/2016 when we took ownership of our new second home.

We rented a van, packed up all our boating belongings, and planned to leave Rumson today to drive to Florida to move onboard Sunset Delight. Mother Nature had other ideas! Snow storm Helena has blocked our departure. Instead of driving south, Clark is out in the driveway with the snowblower! We hope to leave tomorrow; however, with the cupboards and refrigerator all but completely bare, I cannot help but wonder what our dinner will look like tonight. Perhaps a "once-warm" pizza will find its way to our house through the snow!

I will pick up on posting stories to my blog as we encounter more adventures on the sea. When we get some pictures of the new boat, I will post them. Meanwhile, here is one from when she was named Wilhelmina!

Thanks for reading!

If interested, the ad for Sea Moss can be found here:
http://mainship350forsale.blogspot.com/