Esca·pade

/ˈeskəˌpād/

noun

1. an act or incident involving excitement, daring, or adventure. “They told of their escapade on a boat cruising the America’s Great Loop.”

Somewhere, years ago I read about a couple cruising the Great Loop and for years we have dreamt about doing it ourselves. The Great Loop Route is a 6,000-mile nautical adventure that takes you through some of North America’s greatest cities, historic sites and heartlands. At its essence, it’s a circumnavigation of the U.S. and part of Canada that Loopers cruise aboard their own boats, often taking a year or more to complete the journey.

So here we are, with 6 years of retirement under our belts and getting ready to set off on the Great Loop. Who said dreams don’t always come true!

We think Escapade is the perfect name for our new to us loop boat. She is a 1998 Carver Voyager 530 with three staterooms, two full bathrooms, a big salon and galley, a pilot house for driving the boat or can be used as a dining area and a huge covered flybridge for lounging and driving the boat. We think she’s the perfect boat for us.

 

 

Beach House

Beach House was our first boat post retirement and our 3rd boat. When we bought her. She is a 1983 Bayliner 3870 which was completely upgraded by her former owner. We were fortunate enough to have met him at our marina in Anacortes Washington. When we heard she might be for sale, we called the owner Jan Alfiere and made a deal over the phone, sold our other boat and took ownership of her within 6 month. We renamed her Beach House which I will explain a bit later.

Over the years, we had fallen in love with the design of the 38’s and were thinking of a bigger boat for our next adventures. The 38 is a great layout with two staterooms, 2 heads, a nice size galley and even a bathtub!!! All the upgrades that were done to Beach House before we bought her included larger engines, a custom swim step with storage an 8K generator, custom teak/instrument chart table, new carpet, new salon upholstery, a water-maker, new force 10 stove/oven, new refrigerator, a dishwasher (seriously)…the list goes on and on. This boat was set up by the guy who was in charge of keeping the systems at Boeing online and it shows in all the attention to detail spent on getting everything right.

The dilemma with the new boat was to leave her named Laid Back or rename her. We both liked the name Laid Back. Renaming a boat is a big personal choice as it needs to be something meaningful or significant and nothing else had really come to us like a bolt of lightning.

Well, one day not long after we had bought the boat, yet another package was delivered by FedEx with more new dishes, bedding, or who knows what for the boat. Wally, who only thinks of engine stuff or fishing gear said in a very exasperated voice…Geez, another package..how much can you buy. In a hurt voice I answered back…”leave me alone I am decorating my beach house”.

LIGHTENING BOLT…I looked at Wally and almost shouted…that’s it, we should name the boat Beach House. I have long subscribed to Coastal Living and have secretly dreamt of living in a beach house in North Carolina so it made perfect sensed to me.

Well, the dudes a smart guy and he didn’t hate the name so he shopped it around with his boys at work and they, also being smart dudes agreed if your wife likes it…you have to go with it!! So now I have my Beach House, complete with 360 degree changing views.