We are now the proud owners of a gently used 2007 Lagoon 380 S2 Catamaran. It took almost as much paperwork as buying a house and vaguely reminded me of buying a car.
The process started with the offers and counter-offers. Once the dollar amount was agreed upon, a lot of people and parts started moving this deal toward the closing date.
We made arrangements with the bank for financing, an easy enough process, but time-consuming. Then we wired the down payment to the closing company. After that, it was time to wait for the scheduled date of the survey, haul-out and sea trial. In the meantime, the research began for marinas to store the boat, insurance, hurricane risks in different areas, boat yards that do quality work, what work needs to be done, etc.
We were in St Augustine, FL for the day of the sea trial and survey. At the same time, the first named storm of the year, TS Andrea, was making her way right over the top of us. That made for a decent breeze for the sea trial and enough rain to require foul weather gear. The survey went as expected and it was affirmed that she was a great boat. We signed the survey acceptance papers that day.
To help you put the size of the boat and lift into perspective in the above photo, that is a man standing at the rear right tire of the travel lit that is hauling the boat out of the water.
Everything flew right along and we closed the deal on June 19th. We flew down to Jekyll Island to see our new baby on Friday and spent the weekend nesting. We had a lot of organizing to do. There were items that we had taken down previously, plus the stuff that we brought with us, and more stuff that we bought at the store while there. It’s a boat, let the spending begin!
We had a great weekend, slept great on the boat, met several of our new neighbors at the Jekyll Island marina, rode bikes around the island, listened to some live music, and hung out on our boat. However, we did not take the boat out for a sail. It may be August before we get there to actually do that. The channel can be a little tricky and we’ll take someone with us that is more familiar with the area when we navigate out of there the first time.
We’ll take it slow … we have time!
