Tortuga , my Bristol yacht that I work on more than sail, may be on it’s way shortly to another owner. It has slowly been weathering, rarely used. Takes up to an hour to get ready to get under way. I really need a full day free to use it. Forget trying to fish on it and it would be very difficult to set or retrieve any Chesapeake Crab Pots with it. It was good for me back in 2001, a show boat at the Southhall Landings Marina during the Hampton years.
Call it mid-life crisis, or even some sailing friends have referred to it as “Defecting to the Dark Side” things have changed. I want power and I want to fish, again.
It finally came to head earlier this summer, on a nice day of light breezes, I was not on the sailboat, not even interested in the sailboat. No, I was inside, watching, or maybe more like transfixed by some Discovery Channel Deadliest Catch Marathon and I had an epiphany. I finally said it out load – I hate my sailboat. Kind of like someone who after years of agony finally says – I want a divorce. I want to go fishing and rip up and down the Bay, maybe a little out into the Atlantic a little ways. It is time for a change of equipment.
Already have some serious interest from buyers who feel that Tortuga would be right for them. I will find her a good home. I am out crawling around on various power boats, the ones made for fishing move quickly around here. Want power and speed, and more work area than cabin and dive platform off the back. Forget the sink, septic, stove and frig, all that stuff just adds cost, maintenance, never works right, and just add more through hull and through deck fittings and potential for disaster. I’ll share more about my boat hunting adventures later cause now I need to figure out what the strange goo in the tackle boxes is since they haven’t been opened for years.