(posted 02/19/24)
Up at 5:30 to get to the boat by 7 AM. This is to get the bottom paint to the guys painting it.
Today, I got rid of the old batteries, and the bottom got painted. Reneé made a trip to the store and I worked on the Blog.
This is some questions a friend asked:
Forgot to ask……about future plans. At least the one question I asked awhile back when you e-mailed about changes. Your current info. isn’t clear.
The dual question is your intentions on keeping the boat you have now…AND…whether your longterm goal is still to take it through the Panama Canal (considering how much you’ve spent maintaining and upgrading/replacing systems–like sails). You already have a slip, I believe, near your new home in Tennessee. Would you sell the boat you have (and buy a different one–maybe smaller?) for doing the Great Loop? I can’t imagine you doing the PP routine every year…and never getting beyond PV.
So, our plans look something like this (Remember life is what happens when you make plans, and GOD is always in control):
We have decided that we will keep Make Me Laugh Again in Banderas Bay (Puerto Vallarta area) for the next 5 years. We have looked at going south to Panama and then across to Florida and exploring the Caribbean and the Gulf of Mexico. As we looked at this the cost of slips in Florida have gone up in price, and we really like the Puerto Vallarta area.
In 2023, we restructured our finances, sold our house in Florida and bought a house in Tennessee. This significantly reduced our tax bill,(property tax as neither Florida or Tennessee have state income tax).
We chose Tennessee based on wanting to do the Great Loop (a boating trip around the eastern part of the US) and no state income tax, it is also a very beautiful state. The area we picked is near the Tennessee river (5 blocks) which is part of the Great Loop. To do the Great Loop our boat doesn’t fit the bill well. Because it is on the inland waterways, draft is important our boat has a 5 foot draft, which is the upper limit on recommendations. But shallower is better, our boat has a 65 foot mast, the shortest bridge is 19’6” and if you get around that, there are some in the 20 foot range etc. So a different boat is necessary for that trip.
We are on the waiting list for a slip on Pickwick Lake (near our place in Tennessee, but it is supposed to be about 5 years).
What does this all mean for the Panama Canal? We probably won’t go there. However, when it comes to selling Make Me Laugh Again, we will have to decide the best place to keep her while selling. Choices will be to keep her in Mexico, take her up to San Diego, or through the Canal and up to Texas, or Florida. That decision is still 5 years away though, so we will table it until we get closer in time.
