Again we were able to meet with the local broker and had access to look at Liberty, she was lovely with a Mike Hawker style painted hull, she was missing a few essential items that we would need to instal, she certainly was worth considering. We loved her painted hull but we were still not convinced this was the one.

We thanked the broker and drove off with no idea where to go or what to do next.

St Augustine, old city is a very busy tourist town with narrow streets so we felt kinda lucky when we found a parking spot outside an “Australian Pie Shop”  - that Craig could not resist, plus they had barista coffee and free wifi. It was metered parking and by the time we left we had spent a small fortune in the parking meter. 

So we sat writing lists of all the pros and cons for each of the vessels we had looked at.

We were weighing up our options, there was still not a boat that had ticked all the boxes but all were better than the original boat we had paid a deposit on and left home to come and buy. 

Back on the internet Craig was going back over the Hunter 49 yachts for sale and he 

casually mentions “there are two for sale in Toronto, Canada”

Toronto “Pending” 50ft   2014 built 

Wiarton “Adriana 1” 49ft   2010 built 

So sitting in a little Aussie themed cafe weighing up our options, we still hadn’t found a boat that “gave us joy”  we made the “well we have come this far, why not go to Canada and check out two more” decision. 

Ps. The meat pie wasn’t that nice, nor the coffee but the free wifi was excellent. We managed to get Canadian Visas, book early flights the next morning to Toronto and organise an appointment to see the next vessel on our list.

It was hard to leave St Augustine without exploring the old city but we will be back.

On the 31/2 hour drive to St Augustine we passed Daytona Speedway and The Cape Canaveral Space Station, we did a short detour to Cape Canaveral and have the photos to prove it, but decided not to spend the money on the entrance fee, we may have been tempted to visit Disneyland but actually didn’t even know we were close by.

From Cape Canaveral we drove the coastal road into St Augustine, it was cold and windswept but you could see how pretty it would be in summer, miles and miles of cape cod type houses right on the sand, straight out of the movies, there were a few surf shops and we passed a hooching bar that looked very inviting and I think if there had been a parking spot close by we would have been tempted to stop, this was the beachside, following the road we came to the historic part of St Augustine full of old churches a stunning university in the old hospital and so much history.

St Augustine is a beautiful city it is the oldest continuously settled place in the USA, Christopher Columbus discovered the area in 1492, I just realised Christoper Columbus was Spanish. 

We followed google maps to the marina and we could see Liberty through the fence it it was a Sunday and there was no access, it was also a bit late in the day. 

We had booked our airb&b early that morning so we were organised for a change.
We had a lovey Thai meal in a small restaurant we spotted on our way to the Marilyn Munro room, it was a good meal and it was nice to have a Thai fix we are missing our weekly visits to Thai on The Island. 

The Marilyn Munro room was in a nice home, the owner definitely allowed us our privacy - she opened the door and handed me a key “ you will need this, as the door will lock behind you” she said, then she disappeared!!

After a restful but slippy sleep in the red satin sheets we packed the car again and headed into St Augustine. 

Plan B

There were a few more Hunter 49's that we wanted to look at  they were located up (North) the Florida coastline so we picked up our luggage and started driving - using google maps on Craigs phone.

While we were driving we picked out an airb&b in Boynton Beach which was 60 miles approx 1 hour drive from Miami and on the way to Fort Pierce the next boat on our list.

While we were driving we booked the airb&b, nothing like doing things on the run.  The owner is a veteran airb&b host and wasn’t going to let us book without going through some pre requisites - picture this 

Owner “Have you seen my rules"   Me " Craig I need the phone to look at airb&b" 
Craig " I need the maps to drive" Me "well we need to sleep somewhere". 
so  I look at the rules they all seem reasonable, txt reply “yes we don't mind if you have a pet, no we wont spray hairspray or wear perfume in your house etc, we agree to your terms”. 

Owner txt “do you have photos of yourselves” I explain she will need to look on Facebook as we are driving and need the maps on the phone. 

Owner Txt “ I don’t normally take bookings without checking you out thoroughly especially last minute ones” 

We must have managed to convince her that we were nice and genuine as eventually we had a confirmed booking.

We stopped at a Target store and bought a sandwich for dinner. Our airb&b was lovely the room was clean and spacious with a shared bathroom, again we collapsed into bed exhausted.

In the morning we were served a beautiful breakfast of Pop Overs and we headed off to Fort Pierce.

Fort Pierce is a lovely town and it was St Patrick’s weekend so lots of people and lots to see, but we had come to look at a boat...

This boat was for sale but the broker selling it was not available to show it to us but via telephone the owner agreed to allow us access to view her, the marina owner was lovely but protective of the boats in her marina which is understandable and something we would all want but we had to plead our case to gain access. 

She was a lovely Hunter 49 but not quite good enough.

After a burger for lunch we headed back south to Boyton Beach we drove down the coast road via West Palm Beach A1A    OMG there are a lot of wealthy politicians and Hollywood stars live on this road, one side looks out to the ocean the other overlooks the inter coastal waterways.  The mansions were huge and the gardens immaculate.

We were a bit disillusioned with our boat hunting, then we couldn’t find anywhere we fancied for dinner, we ended up at a Chinese restaurant in Boyton Beach.

The restaurant was full, we took that as a good sign. They had a ticket system, the patrons waited outside until their number was called it was really busy, the food was ok but it was a really funny night everyone looked like typical American grandparents, they were all retirees and those accents, think Seinfeld’s parents or Everyone Loves Raymond,  in fact  the whole trip so far had been a bit surreal, driving down the highway we were listening to Doobie Brothers, Fleetwood Mac, Toto you guessed it Africa, Tom Petty, Foreigner yup love isn’t always on time, and what’s that other one Boys of Summer? It was a real step back in time.

We stayed a second night in Boyton and next morning we had beautiful Crepes for breakfast with homegrown star fruit and local mandarins. We loaded the car and got on the road with no real plan !!

We made it around the corner and pulled into a Starbucks, there was another boat worth looking at in St Augustine further up the coast. We literally spent the day in Starbucks organising to look at Liberty.

Our lovely airb&b In Boyton Beach that we had left that morning had offered us a 3rd night so we called and confirmed and drove back around the corner. 
We found a great little place called chickpea for an early dinner, then filled in some time wandering around a Walmart.

Chickpea for dinner one of the few healthy eateries we found In Florida

Lovely Cherie and her husband did not charge us any money for our 3rd night and they will always be welcome on board wherever we are.

After a lovely fresh eggs bread and olive oil breakfast we packed the car again and headed further north to St Augustine.

Arriving in Florida 

The weather was nice and mild it was around 8pm and actually still the same date we had left Melbourne.

We hailed a taxi from the taxi rank OMG

Once we were in the taxi we realised the meter was turned off the Id on the dashboard was not our driver and the driver had no idea where to go!!

The taxi pulled into a dark deserted car park to install google maps onto his phone, Craig had to help him and it took ages, I’m thinking "oh no it’s a set up" totally expecting  a car full of scary dudes with guns were going to pull up any minute, rob us and leave us standing there with only the clothes on our backs.

But no they got google running and we were on our way.

We had booked one night at an airb&b close to the airport, just a room and shared bathroom in a downstairs apartment it was nice and clean and we virtually fell into bed, Craig had managed to sleep a bit during the flights but I had binge watched movies and eaten everything offered, of course.

Our first day - 

The airb&b was clean and comfortable and we asked if we could book a 2nd night but no they had another booking. it’s a bit scary being in a new country without a plan.

We had paid $10,000 deposit on a boat called Santa Lucura it was from Brazil and had been brought up to be sold in Miami,  where there is a bigger selling market, the photos looked ok and our broker who was based on the other side of Florida had asked a friend to inspect it and she had said it was an 8/10 so we were excited.

We had purchased a USA sim card at the airport so the local dealer was able to message us via our original broker it got a bit confusing, anyway he offered to pick us up and show us through Santa lacura that morning yay.

An hour and a half later we were still waiting ! 

Eventually he arrived and we climbed into his car, having arranged to leave our suitcases at the airb&b for the morning.

Miami is huge, I really only saw it from the expressway going over the city  - everyone drives really fast and on the other side of the road, I was all eyes.

We were taken to a city marina where we traversed over a rickety metal gang plank onto Santa Lacura. 

She was filthy outside, the canvas dodger was old and torn, the sails apparently had not been used much but you could easily see where they were wound up that they were all cracked and deteriorating, Craig was so disappointed. There was a huge stainless steel structure on the back where you would winch up the dingy it was odd and impractical and looked like a Christmas tree.

Inside was no better, the boat was full of junk, it was filthy, I know everything can be cleaned, but for example the blinds were all mouldy and torn and would have to be replaced, she was certainly not an 8/10 and definitely was not worth the money they were asking. By that time it was drizzly rain and we were quite miserable. 

We did have a bit of a plan B, but we needed to hire a car, while the broker was driving us back to the airb&b he realised he was running an hour late for his next appointment, he had not changed his clocks after daylight savings over the weekend. We believed him as he seemed very unorganised. So to save time Craig google searched for a car hire close by and we asked him to drop us off, we turned off the freeway into the industrial back lots of Miami, he apologised and drove off leaving us at the dodgiest car rental place ever !! I guess he knew we were not going to buy his boat.

I thought the guy in the car rental place was nice and helpful but Craig felt we had been ripped off as we were standing in his office with really no other option.  We drove away in a reasonable car we hired for 1 week

In hindsight we were lucky we chose the unlimited mileage package.

Craig did such a good job of driving on the other side of the road, to this day I’m in awe of this skill.

We or should I say Craig had done volumes of research and narrowed down the search to one type of boat a "Hunter 49" it is a factory produced boat, built in the USA, this design ticked all our boxes, It had to be oceangoing, stable, 3 bedrooms - so enough space for family and friends, a good spacious galley (kitchen), the sail configuration was important as well as the engine, type.  49-50 foot was big enough to live on comfortably and it had to be within our budget. And not too big for 1 and a 1/2 sailors to manage.

The  Hunter is a USA built boat and there were none for sale in Australia, we also felt that starting our trip from Australia was a bit restrictive and buying in the US meant we could start from that side of the world, spend 5-8 years cruising and eventually head home.  One had come up for sale in New Zealand but it had sold as soon as it came on the market.  There are also tax benefits with buying outside Australia.

Craig had done a reconnaissance trip the exact same month in 2018, 12 months almost to the day he went to check out what the Hunter was like inside and what you got for your buck as far as do we buy new - spend lots of money or buy older, costs less but could be more work and not worth it in the long run.  He came home with lots of stories about the US and Miami and confirmation he thought the Hunter 49 was the way to go.  March 2018 we were not quite ready to make the purchase or the move but during 2019 circumstances shifted and we decided it was time.

We had found our perfect boat a 2009 Hunter 49 for sale in Florida called Santa Lacura and after lots of back and forward emails decided to pay a deposit to secure her for ourselves.
We worked with a broker and he had sent a friend to check her out and reported back she was a good boat and worth purchasing.  We knew we could get our deposit refunded if she was not the one.

We left Tullamarine Airport Melbourne two days after Craig's 56th birthday.  Steven my brother delivered us to the airport with 2 suitcases each and the hand luggage maxed out. Thank You Steven, 
Steven also followed through with the shipping of our 3 boxes of stuff from home -the boxes contained some smaller tools, a pile of sailing books that Craig had treated himself to when we sold the Garden Supplies business in 2010, some basic kitchen utensils, Craig's wet weather gear and although we were heading to warm climates I did throw in our thermals and a few beanies for overnight passages and of course more dresses and tshirts for me.

Our first flight was 16 hours Melbourne to LA   then  LA to Miami, Florida USA.
We had about  2 1/2 hours to get off the first flight, check in to USA, collect baggage and clear customs, then find departure gate for 2nd flight.  
It was stressful standing in lines that looped back and forward over and over with hundreds of people checking in, we started to panic we were going to miss our next flight,  but the line did move steadily until it was our turn.  
One of my concerns had been about checking into US we had heard lots of stories about other people landing, then not being allowed to enter or being detained for hours.  Funny the United States thinks everyone wants to move there to live permanently.
We had purchased return flights as it seemed we would have problems getting into USA without them and anyway the cost was not that much more than buying one way.  

We decided to tell the truth about what we were doing if we were questioned.
The gentleman who checked us in did ask us the reason for our visit but the fact that we had put a deposit on Santa lacura in Florida was enough for him to let us through  whew.

We collected our bags, nothing to declare and the connecting flight departure gate was not too far away.  
The LA to Florida flight had an hour stopover in Las Vegas so lucky me got to see the Nevada Desert and Las Vegas from the air, it was enough just to see it as I have never had any desire to visit, we missed seeing the Grand Canyon which would have been cool.

Craig has had the dream of living onboard a yacht and sailing off into the sunset for I’d say the last 20 years, I always knew of this dream but it wasn’t until the last year or so that I realised I had to make a decision - Will I  go or will I stay- and you know what, once I really thought about it I certainly did not want to stay at home and watch tv every night and do the usual 9-5. 
There is so much more to see in this world and a yacht would allow us to go places we would not normally consider or even have access to.

Looking back, all our previous holidays had contributed in some way to this decision, we had spent 4 months travelling together across Australia in our Winnebago YES, I knew we could live in a small space together. Sailing Thailand, Phuket to Langkawi, Malaysia YES I felt comfortable in a yacht and it’s fun.

We love to travel and spend time with locals , we had travelled by boat, plane, bus and train through Sri Lanka, Singapore, Thailand, Bali and Vietnam staying in airb&bs and inexpensive hotels and had loved every interaction, stressful wrong bus ride, unknown destination and all the highs and lows of finding edible meals without paying a fortune.

I must admit I have not done much sailing. I have never been seasick (yet). I’ve been out on Craig’s various boats over the years and together we completed lots of overnighters but no long passages or big trips.
Even thought Westernport Bay was stunning I always found it too be just a tad chilly !! unless it was the middle of summer.

Craig was always quite happy to go on longer trips with his sailing cronies Geoff and Bob and I always felt it was good for the boys to spend time together, so made no real effort to accompany him on these trips.

Refuge Cove, Wilsons Prom

Craig had competed with Newhaven Yacht Squadron with his highest honour being winning the Golden Jubilee Race

Newhaven Marina 

I was never brave enough to go out racing with Craig - look at that face 

We had spent the last couple of years watching other people sail around the world on You Tube so if nothing else I had a good idea of the lingo and the good parts of what other people were experiencing.

So we packed up, moved out, said our goodbyes and caught a flight to Florida. 

Getting Away

Our Back Yard Looking over Bass Straight

Our two boys Mitch (26) & Callum (24) both living out of home, are very independent and weren't making the 2 hour road trip back to Phillip Island very often, so we figured that we might actually see more  of them whilst away living on a yacht in some exotic place. We could facetime, messenger and hopefully on their annual holidays they could fly over and spend time with us - where they would be held captive on the boat and forced to spend quality time with us. Not really, but what a great opportunity for us all!  Steven my brother threw a lovely Bon Voyage party for us at his house with my Mum and Dad, Deidre, Craig's brothers and families all in attendance. It was really touching that all the nieces and nephews came too.

My beautiful Mum was very philosophical in her words to me very early on in our plans, she said "don't wait for us, you need to do this now" so I feel we have her blessing on our travels.  My parents emigrated to Australia from Scotland in the 70's, they too had packed up everything and travelled to another country, so I feel they understood in some way what we were doing.  That doesn't mean it was easy saying Bon Voyage - but we have face time to keep in touch. "Love you Mum and Dad XX"