The week after we finalized the purchase of the boat, I got a phone call for a last minute freelance job in Salt Lake City. I received the call mid-morning on Wednesday and was on the plane on Friday. It was a much needed and appreciated infusion of cash, but it meant that Brian spent the first week of our boat ownership alone with the boat. Even though I was staying in the nicest hotel I’ve ever been in, I was very jealous.

That quickly changed. The boat was in the Marine Service Center boat yard in Anacortes, WA. They do not allow live-aboards in the yard, nor do they allow you to be in the yard after sunset or on weekends. It should probably go with out saying that they donot have internet either. Brian works remotely, he needs both power and a good internet connection to work effectively. Working on the boat wasn’t really an option for him. I dropped him off at the local Starbucks, grabbed breakfast and a coffee and headed over to the boat to start in on assessing, cleaning, and organizing.

It had been raining for nearly 2 weeks straight when I finally made it onto the boat. What I found made my disillusioned heart sink into my stomach.

Water incursion spots into our mattress cushions!

It was a VERY dry summer and it had not rained in the slightest the 3 times we looked at the boat before buying it. There was water everywhere! Big puddles greeted me at every turn. There were 2 on the bed in the aft master cabin where we are supposed to sleep! The seat of the nav station was soaked through.  The settee near the tv was wet in one corner and the cupboards, lockers and shelfs on the starboard side of the boat were all dripping. I wrung the cushions on the bench out like a sponge. It was one of those moments when you make a major life change where you say to yourself… Holy Fuck WHAT HAVE I DONE?! I was completely overwhelmed. From there, my imagination went straight into the 5th dimension and I was imagining Brian and I starring in the boat version of “The Money Pit”. I sent Brian a text and then called my Mom in tears.

So much water at the Nav station!

Brian and my Mom both talked me off of a ledge, but I know that I did something to upset Poseidon and the water gods.  (My condo in Chicago had also recently sprung a leak or two.) And seeing the puddles in what was supposed to be my “very solid” boat, crushed me. I equated “solid” with “waterproof”. Man, was I ever wrong.

But, what can you do? I took a deep breath and went to my happy place (which incidentally is sailing my non-leaky boat when it’s sunny and 80 degrees, blowing 15 knots, with Brian’s arms wrapped around me. Ok Ok! I’ll be realistic…  with Brian running around the boat trimming the sails.) Then I mopped up all the water that I could, took the cushions off of the benches and beds to dry, and shoved towels into the leaky corners. Then promptly went back to Starbucks where I got myself another coffee and used the great wifi to buy the best dehumidifier (as per Consumer Reports) that I could find on Amazon.com.