On Saturday, April 1st we officially took delivery of our new boat. (April Fool’s, anyone? We hope not.). We moved aboard that afternoon. It was kind of a heady moment, something that we had anticipated for roughly a year. And now it was real. Unbelievably, the sun magically came out from behind the clouds. We took a bottle to the flybridge to try to relax and let it all soak in. The next morning the sun came out also. Good omens of times to come. Continue reading The Maiden Voyage
The hull is a gentle green – the gel coat name is Sea Shell Green – and the decks and superstructure are a soft white. The name on the transom is gold and black, understated but with a touch of fun in the font choice. The pinstriping detail around the eyebrow, upper deck and stack is a muted red.
So what would one expect to discover upon stepping aboard and peeking inside? Well, if this were just any boat one might find a muted natural-color upholstery, a soft tan carpet, and perhaps some throw pillows with a splash of color to remind of the Sea Shell Green hull.
But No! Not on ESMERALDE! That would be boring! Continue reading Pulling It All Together
Right on schedule: she splashed.
From the very beginning of this project, the folks at American Tug described the completion and launch of the boat as “late March”. And what do you know? On March 30 they dropped her in the water. That pretty much describes our entire experience with American Tug: 100% on everything. More on that later.
Here is a video of the launch, which took place at 8:30 am, and the sea trial, which started at 9:45 and ended successfully at 11:15.
Esmeralde is within a week of being launched and sea-trialed. Naturally, we are jittery with anticipation.
We have tried to document the build process along the way as best we could from a distance (across the country). Now that we are literally sleeping and eating within a stone’s throw of the boat, we are going a little nuts.
Here is some video of the boat yesterday, Sunday, while the builders were taking a well-deserved break in the action.
(For those of you who migh not be able to see the video on YouTube, you should be able to see it on Vimeo.)
We arrived in LaConner, WA on March 13 to see our new boat for the first time. She is scheduled to be launched at the end of the month. This time frame gives us great opportunity to see the final build process on the boat, and also to explore the the Pacific Northwest, which we have never visited before. Continue reading The Waiting Game
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