We've had lots of people ask what boat we are traveling on and why we chose that particular one. Got a few minutes? After much research about the trip we wanted to do, and talking with several people who have lots of experience cruising in the Caribbean islands, we developed a long list of criteria that we thought would meet our needs. Anyone who knows us knows that Ron and I can "often see things from different perspectives" , and this has been one of those undertakings where that's been a good thing. He wanted to find a great boat and I wanted to find a great floating home. He wanted to know all about performance and mechanics and I looked closer at layouts and amenities. He wanted tridata electronics with gps, autohelm with radar and I wanted a 3 way fridge and a good sized salon. Somewhere in all that, we were able to decide on all the things we wanted in a cruising vessel and made a shortlist of the types of boats that fit the bill. Some of that criteria included, a full or modified full keel for stability, but not too deep a draft so we could enjoy some of the many shallow waters we would be in; room enough to move around with a four year old; a centre cockpit for ease of control and more sea kindliness in heavy seas, lots of water and fuel, just to name a few. Yachtworld.com became the daily periodical of choice and we searched every corner for about a year. A few boats that we really thought might be 'the one' came and went while we waited for our home to sell and all the while we kept saying "the right boat will be there when we're ready to buy" And what do you know....
While surfing the net one day, I came across a 'For Sale by Owner' ad for an Endeavour 43 in Sint Maarten via a link from a link from a link - you get the idea. We both thought she was just about exactly what we were looking for, although a few feet more than we thought we needed. We made some plans to go and see her and since we were flying all the way to SXM (identifier for St.Maarten) we thought it prudent to take the time and island hop over to the British Virgin Islands to see a hand full of others that we had our eye on as well through a broker in Tortola. While it might sound like we were living the life of rich jetsetters, I should add that we had been saving air miles forever and I can find the best travel deals and the cheapest hotels and car rentals going.....just ask Ron.
We spent a day with the owners of the Endeavour "Exodo" in SXM and really liked the boat and the owners right from the start. We must have boarded and looked at 20 other boats over the next 3 days in incredible August heat and humidity and kept comparing everything to Exodo. Nothing really matched her in our criteria and we were ready to make an offer when we got an email from a broker we were in touch with in Marathon, Florida (which is halfway down the Keys). She had a beautiful Endeavour 40 that she thought met our criteria perfectly and thought we should see her. Since our flight home the next day had a 9 hour stopover in Miami, why not rent a car and drive the 3 hours to Marathon to look at another boat at 1:00 am? So we did....
The broker arranged for the owner of this boat to meet up with us at the dingy dock in Marathon because the boat wasn't at the dock, but rather on a mooring in the bay. So after a 4 hour flight and a 3 hour drive we ride out to the boat in a semi deflated dingy in the pitch dark. For what we could see, she was a nice boat although the owner had so much stuff on board it was hard to get a really good look at all the nooks and crannies and woodwork and such. She did have a few features that Exodo didn't have, but the two really big factors for us were that she was in Florida and due to some work timelines and wanting to avoid the 'Thorny Path' from the Bahamas to the Virgin Islands, we had already revised our plan that we wanted to start in The Virgin Islands or somewhere close. The second was that the owners of Exodo (Patrik and Sophia) were so helpful and so willing to assist us each step of the way and were willing to spend the time with us to learn the boat systems, etc.
We drove back to Miami in time to sleep for 2 hours (what's the point?) and caught our flight home and we talked about it and compared notes for each boat all the way (ok, so I mostly talked and compared notes and Ron dozed on and off).
We got home, talked some more, slept on it, talked about it more still, and then made an offer and hammered out a deal. We are now the proud owners of a 43 Endeavour s/v Exodo. The name 'Exodo' has Greek roots and means 'Departure'. How fitting. We are completely convinced she's the right boat for us and I think it's the first major purchase we've ever made that we didn't have some brief buyers remorse. Patrik and Sophia took such good care of her that there is really very little for us to do, but Ron will head to SXM a week before Olivia and I to start on some of the things that need doing like re-installing the genset, installing an EPIRB (emergency beacon) and some other "blue" jobs.
We can't wait to start our journey on Exodo and look so forward to meeting new people, experiencing new cultures and waking up to new adventures everyday. 56 more sleeps...
