Aboard Idilio

It was a long road! After spending so much time and energy looking for our next boat, and after the rollercoaster of emotions that came with the process of buying this one, we were super anxious to see it again - for the first time as ours. On the second Friday after closing, we made the 5-hour drive to an AirBnB in Manitowoc, excited for our first weekend of projects.  Saturday morning didn't kick off exactly as planned, as neither of us were feeling incredibly well. Still, we were eager to get to the boat, and got a decently early start (by our non-morning-person standards), arriving at the storage facility in the mid-morning.  After so much anticipation, it felt a little strange to arrive. But just like that, there she was, our "new" boat. We had already developed a long list of projects - for the first few years - and a fairly good idea of where we needed to start. Yet, now that we were there, it felt somewhat overwhelming... Like, OK, we're here... What now?!  W...

Alright... SO we had found a boat we were super excited to go see! On September 12 we headed to Manitowoc, WI on a drizzly morning, brimming with excitement yet trying to keep reasonable expectations about what we'd find. It was definitely at the low end of the cost spectrum of boats we'd been looking at, but we were ready to fall in love.  At first sight... we were not incredibly impressed. In fact, Ernesto was downright disappointed. After just a few minutes, he stopped taking photos, a clear sign that he had decided this was not it. The boat was dripping in spider webs, more outdated than we had realized, with a chaulky hull, and loaded with some rather vintage equipment. It was abundantly clear it hadn't been used much at all in recent memory. There were many signs of water intrusion, duct tape sealing sanitation hose connections, missing screws and snaps, a worn-out ill fitting canvas, etc...  My impression was slightly different, howeve...

We bought a boat!  But, alas, these four words do very little to articulate the many stepped process required to do so. Cause, whew, a journey! So, come children, let me tell you a story...  Once upon a time, Captain Ernesto met a magnificent, salsa dancing creature, named Becca. "Ah, this one would make a fine first mate, indeed," he thought to himself, immediately endeavoring to befriend and woo her, whilst envisioning epic future adventures on the high seas together... Ok, that might not have been his first thought and I guess I don't need to go back quite that far in the telling of this story... but since the first questions folks seem to have when we say "we bought a boat" are about our old -- er -- other boat, O Sole Mio, let's start there. Captain Ernesto bought his 2001 Tiara 2900 Open in 2008, after a brief foray with a Doral that he quickly realized wasn't The One. The Tiara, on the other hand, delighted him.  Designed for ocean waves and car...