- Joined:
- Aug 20, 2012
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My wife and I have purchased a 2005 Lagoon 440. Its the 3 cabin 3 heads version. 44ft long, 25.5 ft beam (wide).
The goal is to quit working by March and go cruising for about 2 years. After that we will either sell the boat or make money on the water. (Lots of options to do that.). Here are a few links to pics of the boat because Google photos is not letting me embed the pics.
https://photos.app.goo.gl/sQ3J7g8mFyViffn98
https://photos.app.goo.gl/WWHaCwBgYbkEXsNM7
https://photos.app.goo.gl/7kRsNhWWNfwbgvjD6
https://photos.app.goo.gl/dV6ik6UCaMzv8An3A
Thus far we have moved SV Sandy Bottoms a little in an effort to get SV Sandy Bottoms toward Texas for repairs. The crew consists of My wife, Father, my sister in law and her boyfriend.
Day 1- last Thursday Dec 6th. Sailed from Key Largo Fl to Marathon Key for 8 hrs. Our dog Daisy waited all day before finally agreeing to releive herself where we directed her to go on the boat. We Anchored off of Boot Key for the night and took the dingy to a restaurant that had a dock to tie up to.
Day 2- Friday the 7th we went through 7 mile bridge which has 65ft vertical clearance, our mast is 64ft tall. We waited until 3pm for low tide to go through but Crap that was stressfull! Once we cleared the bride we had to motor to navigate through shallow waters for a few hours and sighted a huge stingray leaping in and out of the water. We sailed into the night and past the Everglades. We kept 50 miles off shore, the night was clear and the stars were incredible. So many stars but not one ship (or land) in sight. There was no moon so the night was black except for the stars.
Day 3- Saturday the 8 we continued to sail up the west Florida coast and sunrise on the ocean was spectacular. SV Sandy Bottoms under sail all day and into the night nonstop. My wife saw a huge bright-orange object in the water and thought it was a human body until we came along side and realized it was one of the biggest sea turtles we have ever seen. Thank goodness, I didnt want to have to fish a body out of the ovean!
Day 4- Sunday the 9th sailing and a lunch time visit from Dolphins! 3 large dolphins played in our bow waters for a few minutes. I realized that Dad is always on shift at the helm when cool stuff happens. He was at the helm day 2 when we saw the stingray jumping too. He must be our lucky charm! Latter that day the winds died, shifted, died, shifted and I didn’t secure the boom correctly resulting in breaking one of the many connections to the mainsail. Bummer, no more mainsail until I get a part. We ran on one motor to save gas with the jib sail up into the night.
By 1130pm I was at the helm alone and decided to head toward shore to get cell service and download a current forecast. That is when things got “sporty”.
The closer we got to land the higher the winds got and the rougher the seas. Oh yeah, and it was pitch Black out, not a star in sight.We saw 30 knots and constant 4-6 ft choppy water. The boat lurched and slammed but handled it fine. Honestly this boat can handle more than the crew can haha. I decided that obviously the forcast had change from 4 days ago and that there was no way I was taking my crew back out into this weather. We came into Tampa Bay and tucked into the Manatee River finally dropping anchor at sunrise. The crew was pretty tired but happy to call loved ones who had been worried for a few days about us.
Monday and Tuesday were spent on anchor on the Manatee river and indead the forcast has changed. There is no way we can cross the Gulf Of Mexico this week because of the weather. I found a Boat Yard in Tarpon Springs that can do some work we need done on the boat so tomorrow we will move the boat there and rent a car to get back to Texas. We did go to a fuel dock today so I had to dock our life savings for the first time.... more stress but all the crew was in position to put huge fenders between us and the dock when needed. Everything went off without a hitch and we are fueled and ready for the 8 hour motor to Tarpon Springs tomorrow. We will probably come back to SV Sandy Bottoms after the new year to get her to Texas where we can fix her up as we want to on weekends until we move on to her full time around March.
The goal is to quit working by March and go cruising for about 2 years. After that we will either sell the boat or make money on the water. (Lots of options to do that.). Here are a few links to pics of the boat because Google photos is not letting me embed the pics.
https://photos.app.goo.gl/sQ3J7g8mFyViffn98
https://photos.app.goo.gl/WWHaCwBgYbkEXsNM7
https://photos.app.goo.gl/7kRsNhWWNfwbgvjD6
https://photos.app.goo.gl/dV6ik6UCaMzv8An3A
Thus far we have moved SV Sandy Bottoms a little in an effort to get SV Sandy Bottoms toward Texas for repairs. The crew consists of My wife, Father, my sister in law and her boyfriend.
Day 1- last Thursday Dec 6th. Sailed from Key Largo Fl to Marathon Key for 8 hrs. Our dog Daisy waited all day before finally agreeing to releive herself where we directed her to go on the boat. We Anchored off of Boot Key for the night and took the dingy to a restaurant that had a dock to tie up to.
Day 2- Friday the 7th we went through 7 mile bridge which has 65ft vertical clearance, our mast is 64ft tall. We waited until 3pm for low tide to go through but Crap that was stressfull! Once we cleared the bride we had to motor to navigate through shallow waters for a few hours and sighted a huge stingray leaping in and out of the water. We sailed into the night and past the Everglades. We kept 50 miles off shore, the night was clear and the stars were incredible. So many stars but not one ship (or land) in sight. There was no moon so the night was black except for the stars.
Day 3- Saturday the 8 we continued to sail up the west Florida coast and sunrise on the ocean was spectacular. SV Sandy Bottoms under sail all day and into the night nonstop. My wife saw a huge bright-orange object in the water and thought it was a human body until we came along side and realized it was one of the biggest sea turtles we have ever seen. Thank goodness, I didnt want to have to fish a body out of the ovean!
Day 4- Sunday the 9th sailing and a lunch time visit from Dolphins! 3 large dolphins played in our bow waters for a few minutes. I realized that Dad is always on shift at the helm when cool stuff happens. He was at the helm day 2 when we saw the stingray jumping too. He must be our lucky charm! Latter that day the winds died, shifted, died, shifted and I didn’t secure the boom correctly resulting in breaking one of the many connections to the mainsail. Bummer, no more mainsail until I get a part. We ran on one motor to save gas with the jib sail up into the night.
By 1130pm I was at the helm alone and decided to head toward shore to get cell service and download a current forecast. That is when things got “sporty”.
The closer we got to land the higher the winds got and the rougher the seas. Oh yeah, and it was pitch Black out, not a star in sight.We saw 30 knots and constant 4-6 ft choppy water. The boat lurched and slammed but handled it fine. Honestly this boat can handle more than the crew can haha. I decided that obviously the forcast had change from 4 days ago and that there was no way I was taking my crew back out into this weather. We came into Tampa Bay and tucked into the Manatee River finally dropping anchor at sunrise. The crew was pretty tired but happy to call loved ones who had been worried for a few days about us.
Monday and Tuesday were spent on anchor on the Manatee river and indead the forcast has changed. There is no way we can cross the Gulf Of Mexico this week because of the weather. I found a Boat Yard in Tarpon Springs that can do some work we need done on the boat so tomorrow we will move the boat there and rent a car to get back to Texas. We did go to a fuel dock today so I had to dock our life savings for the first time.... more stress but all the crew was in position to put huge fenders between us and the dock when needed. Everything went off without a hitch and we are fueled and ready for the 8 hour motor to Tarpon Springs tomorrow. We will probably come back to SV Sandy Bottoms after the new year to get her to Texas where we can fix her up as we want to on weekends until we move on to her full time around March.