Long read.......
I've been getting into a bit of a groove in the last year with better budgeting and saving money. The float tube has been getting me out for no real gas money. I'm getting pretty decent at finance and balancing my savings with a brokerage.
Then I did my compulsory Craigslist scan last Sunday.
"livingston boat" -> within 600 miles of Winnemucca, NV
Normal tiny cats...
Op, what's that?
Uh oh.
Livingston 155 in Seattle for $7500.
I told myself that if I saw one under a certain price, I had to get it...
I immediately texted Tom and Koga the link.
"This is going to throw a wrench in my financial planning."
"Get it!!!! Hahaha."
I messaged the seller with a few questions, told him I would happily come from Southern California as long as he was transparent, then I went to bed. I was tubing with Omar in the morning.
Around 0900, I was one fish up on Omar. We were almost at our halfway mark for the session. I told him about the listing, too.
Then I got a call from a Seattle area code.
"Hey Jeremy, you had some questions about the boat? I figured we could just talk about it over the phone."
I let him know I was float tube fishing and he said he would take a call when I was done. He had the west coast experienced waterman accent, so I immediately had confidence that the boat was in good working order, even though we hadn't touched on much at all.
I called him back after my trip and we had a 20 minute phone conversation. He was detailed about everything from the boat to the trailer. He said he had a nephew in San Diego who used to be a party boat captain, and he liked the idea of maybe coming down and fishing with me on his old boat one day. He gave me First Right of Refusal over the phone at the asking price, but let me know he had 3 other parties of interest. He would keep me updated.
Now my head was humming. If this deal was going to go through, I was going to need to wire money around my bank accounts, sell some equities, and put in for time off. I texted him asking for an update on the deal around noon, and he got back to me at 1400. He said another bid came in for 8000, but he won't keep the bidding war going. If I match the bid and put down a deposit, it's mine. I said, "Deal."
We talked on the phone for another 20 minutes that afternoon and I had more confidence in him. I sent him the deposit and got my affairs in order.
I left work at 1430 on Thursday. I just needed to go to the bank and the grocery store, which happened to be the same place. Got myself cookies, pepsi, turkey sandwich stuffs, and chips.
The bank teller was friendly, but had some of the 'tism. I handed over my debit card and license and requested $7000 cash. He started away on his computer. It seemed like he was killing time while going through the procedures, asking me if I was buying a car. Nope, a boat from Seattle! Where does your last name comes from? My dad says Italian but Ancestry.com says I'm impossibly English going back to the 15th century! How long does it take to grow out your beard? About 6 weeks, you like?? Then he went and talked to his manager for a few minutes. Please...!
He came back and said the account looks suspicious because it's $100 increments in the account for years and then $7000 in there. I already told him my primary bank doesn't have in person branches so I had to utilize the only in-person bank I had. He finally gave me the money. I was very, very patient and nice, but I lost 20 minutes on that.
Back on the road at 1530, straight up the 5 all the way. LA traffic never let up for 3 hours.
I was into the San Joaquin Valley in time for a nice sunset.
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My plan was to get north of Sacramento to a rest stop for a few hours of sleep in the car, but I was ready to knock out at 2130, and found an open rest area 150 miles south of Sac.
I awoke at 0300, surprisingly well rested from sleeping on an air pad in the back of my Highlander. I was anxious to catch up to projected itinerary so I pushed north after brushing my teeth.
Past Sacramento at 0530.
I power napped at a rest stop another 100 miles north of Sacramento, then back on the road.
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In Oregon by 1030.
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The 5 bends through over 100 miles of mountains from Redding through Oregon. It got me anxious about driving up and down all the grades with a trailer. Have I mentioned yet I've never driven a trailer? I was about to drive one 1150 miles home.
I got to a nice boring straight in Oregon when Larry, the seller, called and wanted to know my whereabouts. I said I was passing Eugene at 1430 and planned to stay in a Bass Pro Shops parking lot in my car in Tacoma. He said, wow! You're killing it on the time up! He hung up, then called 10 minutes later to invite me to stay the night at his house, as he and his wife were retired empty nesters. I accepted the offer.
The worst traffic of Day 2 was Portland.
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I arrived at Larry's house at 20:15. He was fiddling in his garage and came out to greet me. The boat was uncovered in the drive way. I shook his hand and poked around with the boat. His wife came out and greeted me. Very nice people. They were sad to let go of the boat, but they got a bigger one for time with the grandkids.
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We went inside and chatted for a bit before I showered up and went to bed.
We woke up at 0600. We had breakfast, but the first rain in 6 weeks was delaying our sea trial. We finally started on hooking up the trailer at about 0830.
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My coworker let me borrow a ball hitch for my car. The 3.5" drop was perfect when reversed. Larry helped turn the ball around, then noticed the ball threads were 3/4" in a 1" slot. You gotta replace that before you get on the road or it could shear. He installed the ball hitch for me then I backed up the car to the boat and got it fitted on. He got in his truck and started leading me out of the neighborhood to the launch area nearby at Lake Washington.
His neighborhood had several steep hills, large speed bumps, and roundabouts at the neighborhood's exit. As I hit my 2nd speed bump, listening to the trailer creak, something went wrong and I heard a crash and felt a big bump. I felt the safety chain working and I came to a halt. Larry kept going up the hill, oblivious to the scene behind him. I called him to come back.
Larry had somehow failed to actually put the ball hitch's pin through the hitch's hole...all the safety materials worked, from the chains to the slide plate, and everything was unharmed. But holy hell, what a way to start my trailer life...
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We chocked the trailer with some wood on the side of the road and got it all back together, the right way...
We continued down to the launch. I noticed my tires slip here and there in the rain. Lovely.
We got to the ramp in one piece, after trial and error...I was able to temporarily enjoy a beautiful sight amongst my sea of anxieties.
(https://i.imgur.com/K3ExQPgh.jpeg)
Larry showed me the launch procedure, unstrapping and plugging up, and coached me to backing the boat into the water.
We hopped in and rode out.
It purrs!
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Within minutes, I spied a bald eagle. A good sign, I think.
Cruise seemed to be around 24mph and it topped out at 31mph. He says it will top out at 43mph, perhaps solo. I do believe it.
Bellevue...
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We did about an hour ride. We went into some 1' chop and it was nothing for the hull. Incredibly dry. I'm not used to the trim tab feature so I will have to practice that a little more for it to be second nature. Putting it back on the trailer was no problem.
We headed back to his house, he signed away the boat to me, and handed off some more goodies, like a fiberglass kit, some electronics bits, and some duct tape and paper towels for the road. Such a nice couple! I couldn't thank them enough for their hospitality. I told them I felt like their nephew. The wife was trying to send me off with more pepsi and chips like my mom would.
It was noon now. I had hoped that sleeping over would have put me on the road much sooner, but that rain killed that advantage. I went to Harbor Freight and grabbed a new ball for the hitch, a ball wrench, and a hitch rattle stopper. I didn't have a crescent wrench to make the rattle stopper work for the ride, unfortunately, but I was done with all of that at 1300. Onwards into Seattle traffic for the next couple hours.
I was 100 miles down the road when I noticed one of the Bearing Buddy's rubber caps were missing on my 2nd inspection. The hubs still felt normal temperature, so I duct taped it sealed and headed to an O'Reilly's 10 minutes out of the way, then back on the road.
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I got 9 grueling hours in before I stopped at Seven Feathers rest area in Oregon for some sleep after a long day of white knuckling through urban traffic and dark mountain highway.
I "slept in" until 0500, comfortably spooning with one of my new downriggers. The cold woke me up. Yes, it's still cold in some places. It was probably 50º and I was in shorts and sandals. I brushed my teeth and continued on through the mountains in the dark at a steady 55mph.
Morning light broke over Mt. Shasta quite nicely. I wish I could have stopped for better photos at times, but I had places to be.
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Through Sacramento at 1155. At the bottom of the Tejon Pass at 1700. Stopped for Starbucks. Never have I ever seen such spelling.
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And up.
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A short traffic jam at the bottom of the grade and then back up to normal speed. Then my engine light came on. Now??? My car was operating smoothly, maybe I just creep home and check it later. No, make smart decisions Jeremy! I pulled over at Smokey Bear Rd exit, the road to Lake Pyramid. The OBD reader said P1135, Manufacturer Code...some kind of heat sensor. I remembered that I may not have slipped the oil dip stick all the way into place at my last inspection, so I put that back and reset the engine codes.
The rest of the grade was fine. Then came the LA/OC traffic on the 5. Not slow, no. Fast. I pleaded, begged for a slow lane. The road would take from me every time. Right two lanes to the 118; to the 134; to the 2; the 110; the 605; the 710; the 22; the 57; the 55; people flew all around me. My extra wide trailer craving more than the 6" on each side to spare that I had. I finally was off the freeway without incident at 2130, and dropped the trailer off at work. Nobody there on a Sunday night. A deep sense of relief, and a sip from my cold Starbucks mocha that I was too stressed to ever pick up.
(https://i.imgur.com/vyo9Dq2h.jpeg)
With the trailer off, my Highlander zoomed like a greyhound off its leash. I got home by 2200 and texted the many people keeping tabs that everyone and everything survived.
Concolor is the latin name for the North American Puma/Mountain Lion. Alongside its feline reference, I like the spanish phrase "with color" for this boat, as the boat will be built and fished with lots of creativity and personality.
So much to do now. I took the 140 mile round trip to my parent's house yesterday for my boating stuff and some offshore gear. I need to finish the registration and get over to AAA tomorrow. Mail back the trailer plate to Larry. Install some flush rod holders with backing plates in the gunnel. Wax it. Replace the older fish finder and compass with my own. Upgrade the 9 gallon fuel tank to a 12 gallon. Sell the kicker. Clean up the rusty rear roller on the trailer.
And still more medium/long term projects. Eventually, I will redo the whole topside. Raised/uniform floor with below deck storage. New higher console with a bait tank on the front. Storage cube under the helm seat. Big casting deck up front with still more storage.
But it's fishable now, so we're gonna f@ck up the fish during this crazy El Niño.
Thank you for reading!