Jibsaw Puzzle

So what does a three thousand dollar boat look like? I began my search of the web, marinas and eventually found my way to a sailboat dealer (whom will remain unnamed as I don't want to give him a free plug). I was sent far, far away to Eagle Mountain Lake. It seemed that I drove forever from Dallas to northwest of Fort Worth to find this lake of 9 thousand acres. This was not a 3k boat but about a 6k boat, as the 3k ones were a little small on the inside or they were big enough but frightfully dirty or in disrepair.

This was a 1987 Hunter 26.5. Shane was out with some people trying to get it started as it apparently had been sitting for sometime. She has beautiful lines but those lines were dirty. She needed someone to care for her. She started up and Debby and I, Shane, two of his friends, a child and a dog, all went for a sail on this boat. She was torn apart inside. The counter tops, the trim, the doors, the stairs, even the carpet on the hull in the back of the boat. The thing I didn't know was if all of the parts were there. It wasn't like you could go through everything before you agreed to buying it. We talked them down to $4,250 total, tax, title and they paid the sales tax. She was bought while we were sailing her.

We put her back together over the course to two weekends. She was cleaned up and looked as good as new. We became quite intimate with her as every nook and crany was searched, cleaned and inspected. We found things frequently that began with a sentence such as: "What do you think this is?" LOL You would pick up a piece of wood, for example, that had two round 2 inch holes in the upper left corner and walk around the boat until you figured out where it went. It was a lot of fun and a great way to get familiar with the boat.

Debby had only been around power boat in her youth so the terminology that I was trying to teach her would get mixed up. Mast would come out Mask. Jib would come out Jig. So given she was such a puzzle, we renamed her "Jibsaw Puzzle" and decommisioned "Miss Nomer."

My first night that I slept on the boat I was there alone. I had never been on a boat overnight but I had dreamt of it for a long time. Rocking gently with the motion of the water. The little clanging sounds from the other boats. The sounds of the birds, the waves, the smell of the ocean and wait, this is a mud puddle in Texas. Ok, ok, back to reality. The first night I was memorable.

I had crawled inside after spending the day cleaning the boat on the outside. I was settling down to go to sleep and enjoy the movement, when I felt someone step aboard the boat. It startled me. I was a bit freaked out. Who would just step on to MY boat without asking? I called out "Hello? Who is out there? Can I help you?" I was peaking out the windows, but there was no one there and no one stepped off the boat.

It was a wake that had made its way through the slips and made the boat list from side to side, which to me felt exactly like someone stepping aboard.