Do you ever think that everything happens for a reason? We’re big believers in this.
After brushing off the disappointment of having a less than stellar survey on the last boat, the search was back on this weekend! We cancelled our plans to go camping (the weather was crappy, so it worked out) and hit the highway to look at a Lagoon 380 in Lewes, DE. Not a long trip, but a risky one considering it was Memorial Day weekend and there was a 50/50 chance that beach bound traffic would turn the Bay Bridge into a parking lot. It was a bold move, but it paid off. Hardly any traffic at 10am.
We had seen this boat before and didn’t really love it, but wanted to look at it to get a feel for the Lagoon layout. It was OK, not great, and we returned home feeling even more deflated and anxious to find a boat we loved. We even went back and looked at that Charter Cat catamaran… the one that I wrote about that we loved, but it had a bad reputation of being a poorly built boat. Yes, we were desperate. It was time for an intervention.
It just so happens, that one of the guys working at the marina we were at, lived on a catamaran. A Lagoon, no less, a size larger than the one we had just looked at. He invited us aboard to take a look at it (well, we actually invited ourselves and he was nice enough to oblige us), and guess what? We fell in love with it. It was perfect. Enough space for 2 humans and 2 dogs. Great flow. Smart design. Able to be customized to fit to our needs. Done deal. We knew that the Lagoon 410 was the model that we wanted. And all because we were in the right time at the right place and ran into this guy who invited us to take a look at his boat.
So, a quick search of Lagoon 410 on yacht world lead us to a boat in New Bern, NC. It’s a 1999 (great vintage – that’s when we graduated from high school) and is in pristine condition. Also, has been privately owned – Never Chartered! – and the owners loaded it up with lots of additional gadgets that we would have ended up adding anyway. Turns out, the exact boat we wanted, outfitted to pretty much how we need it, just fell into our laps. Our day went from Zero to Hero just like that.
Good news is that we put an offer in well below the asking price, and after sweating it out for a few days (darn holiday weekend!) they accepted! So, we officially have another boat under contract. However, we’re going to err on the side of caution this time until the survey checks out, then we’ll do the big reveal. We have a good feeling about this one though.
While we were out and about on the river this weekend, we saw the exact same boat – same color and all – on a mooring in Annapolis. It was a sign. We were voyeurs looking at our future selves. And it was so exciting.
What a Difference a Day Makes
