It's been an amazing year of learning new things and finding new boating friends.  I have always marveled at how easy boaters are with one another and how very generous they are with their time.  With the advent of the internet, the ability to meet new people with similar interests is absolutely amazing.  At this point, I think, we have as many boating friends from foreign ports as we do in US ports.

Just to give you an idea of how this works... early this year, we were contacted by a Quasar owner from Portugal who had visited our website.  Jose was hoping to meet other Quasar owners with an eye toward sharing experiences and some day meeting one another.  In the spring Jose introduced us to Rolf, who was from Sweden and interested in purchasing a Quasar,  but knew nothing about the boat and was having a hard time finding any information.  After several months of back and forth communications and getting to know one another, Rolf finally was able to actually see a Quasar that was for sale in the EU.  Unfortunately, from his description, of the boat, it was a complete mess and he wasn't interested.  Actually I think when his wife saw the boat there was an indication that a divorce was on the table if he even thought of buying it.

Since there are so many boats for sale in South Florida, as we do with all of our internet acquaintances, we offered to take a look at any boats that are in our area that Rolf might have an interest in pursuing.  During the course of our communications I happened to mention that Theresa Marie, a sister ship to SeaWolf was on the market and that we had heard that the current owner had done an excellent job of updating her since he purchased her.  To make a long story short, Rolf asked and we went up to see Theresa Marie; gave Rolf a favorable report on what we had seen and he and Theresa Marie's owner came to an agreement.

As it turns out, our little jaunt up to Fort Pierce to see Theresa Marie was a great adventure... as we knew it would be.  The owners of Theresa Marie, Jeff and Catherine, are definite keepers and we've since spent a fascinating day with them aboard SeaWolf.  While up in Fort Pierce, Jeff brought us to a fantastic boating liquidation place and we thought we died and went to heaven.  If you're looking for anything to do with boats, you have to visit The Marine Connection Liquidators (www.themarineconnection.net). The place is fabulous and if they don't have it, I don't think it exists!

And finally, Rolf, his wife and their two daughters are coming to South Florida in October to inspect, survey and sea trial Theresa Marie.  While here, they'll come to Miami to visit with us for a couple of days. They expect to take Theresa Marie back to Sweden next year.  With luck and a little planning we hope to be able to take SeaWolf and travel part of the way with them.  Bermuda sounds good!  After Bermuda they will be meeting up with Jose and his family and doing some cruising in the EU.

Life is good.