I'm going to buy a plane ticket to the Bahamas. Going on a sailboat is too much work.

If I could write a book about all the things we've learned this past year, living on a boat - I would surprise even myself on how extensive it would be.

Our most recent, and 3+ week long lesson as of right now, is that prepping a 'day-sailor' for long term cruising is a TON of effort. We're keenly aware of that as we face our final days. We have to set sail soon, otherwise we might not survive this!

We finally managed to get a title for our recently purchased dinghy. The guy we bought it from purchased it in New York, a state that doesn't require you to get a title for it. You'd think this wouldn't pose too large of an issue - the state wants you to register it so that it can take your money, right? Wrong. We should have seen it coming, it's the United States government. Why would any of this make sense or be easy?

It took 4 trips to the local DMV - each time they would inform us of a new piece of paper that we needed to present to them in order to register and obtain a title for it. Preceded by numerous phone calls to the DMV in Fort Lauderdale to find out how to get these pieces of paper, which, of course, we were then told about more pieces of paper we needed. The extensive list of paperwork included:

-Power of Attorney for the dinghy
-Certificate of origin
-Bill of sale between every owner of the dinghy
-Proof that the guy we bought it from is the current owner of the dinghy
-Proof that he owns the company that the dinghy was previously attached with
-Proof that the original owner the company sold him said company
-Proof the the original owner of the company was indeed the owner
-Proof the original owner of the company bought the dinghy through said company
-A notarized point of sale
-Bill of sale between us and the seller
-A copy of the registration with the original owner
-Documentation from New York's DMV stating they don't require titles for less than 13ft. vessels

We actually managed to track down all of this, except for the certificate of origin. We had to contact the first person who ever bought the dinghy in order to get this and have him send this to us, assuming he actually still had. Naturally, that wasn't really possible. Our other option was to contact the manufacturer to try to get a copy of this. Which was unlikely that they would have it and/or give it to us, given the fact we don't have proof that we legally own it.

As far as the state was concerned, we were cruising around in a stolen dinghy. We couldn't use it at the harbor (legally), we can't take it to the Bahamas (legally), we can't sell it (legally).

Can you believe they required all of this to get a title for a 9 foot floating piece of rubber? As luck would have it, the guy we bought it from is shacking up with a judge. He asked her to write up a court order to give us the title. $100 later in expedited shipping fees, we presented the court order to the DMV - and we got our title that minute. What. A. Joke.

Our reward? A wonderfully fast 9.9 HP Yahama outboard with a larger dinghy to comfortably fit the three of us in as we motor to the shores of the Bahamas. Well worth it!

We also had a bit of a challenge with hauling up our famous 110lb. Bruce anchor. We picked it up for a screaming price about 6 months ago. It's enabled us to cut our monthly expenses in half by moving out to the anchorage, instead of paying for a mooring ball. We were able to throw the thing overboard, and relax all summer knowing that our boat wasn't going to drag a single inch.

It took 4 men (and one woman), two dinghies, the diesel engine revving in forward and a lot of swearing and grunting to haul that thing up. With the weight of it, when we dropped it, it buried itself in several feet of mud. Add the weight of the 60 foot chain, the additional growth that had developed on it in six months, and poor angle - what a nightmare! Dave and I have been hobbling around since, with crippled backs and shredded hands.

BUT - we're once again looking at a very promising weather window this Tuesday. As long as we don't get another high pressure system (like our last weather window), we should have decent enough winds to make our crossing.

Hopefully, our next post will be in the Bahamas.