Love at first sight...uh,...

Wednesday, March 22-2006
We drove to Homer this morning, stopped to check in with the broker, then headed over to the boat in the yard at Northern Enterprises. This was the moment of truth. We had already made a small deposit to show our intent, but in reality we could still back out.

It seemed smaller to me than what I had imagined, and it was in a lot rougher shape than expected. I walked through, examining every little thing, not knowing or understanding everything there is to know about boat stuff, but I did know there was a lot of junk piled everywhere and a lot of doors and drawers that did not fit or close due to the cold and humidity.

  

Snow was piled on the decks, and the last person to be on board had left the sliding hatch over the companionway open so there was a pile of snow inside as well, warping the doors over the engine compartment. A canvas dodger had deteriorated and torn so it was rather dilapidated. Under the pile of collapsed canvas was more junk piled up - scraps of teak, broken gas cans, rusted tools, --dumpster class junk. Strips of teak glued to the deck with epoxy had come loose in many places warping and bubbling up. 

The layout was typical of most, I guess, the dining area & galley, head/shower in the aft cabin, wheelhouse just forward of that, general undefined living space next, then a cabin with four bunks, then finally a tool room and chain locker.

 

In the galley was a nice oven and stove top, refrigerator, sink - all in good working order. There were two benches configured in a dinette formation, but no table. The aft cabin was well built, some nice shipwright work done in oak, but the rest of the boat was rough carpentry and rotten floors. This landlubber had to learn that floors are "soles", walls are "bulkheads", and beds are "racks, bunks or berths". Oh well.

I could tell Scott was trying to keep a positive outlook, but was noticeably quiet until I surveyed everything. He knew I really wanted a boat. Everything was a mess, there was a guy living on it for a while and when he was fed up with the project he just walked off.  Junk everywhere!   I still wanted to go ahead with it, I could see possibilities even though I was wrestling with myself wondering if I was being plain stubborn or afraid that if we didn't do this thing right now we might never get this close again. 

OK, truth time - what I love the most are the portholes in the aft cabin!  Pirate ship stuff!  

I have no idea why the original name was Mish Mish, could be a name of an area in northern Lebanon, a clothing line, a collection of random items, there is a collection of fine art that shows up when searched, but who knows.