After 15 years, we said goodbye to our sweet girl, Drift Away. She was a 1995 Bayliner 2655, we put over 500 hours on her engine….and replaced it. She took us on 3 ICW trips, served as an OSHA Safety Boat for post Hurricane Katrina bridge inspections in New Orleans, was our “getaway car” after our wedding , covered over 1500 miles on the Atlantic Intracoastal Waterway (with absolutely zero mechanical problems), ran out of gas exactly once (traded a case of beer for a tow), and saw two young best friends become lovers, spouses, and parents.
We were sad to see her go but in a nice unexpected turn of events, some friends of ours bought her. She now lives only 3 slips away at our marina!
Our new boat is a Regal Commodore 3560 from Missouri and we are just THRILLED with her. Her twin Volva Penta 8.1 engines purred as we hit 45mph on the lake last weekend. We cant wait for all the new adventures she will take us on!
A few weekends ago, we went boat shopping! To be fair, we have been looking for quite some time. “Window/Dock” shopping if you will. A few months ago in Annapolis, MD, after walking the docks of several marinas, we fell in love with a brand… the Regal. Now we are exclusively searching for a Regal 3560 for us to call Drift Away 2… or Drift Away Again…or Drift Away forever?…we don’t know yet.
We traveled a few hours south to Lake Norman, NC. I was really excited to go because many people compare our home lake, Smith Mountain Lake, to Lake Norman and I wanted to see what all the fuss was about. The boat we went to see wasn’t on the water but that was okay because we found a gorgeous Air BnB that was on the water and whose shoreline seemed to span the entire lake. We settled in and went to lunch with a gorgeous water view.
After lunch, we headed to see the boat. It was a one owner boat who had taken meticulous care of the boat. The vinyl, eisenglass and carpet were all BRAND new. It was gorgeous and exactly what we are looking for. There is a stateroom for us and a private nook for our first mate daughter. It also had beautiful teak flooring and a nice size galley.
After the boat search, we went back to our Air BnB and parked in some lounge chairs until sundown. We met the owner and he announced he was going to hit a few golf balls…he then took his clubs and golf balls and hopped on his boat and off he went to one of the many golf courses on the lake! My kind of golfing! The sunset came and went and provided a spectacular show.
We were then off to dinner at Eddies on Lake Norman where lobster were in claw games and the oysters were a plenty. Did I mention it was, of course, on the water and had a live musician playing guitar and picking all the classic 70’s and 80’s songs he knew. After filling my belly with as many oysters as I could I paused at the claw game at the front of the restaurant. If you knew my love of the claw game then you would know how much it pained me to not have seen this when we walked in. I mean, I’m a master at the game and for a mere $2 I could have tried my hand at fresh, North Carolina, claw game lobster! I decided to save my skills for another day and back to our Air BnB we went to enjoy the outdoor hot tub.
With temps in the high 60s it was a perfect day to look for a new (to us) boat!
