Acquiring Rhapsodie

After charter cruises in Greece, Turkey, and the South Pacific, Caren and I decided in 1997 to up the ante and purchase our own sailboat.  We had previously owned and raced a 15 foot Mercury class sailboat while living in Monterey; this time we wanted something a little bit bigger: a boat we could live aboard.

I don't remember what decided us to to go on a really long sailing trip.  It was probably a combination of things: My love of adventure, Caren's love of sailing, our desire to do something really special with our kids while they were still young.  I suspect we just looked at each other one day and said "Let's do it!"  And so we did.

We first needed to educate ourselves in so may areas: How big and what type of boat would we need?  Would we require crew?  Where could we find a boat?  What about the kids?  Where would we go?  And for how long?  Lots of reading, boat shows, discussions with sailor friends.  So many questions...

We decided a catamaran would best meet our needs.  A big one, with two cabins in each hull: one for each child, one for Caren and me, and one for the crew.  We found a yacht broker in San Francisco who said our best bet for finding a big cat would be in the Caribbean.  So off we flew with our broker, to Martinique, St. Maarten, Antigua, and Barbuda, where we looked at about six cats he had selected for us to see.  The one that best matched our needs was a Fountaine-Pajot 53 footer named Rhapsodie.  We had found our boat.

I flew back to California to my job, while Caren, our broker, and two more crew delivered Rhapsodie, through the Panama Canal and up the Pacific Coast to the Alameda shipyard, to be prepared for our big trip.  

I returned to my job at DataTools, while Caren, our broker, and her crew brought Rhapsodie through the Panama Canal and up the Pacific Coast of South America.