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Upside of Downsizing to a Trailerable Trawler

Upside of Downsizing to a Trailerable Trawler – Book Review

Reading this e-book, I couldn’t help but wonder how many cruisers might be tempted to follow the example set by Jim and Lisa Favors, a couple with thousands of miles of Great Loop cruising experience who, after five years of full-time living aboard, gave up their comfortable 40-foot trawler for a trailerable 27-foot Ranger Tugs. Like many other PassageMaker readers, I’ve gone aboard boats like this at boat shows, asking myself whether my wife and I might someday want to downsize and try to squeeze into a smaller boat. A trawler yacht that can be towed over the highway and cruised in many different areas each year, avoiding long passages over water. After all, it’s a whole lot faster and cheaper to cover the distance between, say, Ft. Lauderdale and Halifax or San Diego and Seattle at 60mph, compared to displacement speeds. “One of the beauties of this plan,” the Favors wrote as they were planning their move, “is that we’d be able to cut out a lot of long boat travel days by driving to the heart of a spot and dropping the boat into the water.”
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Gift Store, Matlacha, Florida

Old Florida Fishing Village on Pine Island – Matlacha, Florida

Pine Island's Colorful Matlacha, Florida Although we have been to Pine Island and Matlacha, Florida by car before, we had never visited by boat. Jim did some research and found Olde Fish House Marina, a local marina in Matlacha Pass, situated smack dab in the middle of one of the most colorful little "Old Florida" towns in Florida. Matlacha is just a small part of Pine Island, when you cross the bridge going toward the bigger (18-mile long) Pine Island, Matlacha proceeds it. You will know you've arrived by all the colorful gift shops lining the way. We stocked up on seafood and enjoyed…

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Ranger Tugs Captain's Meeting, Comox B.C.

Fresh Shrimp Tonight in Comox, British Columbia

Leaving Nanaimo, we decided not to cruise with the pod on our way to Comox. It was an easy run with calm seas and sunny skies. Once settled in at the dock, there were more Ranger Tug owners to meet and hot showers to take. Happy hour consisted of another Captain's briefing on the outer dock. Jeff reviewed the events of the day and covered what would happen the next day. Cruising runs like we've done the last two days takes a lot out of you. Not much lingering on the dock in Comox after happy hour tonight. After reviewing…

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Cross-Country Trek – Kismet is Boaterhoming Her Way West

Our boating exploration hiatus is over. Time to head west! Two years ago we set our sights to trailer Kismet west this summer for four months, mainly to cruise Puget Sound up into British Columbia's Desolation Sound, and maybe even the Broughtons, time permitting. On our way, we'll put the boat into the Flaming Gorge Reservoir in Utah. It's been nine months since we had a cruise of any significance – the Tennessee River from Grand Rivers, Kentucky down to Rogersville, Alabama. We are happy to say that the planning is over, the boat is prepared, goodbyes to family and friends…

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Time To Disembark at Grand Harbor Resort Marina

End of the line, Grand Harbor Resort Marina. After being on the hook a lot lately, a visit to Grand Harbor Resort Marina, located where the Tennessee, Mississippi, and Alabama borders come together (we're officially down south at this point), hit the spot. It has all the amenities a long-distance boater appreciates including a well-stocked ship's store, an elegant boater's lounge, laundry facilities located right on the dock where you can sit by the water as you wash and dry your clothes, they also have several loaner vehicles and they almost beg you to use one to explore the nearby…

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Ranger Tugs Kismet at Mackinaw Island Dock

Launching in Mackinaw City – Post Wedding Trip to Mackinac Island

Mackinaw City seemed to be the logical choice to launch Kismet for our trip to Mackinac Island. Our son, Skyler, got married to, Sarah, on Labor Day Weekend. Most of our summer was focused on this big event; except for a few boat trips, we stayed close to home preparing and enjoying all the activities. I have to confess it took quite a toll on our blogging ability. After it was over, we needed to decompress and Mackinac Island came first to mind. This island is unique in its ability to transport a visitor back in time, one of our…

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View from the Top, Covered Portage Cove

Doubling Our Pleasure in Covered Portage Cove

Rendezvous with Freedom's Turn in Covered Portage Cove! Doubling our pleasure comes to mind when we think of our visit to Covered Portage Cove in the North Channel. Not only was it our first time anchoring in this cove, but we also had the pleasure of rendezvousing with friends Charlie and Linda on Freedom's Turn (above). We met them in 2008 while doing our second Great Loop boat trip and cruised several times together, including a trip to Chattanooga and even the Bahamas. With a lot of shared cruising experiences in common, we were excited for the reunion in Covered Portage Cove. We…

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Traverse City Sign

Going Home to Traverse City for the Summer

Going Home for the Summer. When trailering a big boat, you don't have as many options for stopping at just any restaurant while traveling between cruising destinations. We often have to look around for a bit to find a good spot to eat, one that we can also park the rig easily. Sometimes the best thing is to find a restaurant close to a mall parking lot. Lots of room to park in those kinds of lots, usually way in the back where there is less noise and traffic. Walmarts are usually good places and are known to be accepting of…

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Shrimp, Fernandina Beach, Florida

Our First Ever Shrimp Boil on the Docks

MTOA's Southern Boaters Put Together a Shrimp Boil Friends Ellen and her husband, Roy, on Our Turn, came up with the idea to have a simple, but festive, shrimp boil on the dock tonight and procured shrimp from these fishermen (above and below). This was only the first 150 lbs she bought, it was such a popular topic on the docks, people wanted to buy more the next day, so Ellen ended up purchasing the rest of the catch these guys had to sell, another 150 lbs. This all transpired the day before the rendezvous started, people were still arriving and…

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Kismet Bottom Paint Job

Boat Yard Blues – Part Two

I am truly in the swing of things on day two in the boat yard. The good news is the On & Off product helped de-wax the hull, one of the steps needed to properly prepare the hull for bottom paint. Next, I applied acetone to the hull to assure that all wax, from when the hull came out of the mold, was completely gone. After a good washing, I taped the hull off an inch below the boot stripe then applied a very light 220 grit scuffing followed by a final washing in preparation for the painting, which I…

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Jim on Kismet in Boatyard

Boat Yard Blues

We never addressed the issue of bottom painting our Ranger Tug until one day, while taking our boat out of the water in Ft Myers Beach; we were surprised by the excessive growth of barnacles on the hull of Kismet. We recognized the problem and we wanted to take care of it ASAP. After arranging to have our boat hauled by 3D, a self-service boat yard in Key West, I began researching how to clean the hull and what to apply to help the process along and what kind of paint we might need. Because we use our boat in…

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Alligators

Caught Having a Mid-Day Snooze

How cozy these alligators look – we found them taking a mid-day snooze under the blistering hot sun just along Tamiami Trail in the Everglades. We were towing our boat to Marathon today and decided to stop at this Visitor's Center to see the alligators. They seem to have eluded us during our boat trips through here (probably because it was cold at those times) – I have to say the view we got of them today, from the walkway above them, was excellent. We found them sunning in this drainage ditch in front of the Visitors Center only feet…

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