I had been scouting (OK, drooling) over the Hunter 36 for about a year. When I showed up at the Boston Boat Show in the fall of 2008, Jack Wesson of Advantage Yacht Sales remembered me from my frequent e-mails and calls and showed me the boat again. I had all of my questions answered and, to make a long story short, bought the boat. The boat is actually the subplot – I had been dating this wonderful woman, Diane, for over a year, and she happened to like sailing too – in fact, she helped deliver many boats in her youth up and down the East Coast until her career as a teacher and school administrator made that more difficult. What made our situation worse was she (and I) live in Vermont, hardly a sailing hotspot.
But, it does have Lake Champlain which is about 100 miles long but relatively narrow, about 12 miles at its widest point and we live about 20 minutes from a nice bay. So, in 2007 I bought a 40 year old sailboat, a 33’ Allied, and we explored sailing (and got to know each other) on Lake Champlain. In the summer of 2008 I replaced the 40 year old gas engine with a Yanmar diesel but could see many more upgrades needed to make it what I wanted – a boat that Diane and I could live on when we retired and explored the Caribbean. So, it so happened that I had asked Diane to marry me in September of ’08 and Hallelujah! – she said yes – with full foreknowledge that my basic plan in retirement was to cruise the Caribbean in the winter, based in St. Croix, and cover the East Coast in the summer. I grew up close to Chesapeake Bay and, in the Navy, became familiar with Long Island Sound during transits to the submarine base in New London.
I asked Jack to keep the Hunter in Newburyport, MA until the spring of ’09, when the physical state of the lake would turn from something best used in cocktails to something that could actually allow a boat to move through it. Throughout the lo-o-o-o-o-ng winter, made even longer by waiting for the chance to take delivery of the boat, Diane and I planned a very simple wedding, celebrating the new beginning for us both on the vessel that would carry us into the adventure we wanted, in comfort, safety, and style!
The end of the story is Advantage Yacht Sales, delivered the boat in Colchester, VT after trucking it up from Massachusetts with the mast on the deck, one week prior to the wedding date. He got it ready to deliver and we took it on sea trials the Saturday before the wedding. As expected, the sea trials were virtually flawless. The next weekend, we boarded the boat from a dinghy, motored to Champlain Marina about 20 minutes away, brought the Justice of the Peace on board at the dock, and committed to our marriage vows aboard the Hunter. As this was Memorial Day weekend, we spent the rest of the weekend sailing, with a stop at the Naked Turtle at Plattsburgh Marina to go dancing, and enjoyed a lovely salmon quiche with caviar and champagne at our after wedding celebration.
The boat is great, Diane and I love it, and if this economy will allow us, look for us to be on the ocean in a couple of years! Meanwhile, I look forward to hearing how others are enjoying their lives on the seas and coasts of the world.
Did anyone else get married on a Hunter? If so, please send us your story and photos! hunter@jlrezcommunications.com.
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