Manifested Dreams

It's strange how life works. Last year David was out in Mission and he took a bunch of pictures of a 70 foot boat that he thought I would like. The pictures intrigued me but I never made it out there to see it or gave it anymore thought. Well he was out there again the other day and saw that same boat sunk at the marina. He asked me if he could bring it up would I be interested in it? As you all know , Ive been moaning about space forever and 70 feet sounds alot better than 30 so I said I would definately want to check it out. He got a hold of the boat owner and found out he had already pulled it up and was going to remove the engines and crush it. David made a deal with him to help him pull out the motors if I could keep the boat. So its a done deal!

Yes folks , you heard right . I am the proud new owner of 70 feet of wooden history. Apparently the Queen has gone cruising on this boat!

It has over 1000 square feet of space inside, whoohoo!!!!!! There is a full size fridge, stove, washer /dryer, small deep freeze, 4 bedrooms, 2 heads, 1 shower,a large kitchen with ooodles of counter space and room for a real table and best of all deck space. A covered deck on the back with somewhere to hang my hammock, and lots of deck up top to tan and lounge outside. There are several areas I could use for a workshop and once the motors and gas tanks are removed, I will have a decent size storage space available for water/sewage tanks or just storage in general.

Ive got my work cut out for me . It's a mess from being under water. I need to haul out all the garbage, powerwash it from top to bottom, dry it out and paint the whole thing inside and out. There is some damage to the right topsides and the left side of both roofs are a bit crushed. Im curious to see if the decks leak or not. If they do, I will need to get on that right away. The railings are gorgeous but need to be refinished and there are miles of them! The space inside is basically a blank canvas that I can design any way that suits me. I can't wait to create my dream home on it.

So here are some pics. I know she looks a sight now, but there is tons of potential here. Im thinking "Freedom 55" lol. Give myself 5 years to get her beautiful and fully functioning. Ideally I would love to be off grid. I would like a water distiller, wind/solar power and a composting toilet. All things to work towards. In the meantime, I'll have lots of wood to polish and cabinets to build.


My new palace




Decks Galore!


The Wheelhouse which will probably become the workshop/craftroom or the summer salon


The interior salon looking forward to the galley which is below the windows



The interior salon looking back to the entrance and the stairs down to 3 bedrooms and the toilet and shower


The Galley


The rest of the galley


The fabulous back deck where I plan to spend many hours watching the sunset from my hammock



It looks like I will be chopping up my old boat as it needs to get out of the shop its in. I hate to do it, but it needs so much work, there is really not much left of it. I will try and salvage any goodies like the bathtub and portholes etc. Im glad I had the year to live on that boat. I learned so much from that experience. I think I am a lot better prepared to make a go of it on the new boat. The fact that I have a fairly gutted interior to work with means I can insulate and prepare cabinitry that suits my needs right from the start.

So here we go again......this should be interesting :)