After closing our boat rental business, we decided to go on a sailing adventure, something we've been throwing around for awhile now. we drove down to florida and hit the boat market. A few weeks and a handfull of boat tours later we found Dragons lair, a Catalina 470. she was one of only a few in "ready to go" condition, outfitted for liveaboard cruising in comfort, air conditioning and all.We started in Charlotte Harbor FL, went as far south as Dry Tortugas, stayed in key west for awhile. Our mast being to tall for the ICW we sailed the coastal route doing 2-3 day hops, sailing through the nights.we ran aground, started "sinking" 9 miles off miami, 65mph winds and waves during our overnight cape fear crossing, anchored in some dicey spots. had my fair share of challenging breakdowns. made some mistakes and performed some miracles.4,000+ miles and counting...

a typical work day;Clock out from my casino shift @7amcatch the 745am ferry to islandengine/gear check oil - inspection - tighten screws!assist john with shuffling from parking to stagingfuel if neededassist john and bob with getting customers on boats if necessaryremaining oncall for any boat problems (moisture under distributor cap for example) test drive, top off fuel tank again before handing to customershop timeplenty of impellers, carb rebuilds, bilge pumps & blowers, theres always something to fix or figure out.we bought 2nd hand speedboats of decent quality, and then get them in shape for everyday use/rentalthis usually means;go through fuel system, rebuild carbreplace rubber parts if neededreplace control cables - sometimes shifter if i cant "restore" the originalshift and throttle MUST work perfectly, and feel like butter2 batteries2 blowers2 bilge pumpsVHF and antennabasic gps with soundernav lights must work properly (alltho we didnt let our renters out at dark)plenty of fender cleatsaluminum proptypical repairsbroken seats - seats ripped out of flooringition switchesblower motorsbroken beltsburnt impellersoverheated exhaust rubber couplersalternator/starter problemsre-enforce broken hull/cap/rubrail jointsrepair holes under waterline"un-sinking" boats