The Big Reveal

Introducing Kevin's new fishing boat, the Miss Ann:

Getting this boat has been 9 months in the making and I never knew at what point to blog about it, so I just put it off until I finally got to see it in person (this past Saturday) so I could add pictures to this post. Kevin's been wanting to get a bigger boat for a couple years now because he's maxed out what he can make with the Angela C since it's so small and those funds were barely covering our family's expenses. Fortunately for us, my dad had some extra money that he was looking to invest and decided to go into a partnership with Kevin. Thus began the search for the perfect boat last fall...

They drove as far north as Canada and went to most of the ports in Washington and Oregon checking out trollers, tuna boats, seiners, and crabbers. Kevin's ideal was a tuna bait boat, but there just aren't many around and the ones that were for sale were WAY out of our price range (we're talking $600,000 to a couple million!!). Finally in late December, Kevin was told about a tuna bait boat in San Diego that had been part of the famous San Diego tuna fleet when tuna was HOT off the Mexico coast and fishermen made millions (now it's illegal to fish there within 200 miles of the coastline). This seemed to be "the one" and the long paper-work process began. Kevin was told about a great program NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) has for boat loans for fisherman with great rates. To get approved is a HUGE process that required hours and hours of Kevin preparing documents and worksheets. As the process started wrapping up in late spring, Kevin went onto one of the boat broker websites for fun and happened to notice a newly listed boat in Newport, OR that was a much better price and was in better condition than the San Diego boat.

Withing days everything seemed to providentially fall into place, and soon Kevin (and my dad) was the new owner of the Miss Ann. For the past month and a half he has been working every day, except those few days he took off for the 4th of July, getting the boat ready for tuna season. He took the boat from Newport down to Coos Bay, OR where a new mast was put on and where he and his deckhands stayed for 3 weeks working long hours fixing, repairing, painting, fiber-glassing, wiring, etc. Finally, he was able to bring it up to Westport where he has spent an additional two weeks doing more work. I had wanted to bring the kids out the day he brought it into port, but he arrived in the middle of the night. Plus, he said the boat was too messy since they were in middle of various projects.

FINALLY, this past Saturday, the kids and I got the go-ahead from Kevin to come out and see the boat just days before he heads off on his first three-week fishing trip. The boat is huge! It is 57 feet in all, with 3-bed bunk room, a separate 2-bunk captain's stateroom, a full-size galley, a shower....can we say family vacation in the future when the kids are older? :) The kids were especially excited to see Daddy's new boat after hearing so much about it these past months.

Standing above the approximately 60,000-pound fish hold (compared to the 5,000-pound capacity of Kevin's old boat!).

Kevin is showing Abby where the new name will go....he is going to change it to the "Miss Abby." =)

Ben was really into everything and wasn't scared at all - I think he is going to make a good deckhand someday. :)

Kevin had promised the kids a quick ride on the boat, so he took us around the boat basin which everyone, especially Benny, LOVED!

Earlier in the day, we played for over four hours at the beach while we waited for Kevin to be ready for us to come aboard (he had to fuel up and change the oil before we could come....by the way, it cost $8,000 to fuel up - remember that the next time you complain about how much you paid at the gas pump! :). We had a perfect time at the beach, sooo much better than our previous trip this summer. My nephew Ted came along with us and my mother-in-law met us at the beach. She had the fabulous idea to bring a card table covered with blankets to provide a shelter for Jake (remember how much he disliked the wind and sun last time we went?). It couldn't have worked out any better - he even took an hour nap in the comfort of his shelter!

Abby and Ben had a BLAST and didn't want to leave, even though we played right through their naptime all the way until dinner time!

The highlight for them was playing in the warm tide pools. I wish I had brought the video camera to capture their squeals and giggles as they ran and jumped through the pools. Ben was absolutely hilarious. He has refused out of fear to go in the little one-foot deep swimming pool I bought the kids for the summer, yet he went all out with the tide pools, getting soaked from head to foot! The first time he fell down face-first, I held my breath....but he just looked up at me and said, "Cheese!"

Ted showed the kids how to write in the wet sand and they had fun with that for awhile too.

It truly was a perfect afternoon at the beach, followed by a perfect evening ride on Daddy's boat. Can summer days get any better than this?

P.S. For more pictures of the boat and the beach, check out my facebook album.