First, we had dinner with my aunt who is 90, spry as hell, and still working.  She has always been active and remains in great shape.  She is an inspiration for what being 90 could be.  She drives herself to work, walks good distances, and continues to have her wits fully about her.  Nice to see that aging need not be a miserable experience!!

(not my aunt- but same spryness level)

Second, we had a great time at the boat show.
 Seriously, great.  I’ll provide more detail below, but we inspected in detail several catamarans that we would consider purchasing as a vacation home (if kept in the British Virgin Islands, etc) and eventually a live-aboard for a circumnavigation.   In a day and a half, we are down to two main contenders.  That was solid work!

Third, we had a blast with Myra and Al (geez, hope I got his name right.  If not, perhaps he should not have ordered the post dinner drinks).  Teresa and Myra went to college together and just recently reconnected.  I met her and her family (Al, and two brilliant daughters) once before when we and the kids were in Miami.  This time it was just the adults and it was great.  Some people are hard to get to know and you struggle for conversation.

Others are the dangerous sort.  You fall into a series of conversations like you have known them for years and things can go off the rails.

 We managed to enjoy ourselves, eat a fantastic meal at Randazzo’s on Key Biscayne, and suffer relatively minor hangovers.  (I highly recommend this place if you are in the neighborhood and can get in.)

So, the boat show.
Walking around a boat show is a bit like being stuck in the maze of the Overlook Hotel.  If you don’t get the reference google it, go watch it and be ashamed.

All of the catamarans were nice.  We saw boats by the following builders: Lagoon, Fountaine Pajot, St. Francis, Antares,  Royal Cape Marine, Privilege, Xquisite, Knysa, and Seawind. When you board them, they are all nice.  As you inspect them thinking about owning them, living on them and fixing them, some differences emerge.  We noticed this at the last few boat shows as well and as a result stopped looking at a couple of brands.  We want quality components, solid structures, plumbing that is accessible and makes sense, well labeled electrical systems, and, of course, we need to love it.

For us, the most likely boats we would want to own are the X5 by Xquisite Yachts and the Privilege Series 5.   Both are high quality throughout.  I looked in every nook and cranny, checked the wiring, mechanical spaces, and storage compartments.  Each of these is a real contender.  We really liked Seawind as well, but their 50’ boat is not available in the U.S. (we saw it in France).  

Next, we need to test them.   We already scheduled a short vacation on a Privilege in June (due to my delay in this post, that vacation already happened.  It was fantastic as was the boat. A blog post to follow within the next decade)  Will follow up that vacation with another post- even though I am pretty sure I am talking to myself.  After that, we’ll shoot for a test of the X5 and Seawind.

As I am about to post this we are just a couple of weeks out from the Annapolis boat show. We will see a few boats there that we have yet to inspect, and poke around the X5 and Privilege a bit more.

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