A week of Privilege (literally and figuratively)

In June we had the great opportunity to spend a week in the British and U.S. Virgin Islands.  Five of those days were on a boat.  Not just any boat.  A super luxurious, super cool catamaran!

For the first five days we were on a Privilege Catamaran that was a 50’ long owners version.  Super high quality and comfortable.  For those unfamiliar with catamarans, I’ll give you the run down.  A catamaran is different from a normal (monohull) sailboat in that it uses to separate smaller hulls to sit in the water across the top of which is a deck.  (I am foregoing nautical jargon) In the picture below you can see the entry stairs at the back. 

That whole area outside and under the awning is called the cockpit. Largely, it is a social area that includes a fridge and grill.  That half table folds out to be a full dining table. That is a beer and wine cooler in the center of the table.  And, up a few steps you can see the helm where you drive.  The controls for the two engines and all sails are right at that seat, along with all navigational aids.

Inside, under the awning through the door is called the saloon (like the old western movie bar where there is always a poker game and bar that only serves whiskey), which is the living room and kitchen. Spacious, comfortable, dining table for 8, plus radios, fuse boxes, and other boat stuff.

  On either side of the saloon are stairs down into the two hulls.  In the back of each hull is a queen size bed, bathroom and shower.  The entire front is the master bedroom/bathroom/shower.  Also, under all floor are access panels to storage and systems.  

The master cabin is huge.  The only problem is that at 6’1”, the head height became a problem for me.

The verdict- wow, pretty awesome and confirmed that we are on a solid path for a retirement plan provided we remain healthy and all goes well (fingers crossed). Everybody loved living on the boat. Plenty of room (unexpected), fun, and nobody got bored or felt confined.  (Also unexpected with four teenagers!)

Miami Boat Show 2019!

So, per usual, I am 6 months behind.  My apologies, it takes that long to make the gifs from scratch.  (Total BS)

More boat on the brain ramblings!  Yay.



Teresa and I had to be in Atlanta the same week for work.  Generally, we try not to be out of town (San Fran for those of you behind the curve) at the same time.  Although our kids are old enough to care for themselves in theory, I saw Risky Business and pretty much ever teen-party-gone-wrong movie, so they remain supervised.  (There may also have been that one incident in 1986 when my parents were out of town. Hey, Jimmy, if I did not thank you for helping me put up new panelling in the basement before my parents got home -thanks again).

Since we would be in the Southeast and the Miami boat show just happened to coincide with our trip (suspicious or auspicious), a detour to Miami sounded good.   So, we asked one of our favorite relatives if she would hang out with the kids while we were out of town and she was kind (foolish) enough to say yes.

Three main events worth noting while in Miami.

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.

Please "follow" and "like" this post.  It helps feed my ego.

Another Year - Another Blog Post

5 am.   Wife and kids are asleep.   Dogs are asleep.  East-coast guests are asleep, though there is a significant danger that they will soon be awake since it is 830 on their internal clocks. 

I woke, as I often do, to dog poop in the kitchen.  Argh!!   Our little French Bulldog is an untrainable mess.

Despite the new dog-door she enjoys using during the day, late night pooping in one area of the kitchen has become her thing.  And, of course, since it is “late night pooping” nobody is awake to tell her “NO” as she squats to poop by the stove.  I do not think she will make a good pet on a sailboat.  I keep telling her that she needs to impress me before the move, but not sure she is getting it.  Perhaps if I show her this pic and explain that the life jacket is optional?

Harry, the old English bulldog is a senior citizen and continues to be awesome.  Added bonus, he has not pooped or peed in the house more than 10 times in 9 years!

But I digress.   

We sold the Atlanta house to a friend whose office and kids’ school were very close to us.  So, the Atlanta Bonder-osa has passed to a new family.  One selling point was that he knew that every improvement we made to that house was with the expectation that I would live out my entire life and eventually drop dead in the place.  That same commitment to making sure house was solid, had the best floors, appliances, etc. also makes us miss the place.  But, I should have known the plan would not stand the test of time since none have yet!

Moving is rough on the whole family, but exciting as well.  The kids seem to be doing well, making friends, getting good grades, etc.  They complain and speak longingly about Atlanta, but I don’t think this is so very different than what they would do in Atlanta at 13 and 15 years old.  Those are rough ages. Because the little buggers are too old for play-dates and the neighborhood non-competitive soccer league (oh, and because they now have a will of their own), we parents are forced to (gasp) make friends without using the kids as a crutch.

Luckily, Tiburon is a friendly small town and we met some folks.  So, when the lease on the rental house expired, we bought a house of our very own and stayed in Tiburon.  We are still very near the town center of Tiburon, but  with a different view and a slightly longer walk to town, the ferry, etc.    But, we are very happy with the new location.  

Although I grew up near the water in Queens, I never really thought about it.  Even when I was “hanging out” down by the jetty outside of Fort Totten and looking at the Throgs Neck Bridge (worst name for a bridge ever)

or walking along the path to the sole Zaxxon machine 

at the Douglaston Driving Range (this really makes me think I am too hard on my kids about video games),

I just never thought about the water.  But now, being near the water and seeing it is incredibly relaxing.  Something about it is calms the soul, and brings daily small issues into perspective.   So, bottom line, the move was a great thing thus far and I am very happy with the trade offs from land locked Atlanta.  

So, now that water is an ever present reality and I am still hopeful that our retirement will being by living on a boat and traveling the world.  Toward that lofty end, we spend time making sure we are competent sailors!  

We sail routinely around the San Francisco Bay (considered a challenging area to sail, so very good practice) on a variety of boats.  

Luckily, by joining the local sailing club we also met a bunch of super nice folks who enjoy sailing, drinking wine with Teresa (I sip my beer in a haughty fashion, swirl it around the bottle, and talk about its floral notes just to be a jerk), and are quickly becoming good friends.  

When the sound of wind is the only “motor” moving the boat and I am contently staring at the sea lions (as they contently stare at me),

I realize how incredibly far I am from the teenage kid that was dragged to a boat at the World’s Fair Marine by my dad largely for manual labor.

To be fair, I have no idea what the World’s Fair Marina is like now, but even without the constant rotten-egg sewage smell in the 80s, it was a pretty awful spot just under the runway of LaGuardia airport. . I remember thinking that we were in danger every time we motored passed Riley’s Island.  To be fair to the staff and prisoners on Riker’s Island, we were in far more danger from an alcohol induced boating accident than an escape, but the danger was real nevertheless.  

Teresa and I also continue to have a great time looking at catamarans as an eventual new home.  In April we took an awesome trip to the south of France for the La Grande Motte Catamaran Boat show.  We immediately felt welcomed as we drove out of the airport, though I am not sure what the message here really was.

We decided to skip the spa visit and head to our hotel in Nice, France.

After a few days of exploring Nice, we headed over to La Grande Motte, a funky little seashore town that must have sprung up in the 70s.



The catamaran variety was astounding.

We really fell for the Privilege Series 5 catamaran.   We will visit the brand, and many others, again soon at the Miami boat show.  But for now, Privilege is a clear leader in our thought process.  

To close out this post I will share my favorite moment of the trip.  As some of you may know, Teresa “speaks” French.  That’s is, when in college she was fluent and lived in France for a semester.  Shoot forward xx years, and she confidently ordered a lovely fish lunch in the ancient walled city we were visiting, Of course, if this were xx years ago she would have known that the words she used were for some sort of alien being with tentacles.   She was a good sport, but I suspect her laughter in this picture was really at me laughing so hard that I could not breath.