For several years Chuck and Claria have dreamt of cruising the rivers and canals of the eastern United States and Canada in a power boat. Our boating experiences started early for both of us, having grown up living on Lake Minnetonka in Minnesota, boating with our parents, and later racing sailboats all over the country. This dream was reinforced when, on several regatta trips to Bobcaygeon, Ontario to race our M-20, we would see boats from the Southeastern United States passing through the Trent Severn Waterway from Lake Ontario to Lake Huron. Then we bought the book, "Honey, Let's Get a Boat", the story of a couple doing the Great Loop. We were hooked!
Over the years we would charter bare boats, both power and sail, in the coastal waters of the US and in the Great Lakes. In this process we realised that we would need a boat of at least 40' to be comfortable for extended cruising. We subscribed to "PassageMaker" to learn what we could about boats and extended cruising.
As we looked ahead to retirement, we selected the SE coast, somewhere between Charleston, SC and Jacksonville, FL as the ideal place to settle where we would have good access to the Intracoasteal Waterway. In the mid 1990s we discovered Beaufort, SC and fell in love with this historic town, later discovering Distant Island and Distant Island Creek. When the property started to sell in 1999, we were standing in line for a lot on Claire's Point, which we were able to buy. We finished our new house and moved onto Distant Island in the fall of 2001. We were set, we had our home on the water and a dock that could accommodate a 40' boat, 3/4 of a mile from the Intracoastal Waterway. Now all we needed was the boat.
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