Buying the Boat

The Full Story

Buying the boat during the height of COVID added additional challenges. We were able to do a virtual walkthrough, but knew that would't be enough to seal the deal. We took a chance, wrote a contract contingent on inspection and began to plan our trip to Lauderdale to both inspect and take possession of the boat. I do not recommend doing this, but our options were limited due to lock downs and travel restrictions. We were lucky enough to have a place to send tools, gear and other necessities nearby in Florida, so we packed up a rented SUV (one way only) and a few extra crew members, Katie and Jake, and headed down to the boat. After rigging, engine and standard inspections, with some repair work done by the seller, we closed on our new to us boat and immediately took her to Bahia Mar Marina in Ft Lauderdale where we could complete more work that would need to be done and familiarize ourselves with the boat before our delivery back to Chicago.

We prioritized emptying and power washing the fuel tanks, tuning the rig, setting up our AIS, changing all filters, re-sealing hatches, filling propane tanks, provisioning for the voyage, stowing our gear, replacing fire extinguishers, flares and AIS, and preforming the traditional re-naming ceremony. She was truly our boat now! All that was left to do was wait for a good weather window.

Renaming Ceremony

Of course we wanted to make her our own, so we followed the traditional practices of renaming Elysium, which included appealing to Poseidon and addressing the four wind gods, Boreas, Zyphyrus,

Eurus, and Notus. Hopefully, proper pronunciation was not required for a successful ceremony! You can find the entire ceremony at the following link. https://www.discoverboating.com/resources/ceremony-for-renaming-your-boat

Fuel Tanks

We decided to have the fuel removed from all of our 4 fuel tanks and properly disposed of. It was old fuel from the Caribbean that had been sitting. After the old fuel was removed, we had the fuel tanks pressure washed and sludge removed. We didn't want to take the chance of any sludge clogging up the engine or filters and finding ourselves in a bad situation offshore. This seemingly straightforward process was made more difficult by the tight access to those fuel tanks. One of the fuel tanks did have good diesel, so that was polished and returned to the tank.