Buying a catamaran during a pandemic, part II

 So here we go again!

Last boat I was looking at was a 40' Manta from Endeavor. I actually wanted a 42' Manta, but really can't afford that, so here we are looking at the 40' version.

This one is also 1997 Manta 40. Oddly enough this one dropped in price the day I declined the previous boat and headed back north. Had I looked I could have saved myself another long drive. 

We looked again, had a virtual tour, this one was a great deal more in depth and almost exhaustive in its detailed look at the boat. This dealer really knew their stuff, but more importantly, they knew this boat. I love the Manta line of catamarans. After looking at all the boats, and just hundreds of used boats I started to develop a list of boats in my head to match the "OMG I won the lottery!", "I really would like that expensive shiny over there", and then finally, "I will grudgingly accept this one, because I can afford it." lists. So in Cats the boat at the top of "I would really like that expensive shiny over there" list has been the Manta 42' for a number of years. The accompanying mono hull on that list is the AMEL 52. So when I saw that this particular shiny had dropped even below the price of the previous shiny? OMG!

This boat was further away in Ft. Meyers Beach. A good 14 hour drive, which works out to at least 16 hours on the road, cuz man I gotta stop. I freely admit I am a lousy long distance driver. Anyway got the SO involved in this particular trip. I felt that I was cutting her out of the fun and games of buying a new boat. And frankly It was a serious amount of money to spend with out her approval each step of the way. So pack the truck and off we go. We have a friend that lives an hour or so from the boat yard and she seemed not sick and safe, so we piled into her house for the week. 

OK long story shorter, we loved KokoMo Kat, and we bought her. She is laying in Fort Meyers Beach and it is killing us. COVID winter is here, everything between here and there is now classified as "Uncontrolled Spread" and as much as I want to take delivery of my new adventure, I want to live longer than 2 weeks after I get there. Plus as near as I can tell the hospitals ICU's in that area are at near capacity anyway. And I already see in the news and on social media how seriously the people living down there are taking this. Which is not enough. It's is incredibly insane to politicize a freaking illness, but here we are anyway. 

So now we are just working on a plan to get through to Florida in a hermetically sealed bubble, failing that maybe my truck will suffice.