Night Moves

After sailing on Puget Sound and in British Columbia for over 30 years, my wife, Jeri, and I retired to Florida, bought a house on Punta Gorda and worked hard to get it straight. The walls had been painted, furniture bought and assembled, belongings packed, transported and unpacked, and with only a couple of shower doors yet to be replaced, I started looking at the boat ads. I’ve always wanted a Gemini catamaran.

But while I’d checked them out at boat shows over the years and sailed a friend’s, they are not common in the Pacific Northwest. Time, money, opportunity and the right boat also never seemed to line up.

Soon I found Lady Marie, a 1998 Gemini 105M that had had only one owner from new. She was well equipped, with GPS, radar, a dinghy and outboard, new sails and a reliable engine. She was also (relatively) affordable and located on nearby Marco Island, just 83 miles south of Punta Gorda by car.

The survey found the