Only 4 more days of punching a time card for "The Man". Thursday November 19th, 2009 will forever be remembered by me as the day I left trucking to become a Charter boat owner/captain. What a crazy ride its been so far. 13 years behind the wheel as a local tractor trailer driver and nearly 3/4 of a million miles will not necessarily be missed. My body had been telling me for awhile now that its time to get out of the seat of that truck and do something different.
As stated previously, who knew that when we visited Fort Myers, Florida back in February of this year, that Dianne and I would be doing something that alot of folks only dream about. I went to classes to get my charter boat captains license, we sold our home in Sharon Center, OH, we bought a condo in Fort Myers, and then we bought a turn-key sailboat charter business. And its only November!. The official take over date is December 1st, however I already own the boat, the business name, and the website. The only thing left to do is show up Dec. 1st, confirm the contract check list is complete, and hand over the rest of our money to the previous owner along with some other minor business transition details. Change the picture on the website to mine, then its official! We'll be doing half day, full day, sunset, and custom/overnight charters aboard a 38 ft Hunter Sailboat named "Star of Orion" from our slip at Salty Sam's Marina at Fort Myers Beach, Florida. Check it out at www.sailmagicwind.com .
Yes, this might seem like a crazy adventure especially when your talking about a guy and his wife that are very set in their ways, who built a house designed to be lived in for a very long time, and who both had great employers. However, a pivotal moment happened in August 08' that helped push our thoughts of sunny weather to the next level. When my brother Bob suddenly passed away of heart failure at age 40, life smacked us in the face and reminded us that every day is precious and that you have to live your dreams before its too late. Dianne and I didn't take too long to both realize it was time to move ahead with any ideas we had. I had fallen in love with sailing in 06' when I first caught the wind in the sails of my homemade sailing rig built for my canoe during a long winter. It didn't take long after that when I upgraded to a 22' trailerable sailboat and then a year ago to the 27' that I docked at Edgewater Marina in downtown Cleveland. Then, when we sailed aboard Star of Orion back in February and were told by the owner that he would be willing to sell the boat and business, we saw our opportunity. Who knew! The rest of the story will be documented here.
Well, enough for now. I'll be posting much more as our adventure continues.
Fair Winds,
Captain Dan Mendat
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