“How our lives turn and turn. Things come that we never would have predicted for ourselves or even guessed at. And yet they change us forever.”    – Paula McLain, Circling the Sun

We are acutely aware that our nomadic living/learning life is no longer an experiment – we want to continue travel-schooling and adventuring F O R E V E R. We are committed!  While our family of four has lived happily on a 40′ x 12′ floating mini-yacht for almost two and a half school years now, we are thinking we need a little more space.

When we started our travel-school adventure, it was an idea and a small calculated risk (if it didn’t work out, we still had a GREAT boat to use on the weekends!). The kids were so little and at great school-age years to cast off for a bit. We did not know if our plan was going to work, but work it did, and we thank our lucky stars every day that we took the plunge.  So it is a collective decision,  that if we want to continue on, we need to buy a bigger boat.

In 2013, we started looking in earnest for the right boat for us. We fell in love with the 1950’s quality and design of the Huckins brand and we carefully chose a boat that fit our young family and budget. New to power-boats, Tony and I were careful not to take on anything too big. Cortado was love-at-first-sight, complete with full sized bunk-beds for the kids.

Huckins are special boats with an impressive history. Started in 1928, the Huckins Yacht Corp. still makes the most beautiful, classic wooden boats. If you are a history-buff, the story is a good one. Because of their “Quadraconic” hull design, Huckins built PT boats for two squadrons during World War II. They are fast and solid boats. The company is family-run and they treat their boat-owners like family. So without question, our next travel-school vessel will also be a Huckins.

Like us, most Huckins owners consider themselves ‘stewards’ of these boats and care for them meticulously. Since November 2014, we cruised Cortado in Florida and the Bahamas over 2,800 nautical miles. We made specific improvements and upgrades at both the Huckins and Hinckley boatyards along the way.

Change is good; though we are heartsick at the thought of selling our beautiful Cortado.  We are currently docked under cover in the Huckins yard in Jacksonville and we know our next adventure is waiting for us, just around the corner.

“Life is a series of natural and spontaneous changes… Let reality be reality. Let things flow naturally forward in whatever way they like.”    – Lao Tzu

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See:    www.huckinsyacht.com    

ref: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Huckins_Yacht_Corporation