Hello friends! I wish I had started this blog when we first bought our trawler but alas, we did not. But, never too late to start a good thing, eh? We have owned several boats over the years, most of them nearly new. But, I have always enjoyed classic boats and I have always enjoyed restoring old things (such as the 110+ year old storefront my office is located in that I renovated from the ground up). So, our newer boats never really felt like "us" if you know what I mean. After selling our 2005 Silverton 38 Sport Bridge in the winter of 2009, the search was on for a classic trawler. We were looking for a boat that offered several things: A) diesel power for safety and longevity, B) classic lines that make you find her beautiful despite her possible age, C) a boat designed for longer range cruising, D) lots of storage and space for our young family, and E) given the market conditions, we were looking for a "good deal" as is every other buyer out there these days. We searched long and hard for such a boat...mostly looking in the 43' to 48' range, assuming we'd need a bigger boat to meet our space needs.

It was great surprise that after months and months of searching, we spoke with a friend on our old dock that owned a trawler. He informed us he was ready to sell. I had been inside his Monk trawler once before and fell in love with the classic teak interior! So long story short, we worked out a deal and bought "Poco A Poco," as she has been named for most all her years, in early August 2010.

Poco A Poco is spanish for "Little by Little." We originally were going to keep her name as we thought we'd fix her up "little by little." However, after a family discussion over dinner one night we decided to change her name to Livinglight. For us, this has two meanings:

1) We are all called to the living light of Christ and God's love and we hope to treat people we meet on the water with a joy and happiness and warmth in a non-religious way.

2) We want to keep things light and happy and stress free- thus the desire to be living "light." We like the double meaning.

Her interior was in great shape but did need a little bit of work here and there. I have a long thread on the boating forum, www.boatered.com detailing the initial steps of our refit process that you can view here.

In that thread I detailed our recoring of our foredeck and aft bridge deck, blister repair, new bottom paint, as well as our trawler's "road trip" on the back of an 18 wheeler from Lake Lanier, GA (Atlanta) to Chattanooga, TN on the Tennessee River which is her new home port. Additionally, you'll find pictures of our new granite countertops and the new configuration of the forward (kid's) stateroom that I built.

Some of the basic specs regarding our trawler:

-1983 Monk 36 Trawler

- Designer: Ed Monk

- Beam: 13'

- Power Plant: Single screw Perkins 135hp 6.354 diesel inboard engine and an 8.0 KW Northern Lights generator.

- Freshwater (drinking water) tank: 185 gallons.

- Blackwater (toilet) holding tank: 45 gallons.

- Fuel tanks: 320 gallons.

- Displacement (as measured in travel lift slings): 24,000 lbs.

The Monk 36 trawler has had a production run spanning approximately 27-28 years. Our 1983 Monk is hull #30 of the Monk 36 line and as such, she is one of the first ones ever built (or most accurately stated, she is the 30th Monk 36 that was ever built!). They are known to be very reliable coastal cruisers suitable for trips to the islands or up and down the ICW, the gulf, etc. They have a very solid ride and she handles well. She is also extremely fuel efficient. At hull speed we only burn about 1.5 to 2 gallons of diesel per hour (compared to our silverton 38 sedan previous to this burning around 8-9 gallons per hour at the same speed or up to 55 gallons per hour if we went fast!!). This results in a very economical and spacious boat perfect for long range cruising and essentially freeing us from the worry of current fuel price swings.

One of the unexpected pleasures of buying our Monk trawler has been the one on one time my son and I have spent this winter together working on her! He has been a great help and at 8 years old, is at that age of wanting to learn how to use tools and help "dad." So we have really enjoyed working together. In fact, there have been some jobs I literally could not have done without him as he can fit in places I simply cannot! Case in point:

We will be taking our first "big" trip on our trawler this coming weekend. We will be cruising her approximately 125 miles down the TN River to Guntersville, AL in order to drop her off at a repair yard to get her topsides painted. This will be a huge step forward in our refit process (not to mention the last BIG item to be done this winter), as well as our first opportunity to really stretch our legs a little bit on board and see how she handles cruising a little bit. I am looking forward to testing several items more that we have or are installing before the trip:

A) Using my macbook for our GPS chartplotter. This has worked great since we set it up but I have only cruised around Harrison Bay with it and I am looking forward to exploring it's various features through the MacENC chartplotting program we use.

B) I ran cabling for an engine room camera this past weekend. I tested it in the slip with an old webcam I had but I want to get a better quality cam and then see how it does on the trip. Basically- this camera will essentially be a dedicated webcam set up to show me the engine, transmission, and fuel filter gauge while underway so that I can see what is going on while cruising.

C) Utilizing the Rogue Wave Wi-fi booster antenna and the router a friend gave us (thanks again Bill!!). I've played with it extensively in the slip and it seems to work great but I look forward to trying it out on this longer trip. The wifi booster reportedly will pick up a hotspot from 7 miles out!

Most importantly, this trip should be a blast as my dad and my 8 year old son will be joining me as crew on the trip (my wife and 7 year old daughter decided to stay home due to colder weather). I am looking forward to spending time with my dad and son on this little trip and sharing our first cruise aboard the trawler together.

So stay tuned....fun and adventure and more of working on the boat lies ahead!

Just for fun, here is a link to a video we shot today on our short little cruise around Harrison Bay. It was 65+ degrees, sunny, and after all the cold and snow it almost felt like summer!! :)

Here's the video:

Also, we hit a bit of a milestone today. Our little Perkins 135hp diesel engine officially reached 1,800.0 hours:

And last but not least, while it may not be a tropical paradise per say, I at least got some time out on the kayak as we anchored out for a few hours of fun:

Stay tuned...I should be posting more as we get ready for our trip later this week!