Boat Shows and Bikes, And A brand New CATAMARAN!!!!

There are two things that we love, and that is boats and bikes, motorcycles that is. We sold our boat, and that leaves bikes to occupy our time until we again take up sailing. we just returned from a super great week in Daytona, for the 75th annual bike-week extravaganza. The weather was warm and sunny, just like we like it, and we had a blast on the Road King, and saw our family and kids (most of them). The bikes were amazing, our old Harley looked pretty sad alongside the custom choppers, street customs and one-off motorcycles that all vied for bragging rights at the shows and on the streets of Daytona. If you have never been to Daytona for bike week, then you should consider going. It is a gathering of beautiful motorcycles, and sadly, not so beautiful people. But, hey, with us there, we jazzed the joint up a little bit anyway. Look at these bikes, and imagine what it must cost to make a $20,000 stock motorcycle look this incredible! Why, that would cut into the crusing budget, so we are good for now!

We even saw David Allan Coe at the Iron Horse Bar, he is pretty old and feeble, but still sings his old songs. He was probably more famous as a song writer than a performer anyway, and even though he is still kicking along, looks pretty rough.

The Miami boat show took place about a month ago, and it was a bit windy and cool, but the water taxi picked us up at our marina and took us to the show, how simple! We looked at the pretty shiny boats, and decided, hey, why not? Our favorite boat in the entire show wasn't the biggest. It wasn't the most expensive, or the fastest. But, it was the best boat for us, and it was the newest offering from the largest catamaran builder in the world, Lagoon. The boat that caught our fancy was the new, Lagoon 42. This new boat is the latest in the Lagoon offerings, the world premier of this boat was the Dusseldorf boat show in mid January od this year, and the Miami show was the United States premier of the boat, and the first time it was shown in the water. The boat is a real beauty. It has panoramic windows around the entire salon, a HUGE cockpit (think dance-floor) a real galley and separate heads with separate shower in the three cabins. The entire starboard hull is an owners cabin, and the helm station has a real hardtop with a sliding roof opening in it. The cockpit is open, and covered in teak, with only 3 steps down to the water, and still has ample bridge-deck clearance. The mast is moved aft about 7 feet or so, reducing the size of the main sail and reducing pitching in a head sea. The resultant head sail is larger than average, and the jib is self-tacking. A huge code-zero helps the boat go to wind, and also off the wind. There is a new Utube video of this boat going 16 knots downwind in a 22 knot following breeze! The boat is so appealing, that in two months since it's premiere, they have sold 106 boats already, making this boat an instant success. It really is a beauty, and will be something we will be proud of. We are considering selling tickets just to step aboard, so if you are so inclined, let us know, we will check our busy schedule, and perhaps squeeze you in!