We bought our Valiant 42 CE (Center Entry) at the end of 2016 in Solomon’s Island, Maryland. She was built in 2002, hull no. 157, and had one owner before us. He had christened her Antoinette after his mother, who introduced him to sailing and instilled the passion in him. We both liked the name and so she remains to this day.

The First of The Two Happiest Days:

Antoinette is a well-found, bluewater sailing boat, well-engineered and built like a tank. We settled on a Valiant 42 after researching them and then touring one in San Diego. Then it was just a bit too early to open wide the spigot on the bank account so we had to pass on that boat and she went off the market. I found another, Antoinette, and hawked the ads for her until one day, late in 2016, the asking price dropped. By a lot. We decided that the time to strike had come.

So I called the owner’s agent, a Marine surveyor named Derek Rhymes in Annapolis and my longtime friend Hollis because he had built a sailboat himself; because he had studied Marine Engineering; and because I knew he was an all-round smart guy. Hollis drove right up and met Jimena and me in Solomons Island without further ado.

Hollis brought his ditty bag and said he was ready to help me sail Antoinette out of Maryland and at least as far as Galveston, Texas (near where he was living at the time of course) but the insurance company would not touch us with a ten foot pole.

And so, after the survey and sea trial and agreeing the purchase, I called Deepwater Transport, boat haulers out of Washington, North Carolina. I told the fellow who answered I needed to move a boat from Solomons Island, Maryland. He said “okay, where to?”. I told him San Diego, California. He replied “Damn!, You ran outta land didn’t you?” and I said “shore did”. And so we trucked Antoinette across the U.S.