Hi Folks,

Well, we returned just one day ago from our whirlwind 5 day trip from Whidbey island, Washington to San Leandro, California and back again. As the story goes, it all started when we won an auction on a 1968 Mariner 31 in need of some loving attention (On EBay no less & without ever laying eyes on her!). It all seemed to happen rather quickly, with Robyn pointing to one picture among the dozens scrolling past in our semi-daily "wouldn't it be nice if..." search of internet boat auctions.

Three days of pumping a lovely water/diesel mix out of the cabin, hauling various trashy items out from under the cockpit, and tearing out the rotten cockpit wood, brought us to a point of being able to tow her to Alameda where she would be hauled out and made ready for truck transport 900 miles home to Whidbey Island. During the tow, she lost part of her vigorous marine growth that had flourished after nearly 10 years spent in the slip.

We don't know much about her history except that she was once called Moondancer, and is now called Tramp. (What happened to change her from a Moondancer to a Tramp?) We could tell she was outfitted for long distance cruising, with radar, auto helm, and GPS among other things. As you can see from the photos, she is in need of some serious work, but nothing that is putting us off... except maybe that bowed main mast, we're not sure what to make of it. Someone suggested wetting it and hanging a 50 lb. weight off the end to bend it back to straight... hmmmmm.

We'll put more photos on as work progresses. One more note... the Mariner website has been inspirational and instrumental in our decision to buy her. We're looking forward to communicating with other Mariner owners about how to go about restoration, what works, what doesn't, good stories (and bad), etc.

David Malony and Robyn Jones

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