Idle chat: wings, waves, wheels…

Rat Nr. 3 was the electric 18’ Duffy Balboa, also a great River Rat with hundreds of hours up and down the New River in Fort Lauderdale.

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Rat Nr. 4 was the Cobia 17 with an F90, great boat also, limited to only 3 bikini girls and the Captain due to the smallish size.
(Which is why Rat Nr. 5 is 23 feet, more space for the dancing beauties.

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Sold the Albin 3 years ago, sadly…
It was not the right boat for this area, no islands, no Keys, no anchorages, etc.
Hated to part with with it, but life goes on..
The Albin and Rat Nr. 4 at home base in Fort Lauderdale.

A better picture of Rat Nr. 3, a great utility boat with a boarding platform on the bow and a custom hand-hold with a welded on cleat. ( I had this fabricated so my elderly father could board without falling on
his arse)

Rat Nr. 5 came with a black bimini top, but the black fabric reflected on the Yamaha gauges among them unreadable.
I complained to Sea Hunt, but they ignored it and said nobody else had an issue.
I hired a surveyor to come for a boat ride and he wrote a report stating the same thing, the black fabric reflected on the gauges.

Sea Hunt read the report and sent me a new top, this one a tan color and the gauges became readable again. All good.

Again, I do miss the Albin, Stidd seats and all.
I purchased it after a member of this forum suggested I look for that make and model after I laid out a few requirements for my next boat. He was right on, great suggestion about 10 years ago.
Great coastal pocket cruiser and I finally found one that was ideal for me:
(Florida boat, first and only owner was an Engineer and he was **** about maintenance, service and records , wow.)

For anybody considering an Albin 28TE, see this thread on the Albin Forum where I detailed everything over my 5 years as an owner and a charter boat operator: https://albinowners.net/aog/viewtopic.php?t=10612
A long list of stuff, but I liked the boat and planned to keep her. (Life got in the way, we moved from South to North Florida, wrong boat in the wrong place)
There is also a FB page called Odin Charters where I have photos and comments after 5-6 years of casual sightseeing charters on the waterways in Fort Lauderdale, first with a Glacier Bay 2770, then with the Albin 28TE.

Nowadays we only run the ditch with a smaller Sea Hunt 234 Ultra, typical cruise:

Hi from Thailand.
Couldn’t find any decent Thai food in Palm Coast, flew to a small fishing village in Thailand called Bang Sare instead, excellent food, exotic nature and beautiful women as well as a lot of older expats with younger Thai wife's, looks like a great place to retire.
An old friend owns a hotel here and invited me over:
https://siamcourtbangsaray.com/
Nice clean little boutique hotel, highly recommended.

Bang Sare Harbor with nearby islands, fishing fleet in port now.

Seafood restaurant at the harbor.

Dinner with 2 lovely Ladies



PS: Wife didn’t want to go on this trip, flying solo now, damn..

Nearby golf course

Beautiful day on the water, cobalt blue skies, no traffic, boat ran perfect, only missing the bikini girls.