Short History of Ben and Baggy

For those of you who do not know me I am Benjamin Shaw, the captain and owner of Baggywrinkle. I found and bought my boat in August of 1999. At that time her name was Avanti II (we held a proper renaming ceremony to appease Neptune). She was docked at the Grand Mariner Marina in Mobile, Alabama. My brother and I moved aboard in October and began cleaning her out and fixing her up. We scrubbed, painted, replaced windows, ripped out the water tank, built a chart table... and much more.

In April of 2000 we moved the boat to Pensacola, a short hop. In Pensacola lived the Browns, friends of ours who were able to provide us with lots of tools and material. This allowed us to do a good deal more work on the boat than before and we remained there a month, working and enjoying the Browns hospitality.

In May it was time to move on, although we weren't quite sure where. We skirted along the west coast of Florida. We limped into Tampa bay on an engine that was being troubled by dirty fuel. A week long layover in St. Petersburg allowed us to fix that problem, and make some friends we would run into again in Key West. We shot down to Sanibel and then headed off to the Keys spending a few days in Key West along the way. We sailed up to Miami, and then on up to Charleston. We arrive in Charleston harbor at 5am behind a red TowBoat vessel - read about that whole story some if you must.

Jon left me in Charleston and I headed up the Intracoastal Waterway on my own. It was a beautiful trip, and being alone taught me a great deal about handling the boat. I arrived in the Chesapeake in July. The boat has been docked at Strubles Marina a small marina on the Magothy just north of Annapolis since then. She and I are both chomping at the bit to take off and go cruising again. With any luck we will be off again this fall... stay tuned.