(take a video tour of the Guiding Light)
My boat is a 1998 Lagoon 410, hull number 007 (they did actually stamp all three digits, so I could have James Bond’s boat!).
ABOUT THE VESSEL
The Guiding Light has four cabins each with a queen size berth, closet, hamper, and footstep. The forward cabins have storage under the floor and berths, in which I installed drawers. The aft cabins each have a 27 horse power Yanmar engine and sail drive under the berths. Plus they have the escape hatches looking into the water, which every loves and call the “aquarium”. Both starboard cabins have en-suite heads and 
the port aft cabin shares the head with me (I have the forward port cabin), because I turned the aft head into a full size shower (one of the best received upgrades I have done).
The vessel displaces 16,000 pounds and is 40.5 feet long with a water line of 38.5 feet 
and a beam of 23.5 feet. It has a draft of 4 feet and the antenna at the top of the mast sits 63.5 feet off the water (very convenient since the standard bridge height on the East Coast ICW is 65 feet). It carried two 26 gallon diesel tanks and two 80 gallon water tanks (I only use the port one since I have a water maker installed). I have four 80 watt solar panels, which do a good job with my electrical needs and make it so I only have to use my Honda 2000 generator once every 7-10 days to top up the batteries.
HISTORY OF THE VESSEL
It started life as a charter boat for Sunsail Charters in St Martin and sailed around the French Caribbean for five years under the name “Ortegal”. It originally had green accents (boot stripe, stack pack, genoa UV protection, and interior curtains). In April 2004 Dick Korn purchased the boat and 
placed it in the Conch Charter fleet in the British Virgin Islands. In November 2006 Dick Korn removed it from charter service and moved aboard. The boat’s name was changed to “Brio” and the accents were changed to blue. He then spent the next year and a half sailing down the Eastern Caribbean, across Venezuela, and finished his cruise in the Dutch ABC’s (Aruba, Bonaire, and Curacao). In April 2008 Kim and Paul Burns (who it turns out are friends of a family friend) bought the boat from 
Dick in the Dutch ABC’s. They moved aboard with their twin two year old boy and girl. They also spent a year and a half aboard back tracking Dick’s route across Venezuela and up the Eastern Caribbean.
In February 2009 I flew to Ft Lauderdale with my best friend Joel in order to look at different models of catamarans. After this trip I decided a Lagoon was for me, because it was one of the very few brands where I could full stand up in the galley. 
When I first saw an advertisement for the boat the Burns were in St Lucia. By the time I made an offer and had it surveyed they were in Antigua. A month later (June 8th, 2009) I closed on the boat and took possession in Trellis Bay, British Virgin Islands. I spent three weeks in the British Virgin Islands with my friend Steph enjoying the islands and getting the boat ready to sail back to the Houston, TX area. We picked up Mark and started sailing for Houston a few days later. 
A very interesting fate of God is that Mark’s wife died of brain cancer days before Steph left to meet me on the boat. One of the last things his wife requested was for him to spread some of her ashes at the Bitter End Yacht Club in the BVI. He did not know when he would be getting back there and then he met Steph and found out about our trip. He signed up almost on the spot.
MY TIME ABOARD
Once we arrived in Kemah, TX (south of Houston) I keep the boat at Watergate Marina for seven months. During this time I moved the few remaining possessions I had not sold aboard, made the boat my home, learned how the different systems worked, and made upgrades like installing holding tanks, turning one head into a full shower, running lines back for single handing, installing a bigger hatch to accommodate 
bikes, switching from engine driven to 12 volt frig and freezer, and much more. When I chose the Houston area I did so because Joel was less than two hours away and could visit most weekends (his help was invaluable) and my stuff was in Dallas at my parent’s house.
It turns God wanted me there because my father started a year of emergency surgeries and I was able to be in Dallas once a month for the first seven months of his year of hell. 
In January 2010 I started my voyage east along the Gulf Coast and up the East Coast. I spent most of 2011 in the Bahamas before arriving in the Virgin Islands at the very beginning of 2012. For more detail about my voyage read the “Your Captain” tab and my blog for it details most week.
Like most captains I enjoy talking about my boat, so if you have any questions please contact me and we will discuss it.
Charter booked
