Cruise ship cheap:
It’s not every day that you spot a cruise ship for sale on Craigslist. Chris Willson was immediately intrigued when he stumbled across a 293-foot vessel listed on Craigslist back in 2008. The retired “pocket” cruise ship, built in Germany, was moored in the California Delta at the time, and its then owner was keen to offload it. After carefully considering the enormity of what it would mean to own a mini cruise ship, Willson put together a restoration plan and decided to take the plunge. While he’s loath to discuss the amount he paid, he says he was able to, “Work out a really good deal with the owner of the vessel. The next thing you know, I own a cruise ship,” Chris adds. The work started spending for a few months traveling for three hours from his home in Santa Cruz to work on the ship. Chris decided to move on board with his partner Jin Li so that he could fully focus on the project, as well as keep it secure. “When I first moved aboard many of my friends and family were in disbelief,” he admits. “It was a rather large change in lifestyle. “But I view it as more of an upgrade, although we are off grid and running on mainly generators and solar grids.”
As he began digging further into the history of the ship, Willson says he learned that, not only had it been the inspiration for popular TV series “The Love Boat,” it was also the filming location for the “Spectre” criminal organization headquarters in the 1963 James Bond movie “From Russia with Love.” The vessel served as a cruise ship for around 20 years, went through several different owners, as well as names. Chris decided to make the ship a floating museum and launched the Aurora Restoration Project, in February. “We have restored a small number of cabins aboard but have many, many to go and will soon offer the opportunity for the public to sponsor the restoration of a cabin,” he says. “We had a large donation from the Island Princess, one of the ships they filmed the ‘The Love Boat’ on, which was just recently scrapped,” he says. For the time being, Willson is enjoying working and living on board the ship and looks forward to the day that he’ll be able to open it up to the public. “There’s really nothing more spectacular than being able to work on and live on something this unique,” he adds.
Buyer Beware
You know it’s bad where you live when
You check the Craig’s list and see a section titled: “Stolen car for sale:”
We had just purchased a retirement home on the coast of Maine. The property was expensive, but it fulfilled our lifelong plans. We chatted with the previous owner as she was moving out and we were coming in. We asked what she was going to do with all that money from the purchase of her house? She replied, “I certainly plan to spend it more wisely that you just did.”
CEO: Is our advertising getting results?
Ad manager: It sure is. Last week, we put an ad up for new security personnel, and last night we got robbed.
Hubby: “Well, I am glad to see the neighbors have returned the lawn mower before they move. They sure kept it long enough.” Wife: “Our lawn mower? I just bought it at their garage sale.”
April 11th Birthdays
1984 – Kelli Garner, 1948 – Ellen Goodman, 1939 – Louise Lasser, 1974 – Tricia Helfer
1994 – Marcus Johns, 1913 – Oleg Cassini, 1931 – Rupert Murdoch, 1982 – Matt Ryan