Can You Love Your Second Boat as Much as Your First?

One of my most favorite pictures of Rasmus, taken on the Erie Canal.

As it becomes more and more real that Scott and I might own a new boat in the near future, I find myself thinking a lot about our Rasmus and getting very, very nostalgic.  I feel like we're cheating on her.  She's sitting there, all bundled up in Trinidad, awaiting our return.  She's getting her monthly wash downs and bi-monthly check-ups, looking naked and out of place on some jack stands, ready at any moment to get back into the water and do what she does best, and here we are - looking at other boats to buy.  Thinking of all this makes me, well, kind of sad.

I think of how much blood, sweat and tears we put into her.  How excited we were when we bought her, of all the good times we've had on her.  Our first delivery to Chicago, our first storm, our first time anchoring out...a million "firsts".  I mean, we got engaged on that boat!  I think of all the late nights and early mornings spent making her perfect, all the laughter that filled her cockpit, the countless sunsets and sunrises viewed from her deck.  Adventures that never ceased and spanned the 5,000+ nautical miles we sailed from Chicago to Trinidad.  She's a mighty boat.  She's a beauty.  She has taken very, very good care of us.  I think back on when we bought her, how we knew she was "the one" the minute we set foot on her. There was no analyzing, there was no doubt.  The excitement bubbled up inside me the second I took her in with my eyes.  She was it.  She was the one.  It was as simple as that.

She was our first true love.

Which makes me wonder; is it possible to love subsequent boats as much as your first?

I honestly do not know the answer and I'm actually trying to work it out in my head.  As most of you know, this time around the boat buying process was so different.  Our ignorance (or shall I say, naiveté?) when we bought Rasmus made the whole procedure so much simpler - falling in love was easy and innocent.  This time around, however, we are so much pickier, less emotional, more calculating - we know what we want, what we don't - and no boat fits the bill "exactly".  We are going to have to make compromises, "love" hasn't really factored into the equation this time around.  This time around, there is no such thing as the "perfect" boat.  When we bought Rasmus, however, she was.  Is this a sign of maturity?  A sign that we have grown wiser and know now that mature love takes effort, work and - most importantly - time?

They say there is no love like your first.  Does the same ring true for boats?

“Something about first love defies duplication. Before it, your heart is blank. Unwritten. After, the walls are left inscribed and graffitied. When it ends, no amount of scrubbing will purge the scrawled oaths and sketched images, but sooner or later, you find that there’s space for someone else, between the words and in the margins.” 

- Tammara Webber, Where You Are

Have you owned more than one boat?  What are your thoughts?