The boat was named after the song “La Vie Dansante” which is French for “the dancing life”. No, the boat in the video above is not our boat (it’s shown below) but you can hear the wonderful song and concept she is named after. The La Vie Dansante is a 1998 Endeavorcat 34 manufactured by Endeavor Catamarans out of Clearwater Florida. She was chosen as our ship of dreams first and foremost simply because she was a catamaran. Why a catamaran? Now there’s a long story which I will shorten for the sake of the reader. Suffice it to say that while flying a 50 passenger jet out of Detroit I received a letter from my wife telling me she was ready and willing to move aboard a boat and explore the idea of going cruising–however the offer came with two provisos. The first was that there would be no transoceanic voyaging and secondly the vessel had to be a catamaran. I had been waiting on this opportunity for years and felt her demands were more than reasonable. No, she isn’t adorned with teak and bronze and all the other sexy trappings of a traditional yacht which is what I surely wold have purchased but she has grown on me over time. For one thing she is the perfect cruising vessel for where I want to go which is the Bahamas and destinations south. I don’t know this from experience but rather because I have been told this time and again from those who have been. Apparently shallow draft is an awesome characteristic and at 2’9″ of draft the La Vie Dansante has been characterized as a great vessel which should allow us to overnight in many shallow water anchorages denied to other boats. Anyway, the boat pedigree since 1998 has morphed into the 36′ version with a large after deck. We preferred the older version for three primary reasons: the older ones were less expensive, they had steps molded into the reverse transom and lastly we save a little $$ as we get essentially the same boat in 34′ versus 36′ which saves on slip and mooring fees.