UNTRUE WORDS

Some of the words of wisdom about boats are true, i.e. “A boat is a hole in the water you through money.” Others are a lie. “The two happiest days are the day you buy your boat and the day you sell your boat.” Major lie. I am here to tell you it is not true. I have had 5 boats and the only one I sold was a great day. That was when the old boat was part of the payment for a new larger boat. The others were among the worst days of my life.

When you put a boat up for sale, one must expect that it will sell. I am happy to live in the dream that maybe it will not. Well, that was a fallacy. Offers were made, prices were agreed upon, contracts were signed, earnest money paid and dates set. All rather final. Of course there is the survey. I am not worried about that. Nightwatch is an old boat, but she is in pretty good shape. I would leave on a cruise with her today.

Are there things that could be improved. Yes. After all it is a boat. They are never perfect. There is always a list. The surveyor will give the new owner a list. A few weeks of ownership, the owner will be able to add to the list, and it will go on.

Beside me on the chart table is my current list of 9 items in which one was checked off today. None are major, just normal items that you do to keep her afloat and healthy.

This weekend we sailed to Number-One-Son’s house to pick up some items that belong on the boat that we did not take along when we cruised. My son and his wife are happy to see the stuff leave.

The way boat sales go, I could be a street person for a period. We are going to either buy a Condo or rent an apartment. We want to be by the water, so that is the mates project for the next month. In a perfect world, one could close two homes and move in to the new place in the same day. Think about this, we have no furniture. Therefore, my son gets company for a day or two. Now this is all set on the fact that neither of us drop dead from overwork.

Other then driving the boat to the yard for the survey, I did my last sail today. Saturday I had hoped to sail, but the wind was right on the nose. Today the wind started the same way, but it was not a big deal. The first third of the trip one is passing three lifting bridges, two fixed high bridges and several miles of cannels. Then we got to where we could sail and we did. In winds of 5-10 kts. In the middle it died to almost nothing and we were moving at less then 2 kts. I did not care. I was sailing. The wind did fill back in to about 10 kts when we had only about 2 miles to go. That was good. Kept me busy all the way back to the marina. My mind needed that.

We are to close no later then March 6^th. That gives us a little over a month. Not much time to totally change life styles. A new adventure.