Offer and Deal on the Boat

Well, we had a showing of Maggie Drum to a nice couple who flew over from Australia to see her. They flew in to Auckland, rented a car and stayed with some friends here in Whangarei. They inspected her on Sunday all day with me (the Australian broker was in Auckland for the annual boat show but did not have time to come up to Whangarei), liked what they saw and decided to go ahead with a sea trial and survey the next day.

Monday came with high tension. I have been totally stressed out getting the boat ready, trying to get my emotions together and still find time to sleep, which was not coming as I was too wound up. The night before the showing I woke up at 2:30am and could not go back to sleep. The next night before the survey was better but I only got about 5 hours sleep. Friends helped me clean and polish the decks all day on Friday and much of Saturday while I worked down below. That is on top of the months of effort to get MD ready. I should have worked harder before to save the final push at the end.

The sea trial went without a hitch. Getting underway after several months in a slip is always a bit nerve wracking anyway. You are worried that something won't work right or else you forget something like the last dock line on the stern tying you to the boat next to you, which is exactly what happened. I also forget how to drive so it very stressful even without buyers and a surveyor on board. It helped that the buyers were very, very nice knowledgeable sailors but the surveyor was taciturn and almost unfriendly. The big worry was that he would find something to condemn the boat and prevent the sale.

The buyers had been looking for a bigger boat to replace their 38-footer. They have two teenage boys and needed more room. Maggie Drum fit the bill evidently because after the showing they confirmed the survey for the next day. They were very picky so I felt more and more confident. The surveyor came on at 9am and did not leave until 6pm so he took lots of time to find problems. In the end, he had to put something down and did find some minor issues which did not put off the buyers. They did not ask me to fix anything as a condition of sale and we verbally agreed on the deal.

There is a contingency on a sale of some property of theirs in Australia so it is not a done deal. They can walk away essentially any time before April 10th when we expect to close with funds transferred then. They have a large non-refundable deposit on the sale of their property so it looks good but until then, Maggie Drum is still officially on the market.

I will stop most of my work on the boat now after having off-loaded most all our personal gear a much of the boat gear and put it in storage. The water line came up 5 inches! We had way too much stuff on this boat. Now it will have to be shipped back to the US.

We are not completely sure what we will be doing in the US. Cindy's position with her company goes until the end of the year if she wants it. I will visit with her for a while since we have been apart since early December. Then I will most likely go back to Anacortes and settle in there with visits back and forth to Denver and then Cindy will join me in Anacortes on a permanent basis. This is all subject to change. It is nice to have options, and very nice (for us) that real estate may be coming back down to a reality level so that we may be able to get our own house again.

And since the sale of the boat is not a done deal all of this may change. We will put MD up on the hard here and come back the next season if she doesn't sell now and we will continue cruising after a year off. So you will have to stay posted to find out "the rest of the story".