Saturday, March 01, 2008

What's Up with Maggie Drum?

Well, you haven't heard much from us in the is space since the middle of November. The reason for that is we have been trying to come to grips with whether to sell the boat or keep going. The last several passages have been a bit of an ordeal for me (Joe) as I seem to get seasick and stay that way for the duration of the passages rather than just a couple of days as is the more usual pattern for most. It probably doesn't help that passages to and from New Zealand have a deserved reputation for being rough. Not always, but lots. Ours have been in the lots category.

Also, I have become a little bit disenchanted with throwing boat bucks in to the water in exotic places keeping the boat operational and up to snuff in third world countries. Many people seem to thrive on the challenge of it all but after the affair with the starter in Vanuatu, broken shrouds, broken this and that, it seems to have gotten to me.

It has been a very difficult decision. Witness to that is I refused to write about it, or even tell close friends and family about it, for several weeks. There was the distinct possibility that we could change our minds and keep going. And we still might. So how's that for being decisive? the problem is that there are many, many good reasons to stay out here and keep going. One major one is whether we can sell the boat in the midst of a global financial crisis that is affecting Australia and New Zealand as well as the US. Real estate is taking a beating right now here and people are not as optimistic for what basically is a non-essential major purchase and hobby.

Cindy is back in Denver working for her old employer of many years as a contractor or some major system upgrades. She has basically made the dream possible financially beyond our meager resources when we started out. Initially, back in 1999 when we started the dream, we mistakenly thought we had sufficient funds to go for several years without too much trouble. Wrong!! We don't seem to have the budgetary fortitude to get by with what we had so we have both worked off and on from the start. This also has been a strain on our lives as we live apart for several months of the year. However, we also live together 24/7 in a boat (think very small motor home size) with no "space" the rest of the time so may be that isn't so bad.

So, the boat is for sale. You can view the ad and photos on Yachtworld. com at: http://www.yachtworld.com/boats/1831833/0. There are actually some good pics of the interior of Maggie Drum that you may not have seen before. MD is listed with an Australia broker at YachtDomain.com, the idea being that Oz has a bigger economy, more people and more money than NZ and it is close enough that people are willing to travel to see a boat over here, and may be even avoid paying duties on the boat for a bit if they don't need to take it to Oz in the short term. Other Ozzies have done that and keep the boat here in NZ and cruise the Pacific islands during the seasons.

Flash: just (right now) got a call from the broker saying that a couple of coming next week from Brisbane to have a look. They had actually written up an offer in January then rescinded it the next day before the ink was dry having concerns about the age of the boat and price vis a vis the prices in the US and Canada for the same model/age. Note: boats of this "age" are actually better built than the "clorox" bottle boats that are being mass produced today with extremely thin hulls and fittings to save cost and weight. The stress level just went up on me as I now have to rush to clean up the boat and finish a few last minute projects.

I also plan to publish on the blog in the very near future photos from our trip to Vanuatu and Fiji of last season. Vanuatu was a highlight of our travels so far. We absolutely loved it there. Not a perfect paradise but fun anyway as you would have gathered from our past blog entries.

I have hurt my back again so will just take some more medication and start cleaning up.

Cheers as they say here....