Monday, September 10, 2007

Return Cruise



We're back in MacKay, preparing Maia for the sales block. She's got a web page now with our broker here. Much has happened in the few days since we last hit the dock, from showing the boat to the broker, arranging for caretakers in our absence, to doing major paint work on the boat, including the entire mast, dodger, most of the decks, the cockpit, the chain locker and more. We've been hard at work since there are possible buyers scheduling to come see Maia, so we've got deadlines. There are stories to be told for our last days cruising that we look forward to writing up, once we get Maia fairly prepared in a couple days.

Crew member extra-ordinaire Dave is leaving for home tomorrow. It turns out that flying on September 11 is still quite a bit cheaper than other days. Go figure. We really benefited from Dave's help, good spirits and camaraderie for Maia's adventure. We won't have long to miss it though because we plan to leave the boat just a week after Dave does. As soon as we return, we are looking forward to sailing with Dave and Colin back in the SF Bay on their boat Pacific High.

In the mean time, here's a couple pics from our return trip with Moves Afoot, a Wharram design Tiki 38 catamaran. We had a great couple weeks with them before we had to say good bye.

2 comments:

Lucky Penguin said...

congrats y'all! you did it! you rock!! and let us be the first to tell you, no matter what other people say about the shitty boat market and brokers and all the shit you have to to to prep the boat and blah blah blah, YOU ABSOLUTELY CAN MOVE THAT BOAT IN A MONTH IF THAT IS YOUR GOAL. we advertised the boat on craigslist and with cheesy homemade flyers and sold that old nag in 3 weeks. a dozen other Bristol 32's in the area have been on the market for two years or more. the key? sell the DREAM. the boat comes with it. put dreamy cruising pics on the website. not only do people find your asking price to be a perfectly reasonable price for a dream, but they figure, if the boat made it that many miles for you, it probably runs okay. so sell the dream. we sold ours and delivered the boat today, done deal. if we can do it know you can!!! can't wait to see you in Cali. we'll get together and cry into our beers over the lifestyle you gave up. counting on you for that. hugs, UTE

craig&evvy said...

See us in Cali?!! That's the best news we've heard the entire trip! We look forward to making it our
shout in the the 'foliday Inn.

We totally agree that we should sell the dream, but it is a little complicated for us. We have just 10 days from hitting the dock to leaving the boat for good. We just did the fairly common cruise of the East Coast, and get this, just ONE overnight sail. It was EASY, though Maia is way capable of much more.

Craigslist exists for Brisbane (600 miles away), but nobody uses it. We are giving fliers to the miner we know here, but that's about it.
Dave left today, we're just getting organized to move out, which we have to do first.

Can't wait to catch up with you guys in person. We land Oct 9, just got the tix a few hours ago. It's all GO.

We need a box of cheap bear, a good sail and a pizza!

Craig and Evvy