1 July was the date Moondance sold. Comiserating the event
in a bar I was informed that we had made a mistake and the advantages of
meandering around the Greek Islands were too good to be ignored.
No worries – you can solve that problem with only a little money, so 17 July God willing we will move on to Wild Indigo – a 2001 Beneteau 40CC. It all appears rather a sudden decision, but is based on a wealth of experience.
No worries – you can solve that problem with only a little money, so 17 July God willing we will move on to Wild Indigo – a 2001 Beneteau 40CC. It all appears rather a sudden decision, but is based on a wealth of experience.
1.
I don’t care where I am sailing
2.
I have owned a Beneteau 40CC before
3.
Happy crew, Happy boat
4.
Hopefully a popular yacht that will retain some
value.
No photos as yet – they will follow.
Could write a book on stress creation and insomnia.
Moondance was sold privately, so chasing transfer of funds
from English banks is a nightmare. Very limited in the way you can deal with
banks that do not employ real people. There is also a rather complicated mobile
card reader used by the account holder, but it is not sufficient to provide the
security required to have the transaction completed. So, purchaser flew Corfu London Corfu
possibly via Athens to sort it out.
Buying a replacement yacht. There were two Beneteau 40CC’s
for sale in the area so a trip to Preveza (3 hours by ferry and car on the
Greek mainland to view). There was also a Moody 425 in Athens just to provide
angst. Moondance was fabulous so the 425 although older was a big attraction.
End decision came down to newer yacht in immaculate
condition and small increase in price over
Moondance.
Again we had fun with International Fund transfer, but ASB
are far more realistic than Barclays – just have to deal with the time
difference and believe midnight phone calls are fun.
So, to introduce Wild
Indigo
Larger than Moondance but only by 2 feet. Some of the
features of Moondance are missing – like being a much more seaworthy yacht,
having two holding tanks instead of Wild Indigos one and no bowthruster, cast
keel instead of preferred lead. (bored yet? – I think it is fascinating.)
However, there is more deck space on Wild Indigo (but some is covered in teak –
eek) and larger cabins.
So – we have a period ashore and it is getting boring.
Filled in some time with an airconditioned
hire car and exploring Corfu is always fun. Village roads winding up
steep hills - only 2 donkeys + panniers wide.
And that includes between the 2 storied houses in the villages. No room
to park or pass. Thankfully the traffic is sparse and courteous. We drove from one end of Corfu to the other.
Catching up with cruising friends from times past and other
voyages is also fun. Checking facebook vigilantly is not fun and as with trying
to complete the sale and purchase slow or non existent internet adds to the
frustration. Having an airconditioned
apartment with a pool and two swims a day eases any shore based pain.
So, we are looking forward to continuing to explore the Ionian
with the few months we have left.
