Sailboat Marathon – Inside and Out

The last few days have been busy ones. With little down time it has been rather exhausting. I was up at 4am unable to sleep. Perhaps thinking about the imminent sale of our boat and about what life will be like back at home (without our beloved catamaran) doesn’t produce the most restful thoughts. As I wasn’t going to sleep anyway, I decided to do a couple of loads of laundry while everyone slept. I then sat down in a chair on the outside covered deck and watched the sky gradually lighten up. As the sun rose in the morning the sounds of the green yard started to come alive. The occasional rooster would crow announcing the imminence of the morning while the trees were all abuzz with the sounds of twittering birds. It wasn’t too long later that Teyauna came stumbling out of her room to tell me that “The birds are making a lot of noise and it is not letting me sleep.” Although a sleepless night, it was a peaceful morning, a morning different than anything I have experienced in quite some time. Being on a boat for the past ten months, I have not heard hundreds of surround sound birds calling out to me for a long time.

9am was the start to a marathon of reviewing the systems of Far & Away with the new owners. Before signing off on everything they rightfully wanted to go over everything from top to bottom. They know a great deal about boats (more than we did when we bought Far & Away) as they have sailed and delivered many Yachts over the years. For us we have only ever know how to solidly sail one boat and so the advantages and disadvantages to the 2000 Robertson and Cain Leopard Catamaran design has simply been what we needed to make our dream come true.

Over the course of the next ten and a half hours I reviewed everything from the Raymarine E120 GPS and radar navigation equipment, the Single Sideband / Ham Radio email and weather report downloads, power inverters, switching water tanks, the fuse panel, spare parts cupboards and so much more. Kirsten was there in the morning to go over a few things in relation to the Kitchen while Jaeden and Jaeden stopped by with a local meal that they picked up at the local market. My rice, tapioca root and small parrot fish (complete with head and tail) takeout container was delicious. It wasn’t a long break but it was exactly what I needed.

Jaeden and Dailin stayed for a few hours and helped out with showing how to raise and lower the dinghy before we all headed out for a sail around the bay. While the anchorage had no wind at all, we had some steady winds of 10 to 18 knots that were perfect to show off our beloved “Far and Away”. It was a fast sail. With no water in the tanks and so much of our personal belongings now off of the boat, we easily cruised at 6 to 8 knots. It was a beautiful sail with sunny skies and a steady breeze.

Upon returning to the harbour, we headed straight to the Yacht club’s fuel dock. Cleaning the boat over the past week, we had completely emptied our fresh water tanks. I was a bit nervous going under the low lying power lines over the bay to the neighbouring island, but the new owner was certain we were fine and so he took the helm as we went under them. It was not a problem but whenever looking at a power line or bridge above a sailboat, it always looks like it is going to hit.

At the fuel dock Jaeden was able to top up all three tanks and the many water buckets while I pointed out the hundreds of spare parts and tools onboard. It was a slow process waiting for the water to fill the tanks. With such a narrow hose that had little pressure, we waited at least an hour before the water was topped up. While we were tied to shore however we sprayed down the top and sides of the boat with the freshwater due to it only having a salt water bath when we scrubbed it down the day before. The boat was shining better than ever.

I let the new owner anchor Far and Away back where we had started before we hurried over to the Immigration office a little too late to fill out some paperwork.

Walking back to our apartment at 7:30pm by myself, I was sad to say goodbye to our boat but excited to know that in the morning everything would be completed with this chapter in our family’s South Pacific adventure. We have had some incredible times together. I was mentally exhausted as I stumbled into the door to be greeted by the rest of the family. It was great to be back with everyone again.