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| Looking forward to summertime now that we have the boat back on our side of the border. |
We had a good day today, and yesterday too. Sophrosyne is
tied up at the Nanaimo Yacht Club this evening, and we can call it ‘home port’
now. Not really the end of the adventure, but definitely a milestone on the
journey.
This installment begins four or five weeks ago – mid pandemic
– with the arrival of a Dockwise yacht carrier that dropped off a dozen or so boats
in Nanaimo. These are yachts from across the world that were loaded, who knows
how long ago from who knows where. Gradually these oversized boats have
dispersed but there was one remaining after the rest disappeared. With a
brightly coloured graphic in orange, and red, and yellow this straggler was
easy to spot during our pandemic routine waterfront walks. The boat is a
Balance 53 catamaran, brand new, built in South Africa and most recently a feature
display at the Miami boat show. A sporty addition to the Nanaimo waterfront for
anyone who cared to pay attention. We all thought so. But, without the fulcrum
of friendship that would be a straightforward and pretty boring story.
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| Our new temporary permanent home |
Things only really get interesting because our good friend and
A-List catamaran guy couldn’t take his eyes off it. And Wayne has another worry
on his mind too – “how can I help Doug & Maureen get their Saga 43 home
from Seattle through a closed tight border”?
So Wayne swings into action and gets on the phone and calls
around to find the broker behind the boat and learns that they are from Seattle
but can’t get their brand new Balance Catamaran home. What to do? Well, it
turns out that if you have just purchased a brand new +/- $2 million dollar sailboat
you are roughly 20 times more motivated than us to find a way to make things
happen.
So, Wayne arranged for another friend and delivery skipper connect
with the catamaran owners and confirm a delivery from Nanaimo to Port Townsend.
We became the back end of this story. We were able to have our boat moved up to
Port Townsend so that the delivery skipper would have a safe and touchless ride
home. And that’s how it happened.
But the best part is that once we got the boat tied up in
our now permanent temporary spot – there was a small crowd gathered at Jimmy’s
Lanai and Tiki Bar and we enjoyed a warm summer evening with friends! It’s
great to be home.
Thanks Wayne, thanks all!
