Life On Sail

Boat owners We signed for the boat today, and the previous owner has received the money transferred from HK. We are now officially boat owners! We bought the boat for 50,000 euros, though it’s worth 70,000 euros or more based on market value. It was sold at a lower price because a LOT of things need fixing. So, we’re planning a 20,000-euro refit to bring it back to market value —or higher. There are only about 200 of this model ever produced, and some are now worth 100,000 euros. We visited many boats in France and Croatia before deciding on this one because it fits our needs. It’s comfortable for living aboard! However, there are issues—it wouldn’t be fun without them:   Insurance We don’t have proper insurance yet. I asked Nico to take care of it weeks, or even months, ago… but on the day of signing, we still didn’t have one. So, we grabbed one hastily without thinking it through or comparing options carefully. Also, when you buy an older boat (over 20 years old), you need a boa...

Leaving again!  Yesterday we left again!  This time we left Aveyron.  We packed everything we needed to live in the boat as well as all the necessary equipement to renovate the boat.  Our crew We took the parents with us. Free manpower :) but mainly a lot of knowledge as Nico's dad sailed for years and is a great mechanic.  So it was altogether a car and a camping van.  Craning our sailboat We headed back to Narbonne Plage to sail the boat to Gruissan the next morning for the craning of the boat. It took us 1h45 mn to get to Gruissan.  It was freezing cold. The owner of the boat took us there, but left the helm to Nico once we arrived the port.  The Camping van was already there. It takes 15 mn to get there by car.  Once you arrive, you put some protection sheets onto the straps and there you go, you get off the boat, it's immediately lifted up and brought to your parking spot.  Then they set the sailboat onto supports.  That's it....

We are preparing for our final departure from Aveyron.  We are getting some of our belongings for the boat, but also getting a lot of tools in order to prepare for the renovation work.  Renovation list What Nico did is that he made a list of all the renovation work to be done.  From that he made the list of tools he needed for that.  Of course, it's impossible to get it all right... We eventually will need to drive to a nearby shop to buy missing parts or tools.  What we have After making that list, we did try to find everything we had at Nico's dad's place. And we are in luck because it's a DIY paradise.  What we don't have Of course, everything we don't have, we will buy, because we will eventually need it in the boat.  A sailboat needs constant fixing. And I don't know anything of it. But luckily Nico does know how a sailboat is made and he is also a handyman.  Buying all the tools he needed for like going to a candy shop.  For inspiration...

 Nico is deep into checking out pricing for new electronics for the boat, insurance quotations and so on.  I am more worried about losing my phone while sailing, although I know it is safely secured with the lanyard, but paranoia got the best out of me.  Macbook air Photo transfers I am a PC girl, and I have recently switched to Mac before leaving HK,  because I thought (wrongly) that it would be easier to transfer my photos, back up my iphone with my Mac.  But so far it has been hell.  The image capture app keeps on disconnecting while transferring photos.  But one improvement is that the Macbook Air does recognize my iphone most of the time when I plug it (unlike on my PC).  I ended up updating the software of the iphone, then updating the software on the Mac.  It helps! But it still disconnects during transfer from time to time.  So for every 4 successful transfers onto external hard drive through image capture app, I have to disconn...

We are getting closer to departure... Slowly but surely. We visited 7 boats so far in different ports in Southern France and also in Croatia (but screened hundreds of classified ads). We finally decided to go for the first boat we visited. It is important to visit a lot of boats before making a final decision.  At first, I put my veto on that first boat we saw because it didn't meet some of my criteria, one of which was that I hated Center Cockpits.  But you never know what life has in store for you, and ironically, that's the one we ended up picking. Recap of our criterias - >1996 : It has to be a "recent" boat, dated after 1996, when the CE norms for sailboats were set in Europe.    - Offshore equipped : It has to be offshore equipped. Mister eventually wants to cross the Atlantic.    - 3 Cabins : It had to be 3 cabins, as we potentially would have guests with kids.  (Also Nico has to fit in the bed... some beds are too small for a 5ft11'/1m82 guy...

We took a trip to Croatia to visit the last two boats on our list before making our grand final decision. But it didn't turn out the way we wanted. We were supposed to visit the Bavaria 41 Exclusive of my dreams and an Oceanis Clipper 411.  Unfortunately, we ended up only visiting one of them. NVP Marine, legit? We saw this boat listed on several websites, promoted through multiple brokers in Cuneo, Italy, in Croatia, and in Montenegro via NVP Marine. We reached out to all of them, but only NVP Marine, a certain Evgen, replied.  Everything listed below is full of red flags, but since it's my dream boat, we tried to dig into it for weeks. So, we corresponded with NVP Marine: 1- Strange email: He replied through a weird email "workautbox777@gmail.com", which immediately raised a red flag. I thought his name was Jonny, but it’s actually Evgen K. 2- Annoyed by questions : He seemed annoyed by all my questions regarding the age of each sail, the refit work done on the eng...

  We visited another boat today.  This time next to the Spanish border. Jeanneau Suncharm 39 (1989, On water 1990) . It is pretty old, 1989. But it is fully equipped for offshore. Bummer, the engine didn't start.  So it was a short visit. 

  Today was exam day for Nico. He did cram the night before, and on the way (which happened to be useful).  He passed it, not so easily, but he passed with a grade of 15/20. (You need 10 out of 20 to pass).  They correct each candidate's maps and answers right after the 1.5-hour exam.  So, there's no suspense.  If you pass, they will keep your boat driving license to add an extra line about your Offshore skills onto your boat driving license. Here are all the tips and what you need to know about the Offshore license .

January 2025 Same as for December, we are still at Nico's parents, patiently waiting to take the final Offshore exam before we start our journey.  So most of the costs are education and transportation related.  January 2025 overview: I started to put January in blue considering that's the "beginning" of the sabbatical year, although it has started from the moment we landed in France in November 2024.  January 2025 details: The cost of the offshore exam is minimal as Nico is taking the exam as an independent candidate, so no need for a 400 euro class.    January 2025 vs overall budget: We have only used 6% of the budget so far, but February (cross fingers) we plan to buy the sailboat, so from thereon, costs should be through the rough with Boat, Equipment, Transportation costs.