8:15 am
Here we go, heading into our second boat survey. Like the last one, we really like the boat owners as well as the boat. Here’s to hoping the outcome is better than the last boat we had surveyed – it had a bad engine, and therefore we did not get the boat.
We are calm, comfortable. The situation is different – not just Covid-19, and not just that our plans and the scale of the boat have shifted. There is no seller’s agent, no buyer’s agent. We have only a verbal agreement that we’ll buy the boat at a set price – a price agreed upon by both parties as seeming fair, and allowing both parties to look each other in the eye afterwards and remain on good terms. Unlike the last few days, the skies are overcast, with a chance of rain peaking at the time we are scheduled for haul-out.
JoAnn is making sandwiches for the owner, surveyor, and for us. Last night we shuttled the truck over to the haul-out marina, so that I can take everyone back after that is done, as the boat will stay there for hull cleaning, no matter what the outcome.
2:45 pm
Survey is completed. We spent about 5 hours on and under the boat with the surveyor and owner, going over all the systems in detail. A few minor problems found, but nothing major. We took the boat out for a sea trial and got her up to full speed, before turning back towards the boat yard for haul out. Haul out was a 1 pm, just when it started to rain more heavily. One of the boatyard guys power-washed off the light coating of barnacles that had accumulated. Then I followed the surveyor around the boat in the rain as he tapped on the hull with a leather mallet, inspected the shaft, prop, zincs, and through hulls. We all spent a little while on a covered porch eating the sandwiches that JoAnn had prepared. Boatyard crew plopped the boat back in the water and we took the short journey across to waterway to Gypsy Blue’s slip.
No problems of a scale to cause us to back out on the sale, so it looks like we’ll own a boat very soon – just a matter of paperwork and insurance!