Our Boat Windbird

I feel a bit like the dog that caught the car right now. We've apparently just purchased a 42-foot classic fiberglass cruising boat filled with complex systems we have little experience in using or maintaining, and so last night when I really needed to get a full night's sleep in preparation for a long day of flying, I instead lay half-awake tossing and turning and dozing off into boat maintenance dreams/nightmares. At 3am I told myself this is silly, this is an exciting event and there is no need to be scared, I'll learn these new skills just like I've learned other complex skills throughout my life - and then I mostly tossed and turned with excitement for this next chapter of our lives. It was a long flight from Seattle to Atlanta today.

Windbird's bottom survey was on Tuesday and this time the chosen yard had enough water in the well to get the boat up on the Travellift. Like the rest of the survey, this part was not perfect, but there was nothing so alarming as to make us walk away from the deal.  I did some research on repair costs and the owners again proved flexible in negotiating a fair deal. We signed the conditional purchase agreement last night, Mark & Judy signed this morning, and now we're just waiting on the insurance, bank, and documentation transfer people to catch up.

I have July 30th-August 5th off work and this will likely be when we'll make our first foray to Windbird to begin boat work. We're hoping to get off the dock and enjoy a night or two at anchor as well. In the meantime I have lots of call to make, to start work on the air conditioning, the canvas, and reconditioning the sails.... the refit list grows daily. Judy recently wrote in her blog that much of the books and equipment that their friends pulled off Windbird has finally caught up to them in Falmouth, MA, and a good portion of it will be headed back down to Little River shortly. Between that and Dawn's carfull of boat boxes currently at the MYR airport, we'll soon be moving into our new home on the water.