The Bad the Sad and the Glad

Well it’s been a very different few weeks for us with a diverse range of emotions with what has occurred.

 Firstly we were absolutely shocked and shattered to hear that our friends Rick and Michelle on Ghost Rider (another Nordhavn 47) who left us on Sunday had a devastating incident the day after which resulted in the sinking of Ghost Rider. We are still feeling sick in the gut about it and cannot imagine the pain and loss they are feeling. Unfortunately they hit a submerged rock jetty which is not well charted on C-Maps and we can see how easily this incident happened.

This really shook us both up a lot. Thankfully neither Rick, nor Michelle were hurt and we keep telling ourselves that’s the important thing, a boat can be replaced, people can’t.

The next news is a mixture of emotions for us, both sad and glad. We have accepted an offer on Southern Star and after some time of cleaning and maintenance, a sea trial and survey the contract is now unconditional. After 3 years full time cruising we are ready for some “home time” in Australia with our 7 Kids, 3 grand kids, Robbie’s Mum and other family and friends. I am looking forward to returning to work and Robbie doesn’t know what he would like to do yet. He does know that he does not want to sit at home while I am at work. I am sure he will find something to keep him out of trouble! (possibly looking at Nordhavns for sale!)

So we had a busy few weeks getting some jobs done such as the chain regalvanised, cleaning bilges, and other general maintenance items ready for the survey.

Poor Southern Star had 2 surveyors, and 2 buyers crawling all over her and looking in her every nook and cranny.

We did fit in some tourist time with Sam with a visit to Washington DC and a walk around the Whitehouse and the Whitehouse Information Centre. We would have loved to have done a Whitehouse tour but it apparently takes around 3 months to get approved.

It was great having Sam on board he upgraded all our laptops to Windows 10 and fixed all our IT issues and upgraded our movie and TV shows to include the latest ones. The week flew by and we were soon waving him off in the very nice Cadillac that he hired for the week.

Sam left to explore New York a couple of days before Ted and Jenny arrived from New Zealand.

 We are very happy to be selling Southern Star to Ted and Jenny, who had even looked at her before we brought her. They have been Nordhavn “Dreamers” for a number of years and now their dream has become reality! We hope they will have as many adventures and fun experiences on her as we have had.

The settlement will not be until early December as Ted and Jenny finish work then, so we are in effect “baby sitting” Southern Star until hand over.

We are now cruising with 2 other Nordhavn 55’s “Giddy Up” Jim and Anne from Canada, and “Sunday Morning” Van and Tracy from Florida. We have just spent a couple of nights in a lovely anchorage called St Michaels and then one night in Rock Hall Marina. As we were approaching the marina a boat called Promises passed us waving madly. Next minute he called me on the radio and said you have a lovely boat, I have been following your blog since the start, I am selling my boat ready to buy a 47! I said wow we have just gone unconditional on the sale of Southern Star. He said please remember me if it falls through! We sure will – but I don’t think it will fall through, Ted and Jenny are all set to begin their cruising adventure. This photo is us following Giddy Up with Sunday Morning leading the departure from Rock Hall. 

We are currently on Anchor in Annapolis a delightful town, we have been enjoying our morning walks with the guys off Giddy Up and Sunday morning, the girls have been shopping and lunching, we saw a great movie called Come Hell or High Water, and Jim has introduced Robbie to a beer called “Nitro”.

We will say farewell to Jim and Anne in a few days as they return to Canada and we will then cruise up to New York with Van and Tracy. We are not big City people but everyone tells us we must see New York!

 We haven’t made any plans after that except we have to be back in Florida in November.