Deven and I finally got into our new apartment in early May. Moving is always so tiring and difficult, but it forces you to look at the things that you have and decide what to bring with you to the new place and discard the things you haven’t used in years. During the last few months, we have assisted our son during his move, our daughter and son-in-law during their move, my father moving to assisted living, and finally moving ourselves. Whew! We absolutely love our new digs! We have a 6th floor, 2-bedroom apartment that has a wraparound balcony with views of downtown Fort Worth as well as the hospital district and a beautiful Church. Deven and I were dearly hoping to sell the boat prior to moving, but that was not to be.
The boat has been on the market since January. We had a couple from Europe that were interested in buying Peace of Chill in April. We were so excited as they planned to attempt to complete the Great Loop as well. However, they were unable to find anyone willing to provide insurance for the boat, so they flew back to Europe. We went from elated to dejected and then continued our waiting we had become so accustomed to.
Approximately one month later, they called our broker Lee Scheele of Norwood Skiff and Yacht Sales, to inform him they were finally able to acquire insurance. Woohoo!! Lee began the work to schedule the survey of the boat. The date was June 13th and the couple flew back to Florida from Europe for the survey. Florida had been receiving torrential amounts of rain for multiple days and the wind was howling. They recorded 24 inches of rain in 3 days! Lee decided to attempt to do the survey in very sketchy boating conditions, primarily because the couple had spent $5,000 on airfare. Lee told us in any other circumstance, he would have cancelled the survey. They managed to get the boat safely to the haul-out location. Lee had planned to get diesel at a nearby marina to continue the sea trial, but the diesel pumps were not working because of an algae contamination. Through sustained winds of 35 MPH and gusts to 50 MPH, Lee managed to get the boat safely to the next marina with diesel levels near 0 on the boat! He is a delivery captain and has done the Great Loop and he told me this was his most stressful survey he has ever done.
Despite all this, the couple still wanted the boat and the process of negotiations continued back and forth between Lee and the couple’s broker for the next few weeks. The other broker seemed to us to be incompetent! Every time he sent us a document to sign, we couldn’t even open it, and when we could there was typically an error. We had to move the closing dates back 3 times for various reasons. In the end, they were asking for ridiculous amounts of concessions that were not remotely to industry standards. On June 25th, Lee, with our blessing, told the other broker, no thank you, hard pass from his clients. Deven and I felt relief as we realized our happiness did not depend on the boat selling. We can cut back on expenses and wait for a buyer that will appreciate Peace of Chill, or at least a buyer with a reasonable broker!
Life is about perspective in my opinion. You can drive yourself crazy hoping for something to happen that you can’t control, or you can relax and do your best to have a lovely day. The choice is yours. We recently purchased a new picture of “Earthrise”. This is the famous photo taken in 1968 by astronaut Bill Anders. We have done the Great Loop and returned to live in downtown Fort Worth as that is our home for now. Looking at the picture of the Earth taken from the moon, I realize the Earth is truly our home. The Great Loop experience continues.
コメント