This will be the last post on this blog.
After the short sojourns around Moreton Bay described in our February and March post we found a temporary home for PasoDoble at the Compass Marina in Redcliffe. She was neatly tied up in her berth, well looked after by her neighbours and Anita Farine, the broker we engaged to sell her.
There was one last trip to do though – and that was with the new owner, James Bushell. After nearly 6 months and quite a few inspections Jamie was the one who saw what PasoDoble had to offer. After several visits and lengthy negotiations we came to an agreement sometime in July. As a prudent buyer Jamie requested to have the boat surveyed, in and out of the water. We agreed to take the boat to Rivergate Marina in the Brisbane River and arranged to meet Jamie, the surveyor and the broker there the next morning. The trip across the bay and up the river was 4 hours of motoring on a wonderfully sunny winter's afternoon, without any wind at all. Beautiful sea birds accompanied us and as a befitting farewell we actually saw some dolphins, a turtle and a dugong on the way
The surveyor allocated 3 hours to inspect the boat inside before taking her out of the water with the travel lift for the underbody inspection. After an hour he emerged from the bilges and commented that he had not seen a boat coming into Australia in such good condition for a long time. He was seriously concerned if besides cleaning and maintaining the boat we also had some sort of fun during the trip from Europe ??? We assured him we did and took this as a compliment from someone who probably knows a thing or two about boats.
During the sea trial on the way back to the Compass Marina in Redcliffe we even had some decent wind and PasoDoble could show off what she was able to do under sail. This was Jamie's first sail on PasoDoble and he was impressed.
The surveyor allocated 3 hours to inspect the boat inside before taking her out of the water with the travel lift for the underbody inspection. After an hour he emerged from the bilges and commented that he had not seen a boat coming into Australia in such good condition for a long time. He was seriously concerned if besides cleaning and maintaining the boat we also had some sort of fun during the trip from Europe ??? We assured him we did and took this as a compliment from someone who probably knows a thing or two about boats.
During the sea trial on the way back to the Compass Marina in Redcliffe we even had some decent wind and PasoDoble could show off what she was able to do under sail. This was Jamie's first sail on PasoDoble and he was impressed.
After tying PasoDoble up again for the last time we opened a bottle of champagne and celebrated the best day of a ship's owner - the first and the last day
