Life throws all sorts of curve balls at us and often from the most unexpected actions.
As many of you know, Christine and I spend a lot of time on our boat at the Gippsland Lakes. We have been going there for 34 years, 20 of those staying on our boat, Te Ari (means The Princess in Maori). Around Christmas we started to think, we are getting older and Te Ari is needing more maintenance, so we started thinking if we should sell it. A boat of our size, 40 feet tip to toe weighing 14 tonne would usually be expected to take a year or two to sell, and we were in no hurry. Late December we went down to the boat and while cruising around cleaned out some surplus items, still expecting 1 or 2 more summers on the boat.
Leaving the boat early January we left a couple of For Sale signs just to see if there was any interest. Within four days prospective buyers had looked it over, the marine survey and the sea trial had been completed and the buyers were asking where do they deposit the money. We were stunned.
This all came about because on the way home from the boat I started to wonder if I had tied one of the stern mooring ropes properly. On arriving home I rang the diesel mechanic who services the engines once a year and asked him to check it out. He rang the next day having seen the For Sale signs to say he had a prospective buyer. He was not due to go near our boat for another eight months.
So who knows, if I did not have concerns about that stern rope, would we still be waiting 12-24 months to sell Te Ari? Definitely an unexpected summer for us …. time for a change and a fresh look at life.
Michael Simmons