November 2021

Nothing easy was ever worth it.

It’s been a very busy two months.  I’ve been just slammed with work, and I’m currently in Australia hoping to head home here in the next day or two. Ah my crazy job, Nina and I didn’t know if we were going to be able to make our trip to Greece until, well the day before.  Off we went, it was great to be back in Greece after being away for three years.

 

 

We arrived in Greece on a Thursday which ended up being pretty much the last charter week of the season. We talked with many brokers and pretty much all the boats were still out.  Of course they all became available for viewing on Sunday.  The boat We were most interested in was located on the island of Mykonos. It best fit our price range and appeared to be equipped well enough for our needs. We decided to forgo the others that were going to be in Athens and make the trip over to Mykonos.  The owner had offered for us to make the trip on the boat back to Athens.  It’s about 100 nautical mile journey, and we were a little unsure of how things were going to go. We decided to go for it.

We met the owner and broker at 4 AM and hopped on the ferry for Mykonos.  The fast ferry  made quick work of the trip and we arrived around 8 AM.  As we rode on the ferry the owner offered if we were to buy the boat he would handle all the end of season maintenance, clean up, storage for the vessel and ensure us that it would be already to go in the spring. Hmmm 🤔.  

There was a cleaning service still cleaning up the boat when we arrived from the charters who had stepped off earlier that morning.  We had a nice breakfast with the broker and owner, and also an hour to look around the old town of Mykonos. It’s a bit of a dream and Nina had never been there before.

 

After looking around the old town, we made a way back to the boat, the cleaners had just finished. We climbed  aboard and started our inspections. I dove into the engine compartment prior to them being started.  Once I was satisfied we fired up and made our way out of the harbor.  I was thrilled I was going to get at least 15 hours on this boat and 100 nautical miles to look it over.  So far so good.

Passing the northern tip of the island of Siros. ( it looks like there are holes in the netting but it was the pano mode on the camera)

Weather was just gorgeous and forecast to be that way well through the night. Unfortunately there wasn’t going be a whole lot of wind for sailing, only 4 to 5 knots.   Nina and I spent the next five hours climbing through the boat exploring every nook and cranny while underway. The sails are in great shape, new in 2019.  Everything seemed to be in good repair.  Perhaps not a Bristol boat, nor did we want one as we were going to unleash three crazy boys on the boat next spring.

We stopped that evening  in a small bay on the island of Kithnos and had a lovely dinner with the Owner and Broker. One of these great spots where you can anchor the boat a hundred yards from the restaurant.

 

Nina and Fanis, the owner, with “Myrto” anchored.

We then continued on into the night, arriving back in Athens around 2 AM.  What a sea trial!  We were able to put the vessel to all its paces. Operate all the equipment, use the dinghy, the anchor, the lights, everything.  I even got to sleep for about 2 hours in my future bed.  We inspected Every nook and cranny and I felt like I really did my diligence on the boat. Having spent the last two years studying the lagoon 400 and it’s problem areas I was able to ascertain that those were not an issue with this vessel.

We came to an agreement on the purchase price, and were very satisfied.  Running out of time we knew if we were going to buy a boat this year, this was going to be the one.

The opportunity arose to haul the boat on our last day.  The surveyor I wanted to use was not available, this is where I may have made a mistake.  I wanted to be there for the haul out so I can verify the condition of the bottom with my own eyes.  I was satisfied with the condition of the bottom. The hull was sound, no blisters, rudders in good shape and minimal play.

Our surveyor turned out to be a dud.  He was cheap and well I’m not even sure he was worth that.  I feel very confident with the inspections that I did.  Will it come back to bite us?  I guess time will tell.

We spent the rest of our last day hiring a Greek maritime attorney to handle all the paperwork. Also got to catch up with friends that I had not seen for sometime.

Things have been proceeding well, it’s a process to buy a boat in Greece, something we knew going into this.  I’m expecting that the final paperwork will go through here in the next two weeks and we will make the payment for the vessel.  The owner has been great and has been sending me pictures of the service that’s being done on the boat. All filters and oil‘s were changed in the engines. They pulled the heat exchangers and cleaned them. Toilets were all serviced, removed from the boat and totally cleaned out, and reinstalled.  The sails were cleaned, dried, sent to the sailmaker, and then fold neatly and put away.  The boat is in the yard for the winter, the owner has offered to paint the bottom for us for the cost of supplies. We are excited she’ll be pretty much ready to go in the water when we arrive the end of April.

We plan to sail the boat for two months in the spring, May and June. That’s all the time I can get off for sailing this year. We plan not to do really any upgrades on the boat this year, it has what we need to go out for two months, coastal cruising in Greece.  This should give us plenty of time to assess exactly what we feel like we need on the boat.