We must finally say goodbye to our beloved home for the last 8 years; the sale of Goldcrest completed on Halloween after a very unconventional process.  The Dutch buyers Giel & Marleen were due to bring a surveyor over from the Netherlands, but their government introduced travel restrictions as he was due to travel.  In a herculean effort they managed to carry out the survey by consulting him remotely, which took a lot of courage and perseverance.  We also had a pretty dreadful sea trial; the wind strengthened to 25kts (way more than forecast) and I was determined to show Goldcrest off under full sail instead of reefing.  I messed up the tack back towards port just as the wind put on a final burst and I embarrassed myself with really poor boat control.  Nonetheless Giel & Marleen were not put off and, following a day of consultations with their remote surveyor and both our brokers, a good deal was agreed.  The buyers had to fly home on the day of completion with Goldcrest still ashore, having the poor paint job done in the summer repaired again.  We can’t fly until later in the week so it falls to us to get her launched and back to her berth for one last sad little “voyage”.  The best thing about the sale is that we could not hope for nicer buyers and look forward to keeping in touch with them as they begin their own adventures on Goldcrest.

It is very hard to express our feelings right now.  They say that a sailor’s two happiest days in life are the day he buys a boat and the day he sells it, but I don’t agree.  There is an element of relief that, despite all the current uncertainties and inevitable changes to come, we managed to sell Goldcrest for a reasonable price without any delays.  Who knows what the situation would be in a year or so, the latest we could conceivably wanted to sell her?  The larger feeling though is qualified sadness.  Goldcrest has kept us safe, looking after us in comfort & style for 8½ years and approaching 30,000 miles.  We’ve had great adventures and visited many wonderful places.  We have memories we will never forget.  We sold up in 2008 thinking that we’d go sailing for five years or so, but here we are only finally calling it a day more than 12 years later.  Thank you to both Red Panda and Goldcrest for enabling this. 

Her final lift:

The port and cemetery:

Looking back at Licata from the coastal walk: