Right up to the end of the adventure, the adventuring continued. Cleaning, cleaning, cleaning … you could easily go on forever. Then I had the surveyor aboard to go over the boat, inch by inch – a big job. He was really good, and I just stood back and let him micro examine everything – just answering his questions. The inspection was very thorough, with a second day required just to write the report - it most of the weekend. I was very pleased with the emphatically positive report, and his description of me as ‘a fastidious owner’ 😉

Thank goodness I committed to the bike rental, or my return to Aus after more than a decade, would have just been a work camp! I picked up a well used but great condition BMW 1200 GS (110k km), and headed west to Bathurst, across the Blue Mountains, stopping at the ‘Three Sisters’ for lunch. The Bathurst route, was so that I had a good run on secondary roads, rather than just blasting south on the freeway. On arrival I headed to the Mount Panorama motor racing circuit and was very happily surprised to find it totally open to traffic – I went round twice with a big grin 😊. Then I had a small delay checking in for the night to a local pub. It was Tuesday afternoon and the pub was absolutely packed …WTF! The bar man said “You’ll have to wait mate. The race is on in 2 minutes” – Melbourne Cup Day !!

Next was the 5-6 hr ride down to Jinderbyne – man o man did it rain. No matter what you’re wearing, that level of rain, for that long, on a bike …. I hadn’t been that wet since the last time I fell off the boat. But of course it was worth it, brilliant catch up with family – the Oayda clan – its definitely been too long, as their girls are darn near grown up! Super tour of their Snowy Mountain Cookie factory, visit to their house, and meeting the girls for dinner. In the morning I rode up to Perisher, and at 1deg C, was flippin perished by the time I got there – only the heated handlebar grips stopped me turning around before the top. Absolutely nowt has changed in Perisher since I was there 17 years ago.

From Jindy it was back to the warmth of the Hunter Valley (via a stop in Wollongong for the night). Two of our best friends own a holiday business called ‘Grapevines’ in the wonderfully named ‘Pokolbin’ – again – super to catch up with them, and stay in their vineyard based house.

Next was back to Sydney, and yet another great catch-up with old buddies ‘Mark and Gai Forrest’ – they even accommodated me for the night with them in their suit at the Star Casino – where they were comped for a night. Just a great great break.

Back on the boat, I had just two days before flying out. Booking the flight had been another good act - meant I needed to stop tinkering, and really, really, wrap things up. x86 had been stripped back to new, many many replacements, rejuvenated, scrubbed, anti-fouled, and appreciably patted all over, for how she looked after me on three seas and two oceans. Would she sell? Darn right she would, and a darn good acquisition she would be.

Back in Cyprus, right back at where the adventure really kicked off, it was just a week before the broker sent the email ‘x86 SOLD’. Crikey, we didn’t ask enough then!? Nah, we set a price that was good for seller and buyer – everyone needed to be pleased with the result 😊 Best of all, she’s gone to ‘sailors’, who want to use her properly, not just potter around in Pittwater. The sale has now been completed, and Karen and I are no longer ‘Yachties’. They say that the best days of boat ownership are the day you buy, and the day you sell – I wouldn’t agree. x86 is a lovely boat, and gave us a huge amount of pleasure, so it’s with sadness that we see her go.

All’s well with x86, as she learns to look after her new owners.

The end of the big sailing adventure, is also the end of this blog – thanks for reading ;-)