Tuesday 29^th November 2016

We rang Rod and Mary a few days ago to catch up on their news:  How is Mary’s ticker?  Where are they? Are they on their way south? Have they imported the boat? Is she up for sale yet?

Well, Mary’s ticker is behaving itself, and not only have they imported the boat, they have also sold her!  Just like that!  It seems that after their trip to the Whitsundays, things got a bit hurried along by Australian Immigration who wanted over a thousand dollars from each of them to extend their visas for another three months.  They would have done better to apply for a new Visitor visa in the first place, they ruefully admit, rather than an extension on medical grounds, but hindsight is wonderful.  The upshot was, as they did not feel inclined to pay such large sums for the pleasure of staying here, that they had to be out of Australia by 1^st December when their visas ran out.

They had good friends, Heidi and Wolfie, in Mooloolaba, who suggested that would be a good place to put the boat up for sale, so with time now of the essence, they sailed her there, did all the paperwork and paid to import her and put her with a broker.  Within a couple of days they had two viewings, with an offer from the second viewing the following day, which they accepted.  Then came the hard part of emptying out the boat.  They filled nine packing cases with stuff to be shipped back to Cape Town and sold off a lot of gear to local yachties.  They left other stuff in the laundry for anyone to take if it was any good to them.

They were pretty much ready to go.  The new buyer was visiting again on the 29^th, and the boat was being hauled for the survey on the 30^th, the day before they flew out.  Talk about cutting it fine!  We wondered if they had the time to fit us in for one last visit – Mooloolaba is only two hours’ drive from us so we could make it there and back in a day.

If you can bring your own bedding, they said, we have a very empty cabin now which you’re welcome to use.  So we hired a car for a couple of days and drove up to Mooloolaba to see them.  Devoid of all the usual cruising clutter (and ours is worse than anyone’s!) Sheer was looking very good.  Mary was also looking well, although thinner than a few months ago, no doubt as a result of all the activity and worry of selling the boat.  She still felt that things were not quite right, and was planning to see her own doctor when she got back to CT to see if her meds could be rationalised.

We enjoyed catching up with them and hearing of their recent exploits and their plans for their new landlubber life in CT.  We were very sad to say goodbye to them, but they reminded us, it’s only Au Revoir, as we have an open invitation to visit them in Cape Town.  We look forward to it, and thank them for their friendship and companionship over very many sailing miles.  We wish them good health and happiness in the next phase of their adventure, with all our love. 

Good luck and every happiness guys – we’ll miss you, and Sheer Tenacity’s friendly light at night.