We Sold our Boat!
We Sold our Boat!
We've done it again! We have made a major pivot. We went and sold our boat!
Let me back up a bit. Because even WE didn't see this coming. 3 months ago, on April 8th we had just cruised into the Sea of Cortez with friends to watch the solar Eclipse. We ended up having some electrical issues on our return trip that led us to contacting James Knight the founder of YachtTech. James, Nordhavn expert and broker, has been our go-to 'phone a friend' for the past 6 years, anytime we have a boat problem or question. He just knows the right questions to ask and can diagnose almost any issue in just a short conversation.
Another thing that James, and his associate Jay Flaherty, have done for the past 6 years is to occasionally, like monthly, send Patrick pictures and listings of newer and bigger Nordhavns. It's been a running joke. We look at them, laugh and move on. I rarely even take a 2nd look at the pictures. We don't need a bigger boat. We love Noeta, our 50 foot Nordhavn. We spent the last 6 years making her an excellent long range cruising boat.
But 3 months ago, James mentioned that he may have a 57 foot Nordhavn with canted windows (the windshield that angles backwards) coming to the market soon. We laughed....but I took a 2nd look. Then I Googled the 57. Next I watched some videos. And then I said 'What if?' She's a gorgeous vessel. That's all it took for Pat to start crunching the numbers.
For the next few weeks we toyed with the idea. The 57 is a 2 stateroom boat, which is a better layout for the next stage of our cruising. The kids are gone and exchanging the bunkbeds of the 50 with a queen bed on the 57 for guests was really appealing. The 57 also has a flybridge, which is a feature we had missed from a previous boat a few years back. And it was Pat's dreamboat - a stand up engine room, hydraulic bow and stern thrusters, and a number of other features that a live aboard cruiser appreciates. We told James we might be interested, but he would have to sell our 50. We didn't want two Nordahvns (we've done that before). We called ourselves crazy multiple times.
Then at the end of April, Pat (who is a pilot for Alaska) happened to have a layover in Honolulu, which is where the vessel was located. It wasn't on the market yet, but we asked James if we could take a look at it, if I flew over to Hawaii with Pat. He was cautious, as it hadn't been staged to be on the market yet, and he hadn't seen it in a few years, but the owners agreed that we could go see it. So we spent 3 hours on Ice Dancer II with the people who have owned her for her entire cruising life. They have a remarkable cruising history, have been all over the world, including around Cape Horn...TWICE! They have come to the end of their cruising days and had hoped to sell it to someone who would continue her legacy.
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| N 57, Ice Dancer II in Patagonia, Chile. |
We hoped to be those people. After that visit, we knew we wanted her, even though she needed quite a bit of updating. The owners had cruised her for 100,000 miles, used her well, and now she was due for electronic upgrades and an interior refresh. We had upgraded boats, a couple of times, so we knew we could do it again. In fact, with her needing some care and attention, made it so Ice Dancer II was in our price range.
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| Our first view of Ice Dancer II in Honolulu. |
Meanwhile, more stars aligned when James let us know he might have a potential buyer for Noeta, one who was willing to come to Mexico to see her. One thing lead to another, they came to see the boat, we got an offer on Noeta, made an offer on Ice Dancer II and things started to move! Surveys would need to happen, we needed to figure out how to get Ice Dancer II from Homer, Alaska, where she had been moved to, down to the lower 48 to get some work done on her and then down to Mexico, we needed to find a place to store our stuff, we needed to move off Noeta, we needed to drive to the US with our cat and some personal items, we had a lot to figure out.
But we're moving forward! By mid July all of that will be figured out and done and we will be heading north to take ownership of Ice Dancer II (soon to be renamed Noeta)! So stay tuned for more stories about this adventure! It's bound to be exciting!
Read more at: www.mvnoeta.com
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