A test sail today

Valentines day was pretty non eventful for us..no roses or fancy dinners, just another beautiful, sunny warm day in Alameda. We poked around yacht option # 3 then went for a short drive to look at the haul out yard, liferaft supplier and then grabbed a cheap meal to eat back at our room.

Today the weather is perfect, clear skies and little wind, crisp this morning 4 degrees but lovely during the day 16 degrees. So, the news of the day is: we took Yacht option #3 out for a test sail this afternoon. Yacht option #3 is a Jeanneau Sun Odyssey 37 built in France in 2000 (another fabulous french design & manufacturing yacht company) This yacht called 'Sea Otter' is in excellent condition, hardly used and in the last year the owners who live in Arizona haven't taken her away from her berth. All their clothes are still on the boat!

This yacht is smaller than the Beneteau's we have been looking at, but Geoff is more comfortable with her as she has simpler systems, only 1 head, no airconditioning, no in mast furling mainsail and bigger sails in excellent condition. She has a lovely interior mostly timber lined a good galley and the head has a shower with hot and cold pressure water. The two cabins are smaller and more like a typical boats cabins, not quite as luxurious as the Beneteau's :/

Test sail went well, nice and nimble under motor, turns on a dime and sailed well in very light conditions. In fact it was hard to get Geoff to come back in from sailing up and down the estuary!! Roger and Dinah the brokers were happy to let Geoff enjoy himself, I must admit it felt great to be back on a boat again - like coming home. Yesterday we signed a contract on 'Sea Otter', which the owners agreed to this morning. It's a good price (less than the yacht we came over to buy) And she has tons of gear, crockery, cutlery, plateware, cookware, and comes with a dinghy and outboard. So this means we have to spend less at the Chandlery, yay!! We will just need to get a Liferaft, some solar panels and wet weather gear.

We will have to wait till Thursday next week to get the survey done, as the owners are coming in to clear out their gear and personal belongings. So until then we are going to head off for a road trip. Tomorrow we think we will drive off for Lake Tahoe, maybe see some snow!!