born in 1984, but ours officially May 28, 2014
After a wonderful and exciting year of numerous adventures on Ms Teak, Andy and I decided it was time to step it up and commit to our very own sailboat. We quickly realized after arriving to San Francisco on Teak last year, that we had no clue on what the hell we were doing. But Im proud to say, after sailing consistently in typical 25 knot winds of SFs summer, we have a much more solid sailing foundation, and I'll dare say that we slightly know what we are doing. We learned how to properly trim sails, navigate the crazy tides and currents of the bay, a Farralons trip, evade the deceivingly fast tankers that will not hesitate to run you over, anchor at Mccovey cove for a Giants game, practice with the Oracle Americas cup boats as they literally flew past us at 50 MPH, and dock Teak in strong gusty crosswinds.
Around March 2014 Andy, unexpectedly bombarded me with the news.. " I want a boat. And... I'm going to move in with you so we can afford it!" Wonderful! Surprise!.... Apparently Andy had been cheating on Teak for a couple months now and had already researched Yachtworld for his next potential sailboat. We got ourselves a yacht broker, secured a loan (thanks to Jean and Henry!), prepared a budget, and started the fun but painfully disappointing process of shopping for a boat. We added some fun into the shopping mix by looking at boats in the North West and North East. We had our eyes on a Canadian made boat. We started in Vancouver, and were let down with each viewing. We'd survey each boat ourselves and found serious issues that were not worth the extra work. Broken engine mount, constant water intrusion, and just beaten to hell to name a few. We quickly learned to NOT trust sellers brokers and photos really can be deceiving. The next shopping trip we headed to Toronto and Quebec City. We had a crazy plan of sailing the St Lawrence and exploring the Thousand Islands on our newly purchased boat. The winter this year was relentless, and surveying a boat in negative degree temperatures was an adventure itself. Everything was frozen. The River was full of floating icebergs and we found a beautiful boat, but the cost was out of our budget. So back to the drawing board.
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| Quebec City |
Exhausted from the emotional ups and downs from the past month, we temporarily gave up. The type of boat we wanted was just not going to work, so I decided that maybe the type of boat we wanted was not right. Andy had originally wanted a "fast" boat, but I didn't really understand the point of that. We weren't interested in racing and any fast boat was limited on cruising comforts. So I started researching different types of sail boats that were for sale in California. I learned there were so many boats... too many. I found a Wauquiez Gladiateur that was for sale in San Diego and fell in love with the lines. After more research, I found the next size up, 35 feet, Wauquiez Pretorien... And one was for sale in Dana Point. Its an extremely solid boat that is often used for circumnavigating the world. This was our boat. The photos online were not flattering, but after breaking into soldboats.com and viewing many other Pretoriens, I knew there was potential. Andy wasn't as impressed and even said he expected "Lions Paw," to be a 6 out of 10.
When we walked down the dock in Dana Point and had our first glimpse, it was love at first site. She was perfect. We spent over an hour searching through the boat's nook and crannies, looking for the one issue that would make the boat not worth it. Wauquiez are built in France, making the attention to detail on everything, spectacular.. Instead of making a long list of problems, we ended up making a long list of positives. This was our boat. We made an offer, set up the surveys, and hit a major hiccup with an oil analysis. The test showed water intrusion in the saildrive which could have been as simple as a seal replacement, but the extent of possible damage was unknown. The oil also tested positive for coolant which could have been as serious a blown head gasket. Andy demanded more tests. A thirty year old Volvo engine made parts hard to find and the possibility of a complete repower more logical. The worst case scenario would be a new Engine and Saildrive, costing around 18,000$. Ouch.
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We decided to think positive and believe in our instincts, versus being afraid of the worst case scenario. The second analysis was clean, no coolant. The Owner, Dick, admitted using the same funnel and tube for topping both fluids, the oil and the coolant, which could have led to the contamination. We had the boat run for another few hours, a third oil analysis was taken, and crossed our fingers. It came back clean. She was ours. The insane week leading up to this final moment was completely forgotten as we popped open a bottle of Veuve and celebrated!
The next morning, we left the Dana Point Marina and pointed towards Catalina. We turned off our engine and sailed the entire distance at an easy close haul. The boat practically sailed herself in the gentle winds as we sunbathed naked and took turns napping. We decided to be ballsy and play around with the Spinnaker sail once we reached Catalina, something we had no experience at.
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| Spinakker! |
We arrived in Avalon, and cooked dinner while we watched the sunset. That night, we slept with the hatch open watching the shooting stars and listened to the waves washing on the nearby shore. In the morning, I awoke to Andy climbing the mast to the first set of spreaders and he jumped off into the water.
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| Catalina harbor |
After another spectacular full day of sailing, we arrived to the calm waters of Catalina harbor. Like all new parents, we couldn't stop taking photos of our new baby, and we hiked along the shore trying to get different angles of her moored out. That evening, we walked to Two harbors and enjoyed a few beers at the bar.
The next morning was our longest day yet. Catalina to Oxnard, where we would be keeping her for the next couple months until the big trip up to San Francisco. We left the calm waters of the bay and were greeted by confused seas, that caught me off guard while raising the main sail. A few minutes later, I was heaving over the lifelines, throwing up an empty stomach. Sea sickness is not fun! Luckily, after an hour nap, I awoke and was back on track. The winds were picking up until we had steady 20 plus knot winds as tacked our way to Oxnard. The swells were a decent size, large enough to slow our forward progress, but V handled everything like it was nothing.
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| Point Mugu |
With all boating adventures there are some downfalls and once we reached Point Mugu, I noticed a small tear in our jib. The small tear quickly got larger and larger as we tried to furl it back in, and POOF! It was a giant mess. Not our "new" sail! (After further investigation, we found the sail to be on its last legs anyways, so at least it wasn't our fault.) We turned on the engine, and kept on going through the sunset. We arrived at Channel Islands marina at night and used our GPS to negotiate through the darkness. I could hear waves crashing over the breakwater and see the white water reflect the moon light. It was frightening as we completely trusted the GPS and rode the large swells into the calm protected waters of the marina. We made it without sinking the boat!!!!
Andy and I have been giddy new parents, but unfortunately most of the comments we have received are negative. " New boat? Welcome to hell!" " You know what they say.. the best day of a mans life is buying a boat, and the second is selling it." " Isn't a boat just a hole in the water that you throw money into?" "You must get payed a lot at your fire department to be able to afford a yacht.." Jeez people! If you can't say something nice don't say anything at all. Too funny. Everyone has different passions and life goals. Andy and I happen to live off of excitement and adventure. I plan to never have children, or have mortgage payments, so I guess that leaves us with extra money to play with.
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| The Galley |
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| Navigation station |
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| Sexy interior |
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| The head |
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| V berth |
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| Add caption |
Her name is now La Bonne Vie, The Good Life in French. We named her after the first boat we ever bareboated together in the BVIs, and as Andy would say, "Its where this whole mess started."
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| British Virgin Islands on the first La Bonne Vie |
