Stockholm Sweden, 28 januari 2006
1:st letter, The Arvid incident, buying a boat and Ready to go!
This journey was talked about for years. But it was an add on Blocket that really got us started. One day in November 2005, we found a boat, a Maxi 95, for sale in the Caribbean. We realized that this actually was the time to go. It was possible for all three of us with respect to job, school and girlfriend situations to get going. And by buying a boat in the Caribbean we could get going at this time of the year.
The contact with the seller of the Maxi 95 was to be horrible. The five days of negotiations seemed like 5 weeks when we could not do anything else than negotiate strange conditions of the purchase, order boat surveys on the other side of the world and at the same time start to rearrange our lives to do this trip. Four days after we responded to the advertise and two days after we met the seller it all ended with the seller accusing us of wanting to demolish his car. He also felt that the purchase took so much time that his dog went sick and the pump to his pool could not be fixed (see some quotes from this amusing man at "link comming"). In a last attempt to make things look better and get the boat sold his wife wrote us another email, but it was almost as bad.
It was with a strange, empty and extremely frustrating feeling we decided that though we really wanted the boat, this man was impossible to do business with. But looking back at the incident with Arvid, the seller, we can say that we are very happy to not have done business with him. We started to look for other boats and we finally found a much better boat at a better price. Ironically this very strange man led us to the idea that now, is our awaiting journey. And we learnt a lot about how important it is to keep your head cool when doing boat businesses. And the value of a real boat broker. Here it is appropriate to quote one of the boat brookers that we have been in contact with, Tony Brewer: ”Selling or buying a boat is very emotional, getting married or divorced even – is nothing in comparison”.
It has been a hectic time from the day we saw that add on Blocket until today when we are (almost) ready to leave Sweden. Many hours have been spent on the phone with brooker and many nights have been sleepless comparing boats and prices and sketching budgets. In the chapter “Advice in buying a boat in the Caribbean” (link comming). we have tried to collect our experience from this journey before the journey.
Two months after the Arvid incident we are ready to go and we have a really nice boat waiting for us in Florida. We would like to thank all the people (hrrrm almost all) we have come in contact with so far for their time and advice.
Especially we would like to thank (in no particular order):
Pär Erlandsson, experienced circum navigator, Fredriks bigger (oh yes much bigger) brother and advisor in boat business
Our friends that have listened to our plans for over a year and a half now.
Tony Brewer, the coolest boat broker of the Caribbean, Cheers mate! Check out his webpage at www.littleships.com!
Tord, who is circumnavigating together with his wife Pia in “s/y Ayla”, for lots of advice.
Our mothers who suffers when we risk our money and career’s in this project.
Our fathers who secretly encourages us.
Martin and Anna who sailed MARE to Westindies and back from Sweden. Thanks for all your good advice and inspiration! Check out their awesome webpage http://www.sailing-mare.com
Everyone else that has encouraged us to do this journey!
Our partners – visit their webpages!