Learning the boat

What a week! So all in we were able to get out about 3 times. Primarily we were becoming familiar with how Forty Two handles, how to work with a bow-thruster, and more time living on the boat.

If you saw us on the boat you would have seen us putting around in circles, backing up, and learning how Forty Two’s “prop walk”. Overall we feel good that we were able to dock the boat, put it into the berth, and generally navigate in a tight marina. This may sound small but it is big. We have to be able to move the boat around without causing damage to our boat or others’. We’ve learned that 44 feet is pretty big but the boat responds very quickly.

Thursday we took the day and went to Nicosia so that Margaret could complete an exam. We took the opportunity to visit the Northern part of Nicosia. You have to show your passport to cross the “no mans land” that separates the city. The North side has been developing quickly and there were many more shops and restaurants than when we visited 6 or 7 years ago.

Saturday, Harry took us to Latsi so we could see the port where we’ll stay before we leave Cyprus. We had a nice meal, heard some live music performed with a higher degree of passion than talent, and spent some time having coffee aboard Harry’s brother’s yacht. Another rough day in paradise!

This Sunday the wind has been insane. One of the neighbouring boats registered a gust at 49 knots and this afternoon I was seeing gusts at 35 knots at our boat. It makes for a rocky, motion filled day. We stayed in port as it isn’t safe for us to sail in such winds. The kite surfers love it, though, and the neighbouring beach was full of surfers.

Next week we’ll get the boat prepped for travels and do some more sailing to build the experience curve. Stay tuned for more.

Kevin 

Picking the right boat for our trip

What sailboat is right? “The one you have,” says the Guide. Our boat was a Catalina Capri 16.5 – a dingy. That meant that we had to find a boat. We sold the Catalina and started hunting.

For a trip of several months, one will spend so much to prep and then maintain the boat that it isn’t realistic to rent a boat, one must buy a boat. If you like to shop for chunky things like cars, computers, espresso machines, then you will likely enjoy the process of shopping for a boat.

We considered some basic criteria:

#1 Cost – be realistic and firm. It isn’t about just buying a boat, you need to transact the purchase (survey, travel, lawyer). Prepare the boat (add radar, BBQ, update interior, replace worn parts). Maintain the boat (anti-fouling, engine servicing, cleaning if you aren’t at the same location, marina fees). All this before sailing anywhere.

#2 Age – we had no desire for a brand new delivered yacht, nor did we have the budget. We chose instead to pursue something 8-10 years old. We knew some repairs would be required – see criteria #1.

#3 Size – we wanted something two adults could handle, a family of four could enjoy with a modicum of privacy (a personal private space), and that wouldn’t require an upgrade to a larger boat later on. There is a big debate about “starter boats”. At our age and stage of life, we decided to go to the mean length of cruising boats in the hopes that should we pursue a life afloat, we’d not need to buy a new boat to do it. See criteria #1.

#4 Type/Class –We figured since we were sailing the Mediterranean a cruiser would work. It is spacious and comfortable but I suspect the tradeoff will be storage. If we go blue-water, I do expect we’d have to make some upgrades.

#5 – airiness & light – this one was personal – knowing we’d spend a lot of time on and in the boat, we wanted something with lots of windows (and shades) and light/neutral interior colours. A dark interior would not serve.

I can think many other things that we considered but those 5 were fundamental before anything else.

We shopped a few but ended up choosing a Jeanneau Sun Oddessy 44i. It is approximately 8 years old and has more than we need (air conditioning, electric toilets, heat) and fits our other criteria well. Plus it was already in the Med.

Our first week was a bit of a weather bomb and we weren’t able to take her out but we have been living on her and we can confirm it is airy & light inside, comfortable for a family of four, and has storage but should we go on extended trips, we will have things stashed, hung up, boxed, and placed in many different places.

We’ve been able to personalize our “rooms” and are maintaining a “clean as possible” main room so we don’t have things spilling everywhere plus tidiness helps us live more amicably as a family.

She is beautiful and we are happy to call Forty Two home for the coming months.

Kevin 

Life’s Little Ironies - our first week

It is hard to believe we landed a week ago…

I know, that’s what everyone says. But it is usually because they’ve done so many new things in a short time.

We have too, I suppose, just not the ones we expected to be doing!

Getting here was more of a challenge than expected, with Kevin getting diagnosed with pneumonia on Thursday (we flew Sunday morning). We are deeply thankful to our friends who helped get us out the door and dealt with the chaos we left behind!

We landed on Monday and figured we would inventory the boat, do an IKEA and other necessities trip on Tuesday, and spend Wednesday and Thursday learning to sail this baby before the Easter celebrations started.

So what really happened…

Did a very minimal inventory, made it to IKEA, and spent the week experiencing the worst winds/swells/rains that have occurred in the last 5 years in Cyprus! Have seen some great thunderstorms and now know what the boat sounds/rocks/vibrates/bounces like at 3 am in winds gusting to Beaufort 7 (thankfully safely tied up in the marina!). Spent a few days getting dizzy/seasick on land whenever we had to look down. Thankfully that has abated, so now able to type this exciting missive! ;)

Since sailing wasn’t happening we decided to do some sight seeing (more details and pics on this fun later) and take advantage of our friends kind offer to use their house in the mountains. Discovered that someone with pneumonia can get altitude sickness really easily, so back down the mountain we came! Driving twisty mountain roads in the dark, on the “wrong” side of the road, has made all subsequent driving easy!

A day of recovery for Kev, videogames for Theo, and pedicures and play for Margaret and I, and we were all set to celebrate Easter Sunday with Harry and Sophie’s family and their fabulous friends. Incredible feasting (souvla – much bigger than souvlaki, kokoretsi, crepes, pasta, and many types of salads), followed by my first Greek dancing lesson (!) lots more dancing, dessert, lots more dancing, games, dancing…  an incredible day with wonderful people!

So a full and satisfying first week, even if little of it followed “the plan”. Welcome to sailing I guess!  :) 

Sheila

The first three days

We seem to have brought the bad weather with us from Toronto, rain, lightning and lots of wind. It's been a wavy ride even though we haven't been sailing. Despite all this, I (Margaret) am the only one to get seasick... so far. We all have wobbly feet when we're on land and seem to not be able to concentrate on anything for too long. 

After a trip to IKEA in Nicosia we seem to be a bit more organized. Well, at least now we have bedding. We have been fairly lazy lately, all getting over jet lag and Kevin recovering from pneumonia. Our relaxed nature has lead to some nice walks on the beach and beautiful views. This weekend is Easter, a holiday bigger than Christmas here. Celebrating with friends on Sunday should be lots of fun! 

I have been posting photos on my Instagram and Facebook of the trip as well. If you would like to see some of them, give me a follow on Instagram at  margaret.purkiss or look me up on Facebook. 

More to come,

Margaret 

A post from Theo

We saw five cats walking back from a beach front restaurant. I took a picture of the cats which i'll post. My friend has a chubby little dog that really likes to bounce around and is always panting for some reason. We played Far Cry Primal and Uncharted at my friend's house which has too much cannibalism.

I used the PS3 on the boat and I played Sonic Unleashed and today I played Pirates of the Caribbean. I don't think I'm jet lagged any more. 

This is Dobby, the chubby little dog. 

Theo

TRAVEL DAY

Wow, we made it... well, to the airport that is.

Everything we packed for this year away are sitting on the three luggage carts in the photo. 

To all of us, it has yet to seem real that this adventure is happening. Our busy morning spent running around and last minute packing was followed by final goodbyes and last hugs to those around us. It will be a long travel day, with three connecting flights and 5 hours of layovers we will be exhausted upon arrival in Cyprus, where our boat is waiting for us.
More to come shortly,
Margaret

Last minute craziness

Packing kinda sucks. Surrounded by boxes, wrapping paper and bubble-wrap it was necessary to form little projects to get through packing up the house. Another box of books, now camping equipment, now pictures…Wow so much stuff and this is after taking carload after carload to various charities.

We did a pretty good job all in I think. I decided to relent and let Theo pack rather than cull…we have two extra large boxes of soft toys going to storage. At least they aren’t going to be on the boat!

We’ve been ruthless and I’m really curious to see what we consider essential upon our return. How ruthless is ruthless? Sheila’s wedding dress is gone (we’ve been married 28 years in August) and only the newest suits remain for when I reintegrate back into work in a year. We’ve donated, sold, trashed, and generally unweighted the house. It is very liberating!

That said, I still couldn’t let my records go (and yes I do have a turntable) and I’ve kept a few trinkets from highschool in a shoebox including love letters from my high school sweetheart (if you do the math you’ll figure out it was Sheila). I still have four different audio systems – perhaps I’m more like Theo than I dare admit.

Margaret has been the most ruthless among us. She is down to the bare essentials and got her life into about 3-4 boxes.

I’m happy to see the other side of this packing/storing adventure. It has been far more work and taken much more time than I would have dared. We fly Sunday and Saturday are still running around finishing things!

Through this whole experience I’ve learned once again the true value of friends and family. We’ve had so much support to help us offload things, organize, store, move, and ensure we are fed – I just can’t thank everyone enough. Thank you. You’ve all contributed to our dream.We never could do this without your help.

Kevin