Ironically, the Summer Amy is on the hard at the very same
marina in which I met Ken Karn and his mate Brian Pattinson to inspect, repair
and buy the boat.
The irony continues in that my Boat Broker happens to be Will
Miller… If you recall, or care to go back to the very beginning of this
blog you will meet Will and his dad Buck. Will, accompanied by ‘crewman’ Buck
took me through catamaran accreditation on an epic voyage from Connecticut,
through the East River, New York to Atlanta and down to Charleston, South Carolina. Will believes this was in
record time clocking 400 miles in one day. In Charleston I was treated to the most amazing hospitality completing the
rest of my accreditation in way less than sober circumstances.
Well, here is Will and Buck with me in Greece to handle the
sea trials and the sale of this beautiful boat.I arrived at Heathrow at 7:10am on Saturday the 25th August 2018 and contacted my son Mark who I hadn’t seen for nearly a year. He is about to begin an internship in London. He had finished a marathon night shift at the pub he is working at 4:00am and had not as yet slept. I had to get myself to Gatwick Airport where I was to overnight and catch a 9:30am flight to Preveza the following morning. “Get some sleep son and I’ll contact you around midday and we’ll arrange a hookup”.
Disruption has come to hotel accommodation too it seems…
At Gatwick, in the actual departure hall is the reception to
the Bloc Hotel. Mighty convenient if flying out in the morning and only 79 Pound
a night…. Unless you want to check in before 2:00pm. “That’ll be another 49 Pounds
please”. And then came the room….
A 1.5 by 1.5 metre entrance, flanked by a 1.5 by 1.5
shower/basin/toilet which, like the boat all gets soaked when showering. Towel
to hang outside to avoid a similar fate. The bed is surrounded on three sides
by wall hence the name the ‘Bloc’ I guess?
However, it was spotless and odour free. The towels were
huge, white and fluffy and the bed very comfortable.
There was a bedside touch
screen which handled the lights, blind and climate/aircon and it all worked
perfectly, specially the aircon which is always near impossible to regulate in
your average hotel room. I would definitely stay there again…
I caught the express train to Victoria station arriving at
around midday and called Mark… and called…and called. Probably asleep I thought
but to my dismay I didn’t have his new address, I just knew it was in
Shoreditch somewhere and I’d Google Earthed it once while video chatting with
him, so I had an idea of what the place looked like.
Found Shoreditch High
Street on the Tube map, Oyster card in hand, off I went. Found a pub in
Shoreditch High Street figuring he must be nearby and called…. and called….and called.
Two wines and a snack, jet lag kicking in, trying everybody
I knew who knew Mark and the closest I got was Brick Lane so off I trudged and
there it was… the building I’d seen on Google Earth. I buzzed…. and buzzed….
and buzzed and then tried calling one more time. A very groggy and a little
shocked Mark finally answered having slept through his alarm and innumerable
phone calls.
We spent the rest of the afternoon at a roof top bar in
perfect weather with views across to the city and never having been in that
area in all my years in London, found Shoreditch to be enchanting, young and
vibrant. It was so good to catch up with my boy despite his DIY haircut!
Before leaving the hotel, an email from the marina’s technical
department informed me that a solenoid had malfunctioned and blown the
electrical start unit… The part would take 5 days to arrive! This was Sunday
the 26th and launch for sea trials was scheduled for Tuesday the 28th…
We had Will Miller, my broker from the US, Ray Ashton, the surveyor from Athens
and his mate/assistant Colin, Chip Grounds and Alan Kepple the buyers from the
US all turning up for it, so this was no minor inconvenience.
I arrived in Preveza at 2:00pm on Sunday the 26th and picked up a pre-paid hire car… “we will have to give you a bigger
car because we don’t have any of the type you hired left.”
Cool!, always up for an upgrade…
Cool!, always up for an upgrade…
“You are late. The car was booked from 6:00am and it is gone, you will
have to pay the difference…”
 |
| This is the upgrade. Can’t imagine what I was supposed to get?? |
“Whaaaaat!... I booked and paid for a car from today, you
have my time of arrival, what do you mean I’m late!”
“You booked it through Holiday Cars, they have your arrival
time, you can take it up with them, but if you want a car, you have to pay.”
Oh
yeah…. I’m back in Greece! What was I thinking? Just calm down now Gregory and
pay…
Arriving at the boat was more emotional than I was ready
for, specially without Sal and the kids to be part of it all. The Marina had scrubbed her down and shined up all the silverware and she
looked amazing. It struck me as utterly unconscionable that I was there to set
the boat up for a sea trial to sell to a stranger and not to go sailing once
more. I poked around familiarising myself with how I’d left her for the winter,
they’d spruced up the inside and rather than musty and stale after months of
closure, she smelled like new, welcoming and familiar…
Now this is going to sound strange, but that evening I took a
glass of wine and on one of the pulpit seats on the bow under a full moon, gazing
back at her I found myself in conversation with a boat!
“You look just amazing” I said.
“Why are you selling me then?” she asked
“Well, the kids are in high school now and Europe is a long way
to come for just a couple of weeks of sailing The places we haven’t been
to so far are a long way from here…..
and I could really do with the money” I said.
and I could really do with the money” I said.
“But if you sell me, you’ll just spend the money, if you
don’t sell me, I’ll be here waiting for you. Didn’t you want me to take you across to the
Caribbean” she asked
“Well, only if nobody bought you here and the guys who are buying
you want to take you to the Caribbean, so you get to have that adventure
anyway, and who knows they're probably really nice people” I replied.
This imaginary discourse went on for a while as I tried to justify selling and it became a
classic….”It’s not you, it’s me” conversation. Call me nuts, but this how I
feel about selling this boat.
They say that there are two good days when buying a boat…
The day you buy it, and the day you sell it… Well, do not be put off by that
bullshit. Clearly I am having a very hard time reconciling the fact that the
Summer Amy will fade into memory when, as she tried to tell me, there is still so
much to discover.
Going through the boat to see what I wanted to keep and take
home, I came across this stash of high quality Greek and Croatian wine! I was
sure we’d drank it all before descending to cask last year and now there is no
chance of either drinking it all, or taking it home.
Guess what the boat had to say to me about that one!
Lunch…. OMG I’m back in Greece! It always starts with the, ‘just a small healthy snack conviction’ and ends with an absolute pig out with way too much wine topped off with a four hour nanna nap. Ahhhhhh….
Tuesday the 28th dawned with no progress on that essential part without which the starboard engine would not start making
launching an impossibility. By 9:30, Will, Ray, Colin, Chip and Alan had
arrived only to be updated with the bad news..
 |
| RayAshton The survayor from Athens |
I made my way over to the technical department to be told
the part had not yet arrived but that it was due shortly and the moment it
arrives they will fit it and let me know so we could launch.. Things were
looking up, Ray did all the surveying he could while the boat was out of the
water while I chatted with Chip and Alan about their plans for the boat, Will took a
nap.
We all lunched together where I received the phone call…. “The
part has arrived and already been fitted, please come to the technical department
when you return to the marina.” I did so, and then went up to reception to
arrange an immediate launch…
 |
| Chip Grounds and Alan Kepple the new owners of the Summer Amy... Maybe |
Lena Skamnelos drives this department and has yet to complete her 'Customer Care skills course' but I know why she has the job.
It’s clockwork in there which meant that when she informed me that a launch that day was impossible and very difficult for the next week, she knew what she was talking about… I have not had to crawl like that in a while but it seemed to no avail.
It’s clockwork in there which meant that when she informed me that a launch that day was impossible and very difficult for the next week, she knew what she was talking about… I have not had to crawl like that in a while but it seemed to no avail.
I returned to the boat to make everybody’s day. It was not
long before Gregory from the technical department who I’d become friendly with last year,
bounced up onto the boat to say we would launch between 11:00am and 2:00pm the
following day!
Everybody went the separate ways, I showered, napped and headed into Preveza at around 7:30pm, hooked up with Will and Buck and got back to the boat at 3:30am. I may have been a touch over the limit....
Over the European winter I spent a ton of money making sure the boat was in great shape either for me to take it to the Caribbean next year or for selling with a clear concience. I was so looking forward to launching and sea trialling if only to be back on the water and to show her off.
At 2:00pm on Friday the 30th they dropped us into the water a day later than scheduled. In less than an hour of hard running the starboard engine overheated as it had on our voyage from Italy last year.... With the work that had been done to fix this problem, like renovating the heat exchanges on both engines I was gutted. Ray didn't seem to think it was a problem saying it would simply be a blockage in the water intake for cooling the engine and Chip and Alan didn't seem to allarmed either, but I was not amused.
We returned to the Marina to be told they could not haul the boat out until Monday the 2nd September, I was due in London today! Thankfully Chip and Alan decided to stay an extra day while we worked on the problem and came and stayed on the boat with me.
We were supposed to go through the boat item by item, system by system... instead we drank a lot of wine and had a good laugh.
Gregory, the chief engineer came by and told us it must be the water intake on the sail drive and he'd get a diver from Lefkada to come and clear it. "If you can lend me the tool and I'll have a go" I said. Donned the dive gear and after a half an hour the job was done..... One that really should have been done properly while she was on the hard thanks Gregory!
We started the engines and the result was immediate, both engines were pumping water like new. So as not to lose our precious spot on the dock, we made sure the boat was securely moored and the following morning, as per Ray's survey instructions we started the engines and put each under sustained load and relievingly for all they hummed along comfortably
We dropped the dingy into the water too and got the engine started as the final item and everybody was happy. I drove the boys to the bus station with a promise to try an figure a way I could join them on their Atlantic crossing....
On Saturday 1st September I woke early to a beautiful sunrise feeling a little nervous about moving the boat into the slot for haul out single handedly. This is the slot where we nearly did some serious damage at the end of last season due to a mean current running across the face of the slot . The idea is to fang it and then full reverse before the end of the slot. It all went fine except for the 'marineros' who were freaking out at the hot entry.
Then the last little hurdle! A stray completely unaware of what is bearing down on him.
So she is out of the water now ready for her new owners. I have to say I am really pleased she is passing into more experienced and capable hands than my own and I sincerely hope they enjoy her every bit as much as we have..
I can't close without this....
It has been hard unpacking the boat as I've been doing without allowing thousands of memories to expose themselves. A little like peeling an onion, each layer being a new round of emotions. It was made all the more harder with Sal and the kids not being here to share it with me. For them, it must seem that the boat has just disappeared in a cloud of blue
smoke.... pooof!
Bye, Bye Summer Amy.....
Over the European winter I spent a ton of money making sure the boat was in great shape either for me to take it to the Caribbean next year or for selling with a clear concience. I was so looking forward to launching and sea trialling if only to be back on the water and to show her off.
We returned to the Marina to be told they could not haul the boat out until Monday the 2nd September, I was due in London today! Thankfully Chip and Alan decided to stay an extra day while we worked on the problem and came and stayed on the boat with me.
We were supposed to go through the boat item by item, system by system... instead we drank a lot of wine and had a good laugh.
Gregory, the chief engineer came by and told us it must be the water intake on the sail drive and he'd get a diver from Lefkada to come and clear it. "If you can lend me the tool and I'll have a go" I said. Donned the dive gear and after a half an hour the job was done..... One that really should have been done properly while she was on the hard thanks Gregory!
We dropped the dingy into the water too and got the engine started as the final item and everybody was happy. I drove the boys to the bus station with a promise to try an figure a way I could join them on their Atlantic crossing....
On Saturday 1st September I woke early to a beautiful sunrise feeling a little nervous about moving the boat into the slot for haul out single handedly. This is the slot where we nearly did some serious damage at the end of last season due to a mean current running across the face of the slot . The idea is to fang it and then full reverse before the end of the slot. It all went fine except for the 'marineros' who were freaking out at the hot entry.
Then the last little hurdle! A stray completely unaware of what is bearing down on him.
So she is out of the water now ready for her new owners. I have to say I am really pleased she is passing into more experienced and capable hands than my own and I sincerely hope they enjoy her every bit as much as we have..
I can't close without this....
It has been hard unpacking the boat as I've been doing without allowing thousands of memories to expose themselves. A little like peeling an onion, each layer being a new round of emotions. It was made all the more harder with Sal and the kids not being here to share it with me. For them, it must seem that the boat has just disappeared in a cloud of blue
Bye, Bye Summer Amy.....
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