“All men dream: but not equally. Those who dream
by night in the dusty recesses of their minds wake in
the day to find that it was vanity: but the dreamers
of the day are dangerous men, for they may act their
dreams with open eyes, to make it possible. This I did.”
—T.E. Lawrence (of Arabia) , from “Seven Pillars of Wisdom”
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| Airstream at Lake Union, Seattle |
Today the sale of Airstream was completed. Funds were transferred from the maritime title company to our accounts and the new owners took possession. What can I say? We owned that boat for thirteen years. We took her to Mexico and back up the coast to our home in northern California. We took her up and down the coast a few times. We were dismasted off Cape Mendocino and had her re-rigged in 2006.
We went around the world beginning in 2008 and we spent an average of seven months a year aboard for more than nine years. We sailed across the Pacific and through the Indian Ocean to SE Asia. We basically spent three years in the Pacific, three years in the Indian Ocean and SE Asia and three years in the Mediterranean. We sailed across the Atlantic to the Caribbean and through the Panama Canal to Central America. We shipped the boat through the Gulf of Aden due to pirate problems and up the Pacific Coast of Central America just because we’d done a lot of that before, and frankly, didn’t feel like doing it again.
We spent what for us was a lot of money. We agree completely that it was money very well spent. It was a great experience and we were very, very lucky to have had the time and means to make the dream a reality.
The new owners are a nice couple from the Seattle area who have cruising plans. They seem to have the drive and knowledge to make it happen. Mike Locatell of Discovery Yachts was our broker. We’ve bought two boats through Mike and now we’ve sold two. I certainly don’t know of a more knowledgeable and honest broker.
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| With Mike Locatell |
He and his wife Beth have been friends since our first work together back in about 1998. We had a lovely sea trial with the prospective buyers on Lake Washington and a very thorough survey done the next day at Canal Boat Yard on Lake Union.
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| Sea trial and survey |
Its an old and trite remark that the two happiest days in a boat owners life are the day its purchased and the day its sold. I say its not true. Both were good enough but in between we had many, many happier days using the boat for the purpose it was designed.
I’ve never before anthropomorphized a boat but this boat did take on a personality and we had a complex relationship. It is a fast, strong, seaworthy, occasionally demanding, craft to sail the seven seas. I’m not Lawrence, a man of magnificent dreams, but this was a dream machine.
Love to all,
Bill & Janet
SV Airstream
PS: All photos on this post by Janet and by Lee Youngblood of West Yachts.
