Beginning by saying goodbye?

     It seems so strange that an adventure that involves cruising around on a sailboat begins with selling one, but that's the way this will start.
We bought Shiva, a 27 foot 1973 Albin Vega, in December of 2011 so we could begin literally learning the ropes of sailing. She has been a fantastic boat for us, extremely forgiving for all those mistakes one makes when learning to sail. We took her all over the place--short jaunts up and down the channel and to various harbors for weekends, as well as longer trips, like our week-long trip with the sailing club around Admiralty Island, or out to the coast. Not that we did a whole lot of sailing on those trips. Those who have sailed in Southeast Alaska know all too well how fickle the wind can be!

Shiva worked well for us when we were a family of four, just using her for camping trips. However, there are now five of us, and the travel plans have become more extensive, so to quote Roy Scheider in Jaws, "We're gonna need a bigger boat."

The search has begun for said bigger boat, but right now, I'm just preparing to say good-bye to Shiva. She came out of the water yesterday and is sitting on a trailer across the street, waiting for Saturday. That's when Joe and Levi will put her on the ferry and then drive north to meet Shiva's new owner halfway. Shiva will say good-bye to the waters of Southeast and get ready to explore the water around Homer. I say to her new owner, "Fair winds, following seas, and may she treat you as well as she treated us. Be good to the old girl!"

There's a saying that the best days of a boat owner's life are the day the boat is bought and the day the boat is sold. There is some truth to that, but it's still sad to say good-bye. Nice to remember though, we'll have another "best day" when we find and buy Kyrie, wherever she might be.

(Originally posted on September 24, 2015 on the old blog)