End of a chapter

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You have heard no news from us in a while. This is because we had to make a very hard decision this past spring and we were waiting to see what came of it....

Caribee, as you know, was supposed to be our winter job. We were heading for Anguilla to do day charters between December and April, and Caribee would stay and wait out the summer months while we returned to our more regular jobs at home. You also know we had setbacks and issues, and as of this past spring we has still not reached Anguilla... not for lack of trying. The crash in Nassau showed us how difficult and alone you are for tows and repairs out of North American waters, and we have to admit it deflated us quite a bit that year in many ways. A few things changed in our lives during the three years of trying to reach our goal as well. We knew from the start it was not an easy path we were embarking on, but we we up for the challenge and we looked forward to being part of the Anguillan community where we knew we would fit in. As setbacks kept coming and as our jobs changed perhaps allowing openings for contracts in winter months, we had to admit that being able to work from our boat in Florida or Bahamas sounded a lot easier, would give us a bit of a much needed break and was maybe worth a try for a bit until we got back some energy. We decided that Mako would be our home in the summer in Canada and Caribee would be our winter home in the south somewhere close to USA or Canada. The only problem with this new and perhaps temporary plan was Caribee herself: as perfect as she was for the West Indies is as bad as she was for Florida, Bahamas and Turks & Caicos- the places we were most likely to visit. Caribee was a tough, fast, agile European boat with an almost seven foot draft and racing rig of close to 65 feet. The draft would not allow us into a large percentage of anchorages and towns, and the mast would not fit under any US bridges. Of course we did not buy her to keep her in the USA, we would not have chosen her if this was supposed to be our sailing area. But now that it WAS going to be our area she was really not a good fit. We were not even able to take her out of our slip in Florida for a sail until high tide, and even then sometimes we could not get out depending on the moon cycle. We are not the type to just use our sailboat as a condo, especially not one like Caribee when she is such a pleasure to sail. And so we had two choices with our new plan- to relocate Caribee to a new base, perhaps in Cuba where there was deeper water if the internet was good enough to allow us to work, or cut her keel and mast to make her fit into her new environment in the USA. Neither of us thought we could actually go through with modifying a beautifully balanced and well performing sailboat just because we had changed our plans and we were not going to take her where she belonged for a little while longer.

We then started thinking more long term and decided that we didn't want to pay for two boats in two yacht centers.... we would be better off with one boat traveling where we needed to be. We had to sell one. Caribee seemed to be the obvious choice to most: she was bigger, newer, more modern, strong, fully equipped, incredible wood inside, sugar scoop back for easy access to the sea, and we had just made her everything we wanted her to be.. she was ready to go and she was a pleasure to sail. She even sailed in very little wind for her size. Downside was that she was actually bigger than we really wanted initially, but she fell into our price category and we fell in love with her. Her mainsail was hard to handle... in an emergency if I, Lori, absolutely had to pull it in fast it would be almost impossible without a station change for Marty to finish it up. Everything was overbuilt and strong and expensive to replace, and we really didn't need four cabins and two heads for the two of us. She was a bit of a luxury.

Mako was also strong and beautiful and all redone in the way of electric and plumbing, but she had no solar panels. Her canvas was very poorly made and had weak supports that would need to be replaced. She was old- 1979- before builders started being a bit smarter with aft space. We did not have the closed back cabin we would have liked and as a racer/cruiser there was not a lot of storage space, but her four foot draft was gold. We could go where the cats go! We were comfortable on her- who lives inside the boat in warm weather anyway? She had a good sized cockpit for a 36 footer.

The other option was sell them both and get a boat that fit all our needs. We had a pretty good idea of what we would buy, too. Compared with Mako the new boat would only be maybe two or three feet longer but much more spacious inside. We would gain the closed cabin we wanted, but pay a lot for this boat... even an old one.... at least compared with the price of Mako. Draft would be under 6 feet, probably more like 5.5 which would be totally fine for the Florida and Bahamas area, but not 4 feet like Mako! Pretty much trading four quarters for a dollar. Compared with Caribee we would lose about 8 feet, and not that much draft or money saved.

We made the incredibly difficult decision to sell Caribee and keep Mako. We knew we would never own a boat like Caribee again in our lives and we were letting her slip away, but it made the most sense. She came into our lives for a reason. If we were no longer going to do what we bought her for, she had to be set free for someone else to take her to a better, safer sailing area for her and her crew. To us, simpler is better too...and if we were now only going to be two on board all the time she was far too big for us. We did not need all the space and would just fill the empty cabins with things we didn't really really need after all. For our last month in Florida we spent three weeks out at anchor on Caribee, enjoying every moment with her. We were so sad to come back to dock and know that the last week would be emptying out our personal belongings and prepping her for visits. Thankfully it was a lot of hard work to get everything done so we did not have a lot of time to think about what we were doing. We even cleaned and packed down to the last minutes before we drove away back to Canada, so it made leaving easier and less emotional.

Today she has been sold. Part of me is very sad that I will never see her again, but most of me is so happy that I won't arrive in Florida and see her alone and unused at the dock. She was a fabulous boat to sail- perfectly balanced and fit for anything. She was beautiful and comfortable and far stronger than we could ever be. She did not deserve to be sitting at a dock in Florida, she should have been exploring islands, continents, seas. I am happy for the new owners, they will have a wonderful boat and I am sure they will finally take her to all the places we had planned to- the places she deserves to be. I wish them many years of happiness. End of a chapter for us and new one for Caribee. I am proud of how we restored her, and I know the new owners will appreciate that 😊

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