It’s Official ~ LIB Has a New Owner.

The documents are signed, so now I can tell you that the reason we moved to Curacao was to meet the prospective buyer of LIB, take her on a sea trial and have our boat surveyed.

I am happy to report that all went well. Our floating home passed inspection with flying colors, the buyer loved Let It Be and our home has been purchased.

As LIB was lifted out of the water a man watched how she sat on the trailer. (See him?)

We were very impressed with Curacao Marine, the yard that pulled LIB out of the water for the dry portion of the survey. The men were extremely professional and careful about the haul out process.  The trailer is well maintained and they even put plastic over the support pads so LIB would not have any scuff marks.  One of the guys was in the water using a controller to manipulate the support pads precisely where they needed to be under LIB. We have been very impressed with Curacao Marine during our stay here!

The surveyor had a few minor comments about Let It Be which we have already addressed. The starboard engine was vibrating a bit at idle and we had a Volvo mechanic address that issue.  We actually thought the idle setting of both engines was a little low, so while the mechanic was here, he adjusted them to meet the Volvo specifications.  The tiller arm on the port rudder was a little loose, so Frank went to work and fixed it the very next day! The surveyor came back by and has inspected and approved that work already!

No moss growing here!!

We are very pleased with the results of the survey of Let It Be and if I were buying a boat that received this kind of report, I would be thrilled.  Big kudos to Frankly for his excellent and detailed care of our boat!

Ironically, the person who has bought LIB is a woman I had “met” through the FB group Women Who Sail.  We had texted a couple of times about a few subjects over the last year or two.  (But she didn’t realize LIB was my boat when she decided to make an offer!) She is also friends with our friends, Amy and David of s/v Starry Horizons (who have the excellent blog and vlog Out Chasing Stars.)  AND! our buyer lives in Texas, so we have that excellent connection as well.

An evening sail in Bonaire. Thanks for the pic, Clayton.

During our discussions about selling LIB, we agreed to deliver the boat to Galveston, Texas which will be her future port. Frank and I think this is a great arrangement because it saves our buyer the expense of having LIB delivered, we get to explore the western Caribbean along the way, and we can return to the U.S. via boat instead of airplane.

Arriving by boat is much easier than flying with Captain!

Per our agreement, we will arrive in Galveston by May 15th.  This gives us ample time to find excellent weather windows and allows us to explore a few anchorages along the way to Texas. This May delivery time frame allows us to break up the 2260 nautical mile trip from Curacao to Texas into several shorter passages.

Our tentative plan for returning to Texas is to make three stops between here and Galveston.  The first leg will be to the San Blas Islands of Panama; about 650nm.  The second leg to Belize will be approximately 760nm.  From Belize we will sail to Isla Mujeres, Mexico which is a quick 200nm. And our final leg to Galveston will be about 650nm.

Needless to say we are happy and sad about the sale of Let It Be.  She is a fabulous boat and has taken great care of us. We have had very few issues with LIB and we have made many changes to make her perfect for our sailing needs.

It’s hard to let go of a boat that is in great shape, sails well, has been our home, and functions well for our purposes! (Plus I still love the cushions we had made for the cockpit and helm area!)

So, there you have our news about Let It Be and our anticipated route through the May delivery to Galveston.

I guess soon we will have to figure out what to do while we are ‘boatless/homeless’ until our HH55 is delivered to California!

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