Giles and Paula's Great Retirement Adventure

[dinobarnesberlin]

Try not to think of them as “ spending” opportunities, and more like “ improvement “ opportunities

[ROman]

This is great reading about this, and I realize how excited the two of you are.

[louisbosco]

holy shit!! that 54 is beautiful!! would that mean it's possible to sail across the world?

[Giles]

She is a Cat A boat, which means….

Category A — Ocean – This is the category with the toughest standards and covers vessels 40’ and over-designed to be self-sufficient for extended voyages. It is defined as the “category of boats considered suitable for seas of up to 23 feet (7 meters) significant wave height and winds of Beaufort Force 9 (41-47 knots) or less, but excluding abnormal conditions such as hurricanes.”

So, yes.

But her range is only 1600 miles at 9 knots, so unless we get some external bladders for fuel, an ocean crossing will be tricky.....

[louisbosco]

quite the potential for the future. I suppose going across Europe into Asia (e.g), you'd have many places to stop for fuel.

[Giles]

Yep. Suez opens up the Indian Ocean for sure.  Just need to check that the piracy has been got under control.  I believe that the Russians and Chinese did not piss around when "repelling" boarding parties…...Seems to have curbed the desire to play.....

[jordanscollected]

I just watched a quick youtube tour of the 54. I love the kitchen and main cabin entertaining setup. That's going to be an incredible space to spend time in.

[Giles]

The internal config we are going for has the Galley as a separate area below decks. That leaves the whole of the saloon as sitting/entertaining.

Galley:

Main saloon:

[Matt]

Shit.  Where does the helicopter land?

[Giles]

Somewhere else.  Anyone who wants to come to visit us in a helicopter ain't our friends…..

[Matt]

It’s a seriously nice looking boat.  I’m very excited for you guys.

[Giles]

Today, I went out with @Ian72  for a couple of hours parking and manoeuvring practice in the harbour….View from the helm....

[Matt]

Have you been able to wipe the goofy joy smile off your face yet?  Must have been a crazy fun day.

[Giles]

Nope…....I made a bit of a cock up reversing into our temporary berth, but @Ian72 took the blame for it  Apart from that, it was mostly good (apart from one long reverse where I forgot that the stern thrusters are not as influential as the bow thrusters)…..

[Matt]

I saw that parallel parking spot of yours and thought “Good luck Cap’n.”

[Giles]

We have not got that one yet.  There's a catamaran in it, which should have moved, but hasn't.  So they have given us temporarily, a nice, easy access finger which we go bow or stern into.  I actually find parallel parking easier, and that is one of my concerns about the permanent berth, I'll get used to doing what I find easy and not be challenged.  But as @Ian72 told me, just pretend it's a finger….

[Ian72]

To be fair Giles (not often I say that  ??? ). It was not exactly the easiest park, I was being a bit mean pushing you to do it 

More practice when you get back

Ian

[Giles]

You bet, and I hope that when I do get back, Paula will be better than me 

[Matt]

While the cats away…

[Giles]

Pilgrim comes up trumps again.

Have just sold her to a couple who are happy to wait until March/April 2023 to take delivery, for effectively what we paid for her.

They are ecstatically excited and a cash-flow blip for us has been avoided.

No broker, so no 8% commission to piss away either.

14 months use, no depreciation, what a gal.