goodbye dear Noah

Many believe that the two two happiest days of a boaters life is when you buy the boat and sell the boat I disagree with this notion. I cherished my boat, and selling her her brought me sorrow. Unfortunately, in order to afford my new boat Belle, I needed to sell Noah. What made the situation even worse was that I couldn't select her future owner who would value her as she deserved. In fact, I had already purchased Belle, and having two boats docked in the same marina was not only impractical but also quite costly, which led me to sell her to the first buyer who showed interest. The new proprietor firmly requested to move Noah to her new marina in Northern Portugal on the very day of the purchase and sought my assistance in doing so. He acted foolishly, as I pointed out immediately. I had arranged everything to lift Noah from the water the day following the sale, with an inspection already scheduled and paid for. I had also arranged for ten days of dry docking space, courtesy of my annual contract, expecting the new owner wanted to do a dry survey. However, the new owner was determined to move the boat to Aveiro right away. I even suggested, with assistance from a friend in Sines, that we should delay until after the inspection and when the wind conditions were more favorable, which were expected to be minor in those days. Nevertheless, he was obsessive. It was in my best interest to sell her quickly, so I agreed to assist him in taking Noah to Aveiro, and on the way do a proper farewell sail for my dear Noah… thus, I created a detailed passage plan for the 300-mile journey. We would have to motor, staying close to the 20-meter depth line, as orcas were quite active that week. Since we were likely to need to motor all the way to Aveiro, I planned to navigate from Sines to Sesimbra, then on to Cascais, Peniche, Figueira da Foz, and finally to Aveiro, with Nazaré as an alternative if issues arose. The new owner consented to the plan, despite not having the faintest idea of the effort required to motor sail for 8 to 10 hours each day consecutively.

Noah always had an Intimate Relationship with dolphins.

Things were proceeding fairly smoothly until we reached Cascais; even though we were tired, everything was manageable as we avoided orcas and Noah was performing with impressive precision. However, complications arose in Cascais. The weather report indicated that there would be fog in the Roca region the following morning. I mentioned to him, "Hey, there's no point in leaving at dawn only to encounter fog in Roca; it's advisable to wait for the fog to clear and proceed cautiously, allowing us to manage our speed and evaluate the conditions in Nazaré. " The next day, we moved on to Peniche… he wasn't pleased about it, grumbling and all, but he had no choice but to accept the decision… yet that wasn't the end of it.

In Peniche, the situation took a turn for the worse when he insisted yet again that we should make our way straight to. . . Aveiro. While I spent my nights prepping for the following day by checking the weather updates and orca sightings, he occupied himself by plotting routes on Google Maps. . . and then the next morning, he would suggest, “Let’s go straight to Aveiro and bypass Figueira," which is only an extra 70 kilometers. "In the sea, there are no kilometers or highways," I replied to him. We will stick to our original plan, constantly checking the forecast to determine if any changes are necessary. I will not jeopardize safety simply because you feel rushed.I won’t compromise safety simply because you feel rushed.

Sure, you are the new proprietor of this vessel, yet I am the captain, and it is my duty to ensure that both us and the boat reach our destination safely. If you disagree with this, I will head to the nearest harbor and disembark.

He had to swallow it and went all the way to Figueira, to the entrance of the Figueira Marina, and as I always do, I stopped outside and maneuvered forward and backward to check the systems before docking. I disengaged , put it in reverse and then forward again, the lever stayed in the central position (uncoupled) and I couldn't re-engage it for anything. I thought the cable had probably snapped or something. The guy panicked, "Let's call a mayday, are you crazy, man? We're 200 meters from the breakwater, zero waves and zero wind, 10 meters deep, whatever happens, we'll drop anchor and call a tow, but for now we're not drifting or in any kind of danger, just stay calm." I called the marina and requested a tow to our mooring post. Upon arrival, we were met by the maritime police at the dock. They checked our documents, asked what had happened, everything was okay, and advised us to go to the harbor master's office before continuing our journey for formalities. They even recommended a mechanic to help out… nice guys.

In the next morning, while I was with the mechanic putting the gearbox cable back in place, he went to the harbor master's office alone. When he returned and told me he had already been to the harbor master's office, and I asked him why he hadn't told me to go with him, he said he was the owner of the boat! I replied, "Okay, then I'll go to the harbor master's office now and then I'll have lunch alone. During the afternoon we should have the cable in place and everything working… tomorrow morning we'll set sail." "No sir," he said, "as soon as the boat is functional we'll set sail. I already told you I don't go into Aveiro estuary by night!" "It's only 70 km," he said, "so take the bus," I replied. I grabbed my backpack and got off Noah. The guy there woke up and remembered to ask to see the equipment, life jackets, pyrotechnics, life raft, etc. Everything was okay, of course, everything was ready for the inspection that he didn't want to wait to do. In fact, there were even more than needed; instead of 6, there were 10 life jackets and 12 brand new hand flares. I even brought half a dozen hand flares for Belle and 4 extra life jackets. I took the bus to Lisbon and Noah stayed in Figueira with the new owner… summary: another good lesson, smetimes it’s better to sail singlehanded than with the wrong crew. I’ return to Lisbon sad for not being able to find a more suitable owner for Noah.