Taking Delivery of New Boat!

Marsha, Haley, and I flew to Montpellier to take delivery of the new boat. We met with Matthieu and Claudine of Outremer on Wednesday, May 18, to review the boat and its systems to make sure everything had been added as discussed. After going over the equipment list, it all looked good and we accepted the boat that day. Over the next several days, the Outremer group spent the mornings reviewing the boat systems (electrical, plumbing, electronics, etc.) with us and in the afternoon we went sailing on the boat with Jean-Pierre, a boat captain who works with Outremer and is very familiar with the boats. We practiced sail handling, anchoring, and maneuvering around the dock. All of it is very different from the Tayana 52 monohull we had before. The hardest part is docking the boat. It has 2 engines, which helps, but the boat is very light and sits on top of the water without a keel. This means it slides o the top of the water and moves very quickly in the wind and can be difficult to control. The sailing sessions with Jean-Pierre were very helpful and he brought us up to speed on the boat quickly, but it will take some practice. We also spent several days going to the Ikea and Giante (like Target) in Montpellier buying the boat stuff we could not bring over on the plane. We brought over 500 pounds of gear in our checked luggage, but there will still quite a few items to pick up.