What a week!

Two weeks ago, I got a call from a friend we met at Puerto Rico (who is also a boat broker) saying that he may have a boat for us. This was literally hours before we were about to put in an offer on a boat that we liked, but were not crazy about. A compromise. The boat our friend had found was a model that was very high on our list, a Lagoon 37. He said that he has known the boat for many years. Apparently he sold this boat twice in the past. This didn’t come as a complete surprise to us as we have gotten used to crazy coincidences over the past few months (i.e. Zaria and Darya with birthdays on the same day?). And the boat was now in the Dominican Republic, just a few island hops away.
So last week started with a trip to see the boat. There are no direct flights, so this involved a ferry to St Thomas and a short flight to San Juan. I had reached out to a surveyor named Ciro Malarasi to help me survey the boat. We met Ciro when he was surveying the damaged boat for the insurance company and got good recommendations about his surveying capabilities. Ciro is a great guy with some amazing life stories that can fill many many posts, including the time he windsurfed all the way from Virgin Gorda to Puerto Rico, a good 80 miles or so. Since our flight to the DR was early Monday morning, Ciro invited me to stay with him in San Juan on Sunday. In the spirit of wild coincidences, it turned out that Ciro had also interacted with this boat in the past. He had surveyed this boat not once, but twice! Working for both of the previous owners spanning a period of 12 years! We left early Monday morning and surveyed the boat which is located at a beautiful private yacht club called Club Nautico. By the afternoon we had to rush back to the airport to catch the same-day flight back to San Juan. It was late when we arrived so I spent the night at San Juan and caught the first flight to St Thomas; then managed to miss the Ferry to Tortola, jumped on a Ferry to nearby island of Virgin Gorda instead; hopped on to connecting ferry to Tortola, and home at last, if only temporarily. Less than 48 hours door to door!


New boat candidate!

Club nautico

Shortly before my trip (but after all my reservations were already set), I received an invite to a mandatory meeting in Boston. So the very next day I was on the road again. So once again… Ferry Tortola to St Thomas; Run to flight St Thomas-Newark-Boston; Freeze for 24 hours; Catch red-eye flight back to San Juan, then hop on flight to Tortola. A little over 48 hours. Just short enough for it all to seem like a delusion, but long enough for my toes to celebrate the re-acquired freedom of flipflops.

Ah, the 'Ella G' ferry. Comin' for to taking me home!

And the boat? The boat passed the survey! As with any boat, there are things to fix and things that are missing, but the hull is solid and the layout is great. She is fast and comfortable! Our plan would be to migrate some of the equipment that we had on our old boat that is missing from this boat, like our solar panels and our watermaker. So with this in mind, we are now proceeding to close the deal and get the boat! More specs and pics on the boat in a celebratory post once the deal closes, so we don’t jinx it!
To top off an intensive jet-setting week, we had to clear out of our apartment in Tortola yesterday, so caught the ferry to St Thomas (yep, again…) and decided to take off for the ‘Republica Dominicana’ this morning. Passage day! We have found a nice apartment in a small town called Juan Dolio where we can patiently await the closing of the deal and spend our time crossing our fingers that it will all go through as planned (and some exploring… and beach… and pool).
And I thought that my days of high-tech startup travel were tough…
Adios!
-Oren