Moe Tere

Why would you buy a boat? How do you buy a boat? How do you choose a boat? I will get back to what lead to the decision to buy the boat and where the boat will take us (we hope) but fast forward and here it is: a Freydis 49.  A 49-foot custom catamaran built in France and currently located in Tahiti. The boat was the brain-child of the well-respected yacht designer Erik Lerouge and built in France for a fascinating person, who due to an accident became a wheelchair-bound, yet still managed to sail around the world in this boat. The next owners Patrick and Christine refit it in the original factory, then sailed it all the way from France to Tahiti just by themselves.  Sailing more than once around the world with no major mishaps, proves that it is quite a reliable boat.  And a fast one! Jim has spent many hours researching speed, sails, dagger-boards, solar panels, watermakers, weight, routes, and everything else he could manage to cram into his multiple spreadsheets. So here it is, our dream boat:

And it is ours!

Fast forward again; we go on a fun shakedown cruise with friends on Thanksgiving sailing from Tahiti to Tuamotus and back. I promise to find time to write about that trip as well.

We are getting quite antsy in Seattle because we need to bring the boat back here to do some repairs, customize it, load with lots of stuff (matching colors of course), and sail back to the South Pacific. I know most people sail TO Tahiti from the West Coast and not the other way around. While that may not seem to make sense logistically in the short-term, it makes a lot of sense longer term.

The first step is to get the boat to Hawaii and then to Seattle. Nikki, the broker from Sail Tahiti who has been incredibly helpful, recommends a delivery captain for us and we find ourselves on the plane with a mountain of suitcases, ready for a new adventure.