The End of Boat Life

It is a very big day because we are officially moving out of the boat. We're not taking anything with us. We're just going to pretty much leave everything behind and I will explain a bit more about why later. But for now we have a monumental task ahead of us on deciding what we're actually going to take. We thought we had had that all sorted out but turns out we didn't. So here we go. We woke up to this message. Hi Jason and Nikki we received all the funds today. This is Terry our broker by the way. So that would have us being closed on the vessel today. Today. Oh man after six years of living aboard Curiosity we are now boatless. We're boatless. I don't know what else to say. Such a weird feeling. All right let's get started on the day. I'm starting with what I think is the most important part of all of this. Our hard drives. And these are all of our backups. It probably weighs 20 pounds so I have no idea how we're going to hit that 25 or 23 kg limit that the airport or the airplane has. So these are all of our hard drives. I'm putting an air tag in here so we can track them and make sure that our memories make it back to the U.S. along with our luggage. Yeah and that's but that's just this is just this is just the backup secondary backup. But not of everything of all time. Uh since we bought the boat 2016. Seriously? Yeah. I thought we had way more than that. Well yeah I have duplicates which are all in here. So I've got the duplicates which will travel with me. This will go in the suitcase. This one will go with me. And then obviously I'm packing away all my cameras trying to figure out what we don't need need for the South Island trip and what can stay here for the flight home. It's just a lot of organizing. Cleaning and putting. So one of the reasons that we're not taking a whole lot with us is because of shipping. So I called the shipping company to see what it would cost to send like a box of stuff like on the slow boat sea freight. The woman that got on the phone said that right now shipping is still so crazy and so expensive and even just getting containers going back and forth to the U.S. She said it will take six to eight months for it to even arrive and it's going to be expensive. She said for a one cubic meter box it's going to be at least two thousand dollars. So we really have to take into consideration what is our stuff worth and is it worth shipping. Sure I've got dishes and cutlery and all of these things but if I load them up then I ship them there it could take six to eight months and then getting them and then getting them to the new boat it's just it's not worth it. And then you've got Ann and James who are now moving from the U.S. to here. It's just easier if I leave it here for them it makes more sense financially and like just the footprint of all of that back and forth. Yeah we're just saying goodbye to a lot a lot of stuff. Meanwhile check this out. Things like it's silly simple stuff right but like these are our plates these the same plates that we bought when we got married. So those are over 16 years old now and they have been at our house in our RV now in the boat. We've gotten good use out of them but like I would continue to use them if the boat was right there and we could just move from boat to boat then it would make sense but now not so much. Same things go with all my tools. These are heavy. It would cost a fortune to ship these and I'm sure Jamie and Ann will use them. And the other thing that's interesting is our next boat we're setting up at 230 volts so it won't be 110 like the U.S. plugs. It'll be more European and international. A lot of our tools that plug in won't work. Battery powered tools could possibly work. I think the only thing I'm going to take with me is my leatherman. Otherwise Kent would be very disappointed in me. Oops it's kind of windy. Storm's coming. Oops. Rookie mistake. Look at that. It's been raining non-stop. Packing for the South Island. It's winter. It's going to be very cold down there so I have my only three sweaters, a couple of t-shirts, one pair of jeans. That's it in there. One jacket, two jackets. That's it. You're gonna see me in these same clothes every day for 20 something days. And then take all this out for America. That's it. Underwear and socks and some underwear. Look at that. It's starting to clear up. Rainbow all the way. Getting towards the tail end and I've narrowed down like my mementos or sentimental artsy things to these few things. So I've got this is new actually. So this is from a friend Veronique who is here in New Zealand and she is an amazing artist and she painted this for us. So that's pretty special and of course you know very official. So that's got to go in one of the bags. This was from 2019. My friend Belinda painted that for me right after Cleo passed away and it is a catamaran. Loved this. So that's definitely going with us. And then this is a little something we picked up when we were in Ecuador with Kate. Just reminds me of that. I've had it in our galley over here because it's got a little magnet on it and so that will go to the new boat as well. And then my hat because I bought this from the lovely Tahitian woman and I have loved it and I think it's the best summer hat ever. So taking this too. Oh yeah. And then I have all this jewelry that is my grandmother's old costume jewelry and I used to wear it all the time. City life. But since we've been on the boat it's just been carried with it so I put it on. I was making a promise to myself that I'm gonna wear this stuff more often because it's amazing and I love it and it makes me happy and I don't care if we are just sailing. I'm gonna wear it anyway until it rusts away. And your one sentimental thing? Singa's blanket. Gonna make room. Maybe we'll even take it to her. Gonna give it up? Uh maybe not. I think that's it for tonight as far as packing goes. I think we're getting close to ready to load it in the car. That's like 30 pounds. We got 20 more pounds to put in there. I'm sure we'll figure something. I was gonna say well hold on I'll find something else. A couple weeks ago we said this. They are adding berths all in this basin and several of them are gonna be for big cats. An 18 meter and a 20 meter catamaran. That's like 65 foot catamaran. I mean if you have that boat and you know you see us around just come knock on our halls and we would like to have sundowners and a tour please. We would very much love to have a tour. And today a 62 foot catamaran just reached out. They're pulling into the marina and they said why don't you come over have a quick tour. I was getting my camera ready. Unfortunately my 16 to 35 super wide lens has just broken. No just a blurry mess. Oh no. It won't focus. Something about the digital contacts I tried cleaning. Anyway I digress. We've got an action camera. We've got a 24 millimeter lens. Let's go meet these sailors. Oh and a raincoat. Yeah. This couple is headed off to Fiji hopefully tomorrow if the weather is still looking good. So they're gonna be like totally provisioned up and meanwhile we are in the process of moving out so we have absolutely nothing to show off with. I don't have a beer to share. Like I guess I could have brought a cup of tea. But yeah so totally totally opposite places. This lens isn't quite wide enough. That one's barely wide enough. I know. Go walk up there so we have perspective. That is what a 62 foot catamaran looks like. Hello kindred spirit. He's just like who's that? Hi do you want to step? Oh hello welcome. Quick before the sun's gone. Yes it is it's getting dark quick. They are brand new owners of this. It's a new to them. So they've been aboard for three months. They moved from a 40 foot lagoon to now this 2006 62 foot sunreef. So just a little step up. They're loving it so far they say. But they're also very camera shy so we will be doing this tour. We will spare them so they don't have to do the like awkward uncomfortableness in front of the camera. Okay well we're just so happy they're letting us show off their home. Perspective wise I don't know if you can even soak this all in with our non-wide lens here but this living area is just massive. I mean we could do full-on like two people side by side yoga in here and you don't do that on a boat. Huge loungy area the the nav area I think is massive. Why? I am looking forward to the front facing nav. I will tell you that much but it's gonna be this big. This is like command center good here. U-shaped galley which I'm a big fan of and they have lots of big kitchen big sinks nice size refrigerator beautiful detailing up there like I know this whole bar area is yeah quite lovely it's just yeah but 62 foot so you've got so much storage it's amazing amazing you're like this is like a live-of-work but I mean just cush right okay so this is a charter version yeah sorry charter version so the both sides are going to mirror each other but we'll still give you a quick peek. Aft is where their master cabins are and if you can have a stationary bike you know it's a big cabin. Plenty of room yeah loads again with a storage just lots and lots of storage this would be a pretty sweet guest cabin so you know guys if you ever need crew one giant hatch two giant hatch one two port lights plenty of good airflow airflow yeah nice little vanity vanity what's this oh that's oh that's what do you think that was like a fancy and then forward cabin storage loads and loads of storage oh my god look at that this is the oops forward berth not quite as wide sorry about the pulsing it's uh the leds are not agreeing with my camera oh I we can show them this head oh wow yeah she said they're not like big luxurious bathrooms because this is the four cabin charter version and each one has its own ensuite head so they all pretty much look the same but I mean that's still that's a big shower that's a big shower so it's still really nice little great go up onto the other hole it's going to be the same but I'll still show you it's huge yeah we have a 43 foot boat this is 62 feet so it does give you kind of a little bit of an idea of the size difference and Sunreef is kind of known for being like comfort big comfortable boats and forward exact mirror little desk here cool the reality of boat life uh-huh all the to-do's at least there's a few things ticked off head sorted tank level sender sound system jet tender hey I like where you are new water maker oh my gosh yeah I feel for you guys stores so now we are in the cockpit which is probably the largest space on the boat and all protected because the big hard top just because you've got the raised helm which we'll go up to next lounging for days lounging over there lounging over here this is where obviously the dog lounges oh my gosh look at this you got bean bags loads more lounging up here holy I mean this is entertainment boats right like that's what I think of when I think of something we gotta ask her about all the teak I know right because it's teak floors teak table I don't know if it's on the deck but it's in the cockpit as well so yeah maintenance that's a nice wheel too yeah wow sweet yeah very comfortable multiple winches look at the size of those things yeah they're enormous all the lines are really nice clears and canvas and our boat is a 2005 and this is a 2006 so it's just one year newer than our curiosity or I guess now not our curiosity it's been obviously very well taken care of very a loved boat got the three sails up here the massive boom wow look at how big that mast is look at that wow so many blocks big trampoline nice big beefy seagull striker uh-oh more teak now those are lifelines look at that nice big sugar scoop right on the water well there goes the sun so I know that was a super quick tour and probably a little shaky because this lens isn't super stabilized but it's a really nice boat what a treat to sail up to Fiji on something like this it's just so different and luxurious and nice not that curiosity wasn't it's uh it's just a different like just a different boat completely you know that was probably a little chaotic quick and dirty tour but I thought better than nothing right and just kind of funny that we made that comment and then she reached out just like well we're actually going to be at the marina so anyway fun and nice super nice people you'll have to take my word for yeah okay back to packing we decided we better walk down to the store and pick up a little something to celebrate and anybody recognize these good old shambongs we haven't done those in quite a while but we figured you know this is an appropriate moment and it's how we kind of started the adventure on curiosity because it's our first passage as soon as we arrived did a little shambong go for it gonna cause some burping I won't go too much to uh adventures past and future and to doing it all with you all over again cheers just a lot of bubbles Jamie and Ann we expect for you to send us a whatsapp video love you doing a shambong when you get on this boat because these bad boys are gonna stay they can't uh can't we're not packing them and taking them back so they're now yours so you can uh do an inaugural shambong when you get here for your first night on board and then you have to do one when you arrive after your first passage so hey obligations didn't know you were going to get that right also leaving you our real champagne glasses as well along with everything else okay do you want to bust out the box oh yeah okay leaving one going to the next and oddly enough we ended up getting the interior options for the new 44 so we are supposed to turn in our decision and then go give this back to the local dealer shop whatever the heck it is here so they can pass it along to the next customer so we thought we would show them to you and it is interesting you know the process of how everything goes because it does go in like these they call them milestones this one different milestones that you pay a portion of the money every milestone they hit yep and you have to kind of make final decisions for each milestone whatever anyway we're on interiors so there's four options they'll show you the two that we're not going to go with for sure okay so we're definitely not doing that one yeah this is coco's that's that color palette those are the same photos that are mostly online yeah but it's more the fact that you actually get like a piece of the fabric and you get to see what you're like you know followed surface counter is going to look like and what the floor and the cabinetry would actually looks like versus just a photograph so that's kind of nice or rendering in this case because there's no hh44 built yeah exactly this one is the helena nothing is obnoxious everything is super neutral it's just what's your color palette what would you like this oh there's five i lied yeah okay and then the maui okay interesting then we've narrowed it down to two yeah so this is the bali it's the like warm teaks this is kind of a shade of blue but it's very textured and soft so it's still kind of neutral but i really kind of just dig the all the wood with the white and then just the the little bit of blue it just looks really it's a nice contrast i think and then there's the sky and this guy there's this guy we're here now obviously this is a bunch of black white gray vibes going on and then i love this kind of tweed looking fabric that they've chosen it's a very natural looking fabric for the sofa so there's carbon fiber at the nav area and the desk area and on the drawers cabinet doors will be this shiny white and all of the leather wrap stuff will be this white color here love the floor actually really love this dark dark floor it's gonna give enough contrast but with a super clean palette so i've got some ideas so it will not stay all white no i'm not gonna paint it but i'm also not gonna tell you about it now because if i do you're gonna think i'm crazy but i think it's gonna look really slick the only thing we don't like about this is the all white solid surface countertop we are trying to get them to go for a marbled but apparently it's extremely difficult to do the waterfall down the counter where it just curves straight down yeah which and i really love this because it's going to be such a soft edge and you know soft edges and hips that are counter heights james is working on it but he's not guaranteeing come on james you can do it that's a little peek on the interiors and that's the end of our day so this is our last night aboard we'll see you in the morning three thousand miles from home trying to say that i will get there soon 30 days i walk down this way singing my madness to the moon i met a cat on a tree and it talked to me about things we don't see i asked it how do i know which is the right way to go to get me home well that's it we have everything out everything's cleaned up and and this is this is it the final farewell this is everything we now own are in these two backpacks one small duffel one big duffel two medium size yeah i'm like i don't know what to even call that it's kind of crazy it's kind of wild i don't even know how i feel about all this right now but that's it end of an era end of a time our next move is we have flights booked out to the south island so that is our next stop we've got three weeks to go see the entire south island which is not nearly enough that's what it is so if you've got tips for us i have started a map i'll put a link down in the description box so you can help us out if you're a local and you know of something amazing that we need to see or do definitely leave us a note and then we are going to take off the next two weeks because we know we're going to be without internet a decent amount with some of the places that we're going in south island just kind of a big transition period so we're going to take a little mental break process everything that is now happening film a bunch of stuff film a bunch of stuff have some adventures and i just feel like my head is spinning right now i don't even know mine too okay i'll see you yeah when we're not boat owners we're boatless we're homeless we're as nomadic as it gets a couple of gypsies you