One day, we were cruising on Selkie.
We went under a bridge, which was really a big culvert that Selkie somehow fit through.
A culvert is one of those big corrugated steel tubes that they put in the ground and pile dirt over to make a bridge cheaply.
We went into a small estuary to anchor, but Libbie had so many dock-lines in her hand that she fell overboard!
I panicked, but then saw Libbie stand up. I was puzzled, as Selkie drew 4.5 feet, and Libbie was standing in 3’ right next to Selkie.
But we weren’t hard aground.
I had to drop the sails and start the engine, but Selkie is a trawler and not a sailboat, so why did I have to drop the sails?
I got the engine started and then wondered why I started the generator by accident.
Then it REALLY got confusing.
Somehow I got Libbie back on the boat, but then I saw we were going to hit the beach in the estuary.
I jumped off the boat to slow Selkie down. Selkie ran aground on the beach and I tried to push her off.
As I pushed on her, the bow caved in with a huge hole!
I could see Libbie through Selkie’s hull looking shocked.
But Selkie still floated even with a huge hole in her.
I was wondering how the heck we were going to sell Selkie in this condition.
I felt terrible about the situation.
Then I woke up in a cold sweat.
Obviously, the stress of selling the boat was starting to get to me.
We had been advertising Selkie for sale since April and this was now August.
During that time we showed Selkie multiple times, and gotten a couple of very unserious offers, ones we did not even bother countering.
It was very frustrating.
But we finally got a good offer the day before we had scheduled an appointment to give Selkie to a broker to sell.
Finally we were moving in the direction we needed to be heading in.
We still had to get Selkie ready to pass her sea trial.
A sea trial consists of both the hull inspection, which looks at all of the systems on the boat except the engine, and then also an engine survey.
A sea trial is like having a house inspection done while simultaneously taking a car for a test drive.
There is a lot that goes on.
Preparing for sea trial was a lot of work, but it was work well worth the effort, both for us, but more importantly, Selkie’s new owners.
Recall from my last post that a storm was coming in, so we had bolted from Annapolis to Rock Creek to anchor two days early.
Luckily there were no culverts in the area.
We had to forgo visiting a couple of ideal harbors on the east side of Chesapeake Bay, which was disappointing. But we had to make the date to have Selkie’s sea trial.
The anchorage was well protected, and we were comfortable, even as the storm blew through as forecasted.
As it blew outside, we took the time to go through all our belongings. We sorted what was coming back home with us, and what was going to be given to charity.
We packed our bags. When we were done, we had five bags to check, two carryons, and two backpacks.
Everything was “stuffed to the gills”, as my grandparents used to say.
The storm passed and we sat up on the flybridge and reminisced about our great time on Selkie.
We took a dinghy cocktail cruise for the last time with a lot of mixed emotions. It was a break from cleaning the boat and packing.
It was a very comfortable evening.
The next morning, we weighed anchor and went a half mile to White Rock Marina and tied up.
It was the day before the sea trial.
Libbie and I went to dinner at the restaurant at the marina.
We enjoyed the meal and the sunset and then went to bed hoping for the best.
The next morning we were awake at 6:30, moving all our possessions off Selkie for the last time.
Promptly at 8 o’clock AM both the new owners and the surveyors showed up.
It was the big moment, time for Selkie’s sea trial.
We moved Selkie to the boat hoist so she could be hauled out of the water and have her bottom inspected.
Her bottom was power washed, and the surveyor had his plastic hammer out, looking for soft spots where hull rot might be starting.
Selkie passed.
I took the opportunity to replace some zincs, which are sacrificial anodes to protect the important metal pieces that were under water like her rudder and propeller.
The marina then put her back in the water, and I started her main engine and generator.
We then went out with Selkie for her sea trial and put her through her paces with the surveyors on board.
As part of the engine survey, we had to run Selkie at wide open throttle, which means a lot faster than Selkie usually ran.
We typically cruised at 1,850 rpm’s. Wide open throttle meant we ran the engine at 2,500 rpm’s. Thats 35 percent more than we typically ran her.
That’s similar to running the engine of your car close to the red line on the tachometer.
For ten minutes.
It’s a very uncomfortable feeling.
One does that with an engine because one wants to see what happens when the engine is maximized in terms of stresses and pressures.
I held my breath and prayed.
Sure enough the main engine developed some leaks here and there, but it was nothing serious and the engine ran like a champ.
The generator had run fine. Of course, we had just had it repaired a week before, so that would have been very disappointing if something has been found.
Libbie said she had never seen Selkie put out such a big wake.
We were going almost nine knots. Any bottom growth on Selkie after the haul out was hanging on for dear life.
The other surveyor was looking for problems in the rest of Selkie.
I had asked if he needed any help with getting into areas of Selkie to do his inspection.
He was a young, overly confident young man and he waved me off.
I should have insisted, as in a couple of areas he did some disassembly that was unnecessary.
If he knew what he was doing it would not have caused problems. It was more than a little annoying.
He didn’t know how to put things back the way he found them. So there was a bit of reassembly of Selkie once he was done.
We brought Selkie back to the dock.
We sat on Selkie while the surveyors and her buyers went to the parking lot to have a conversation about the boat.
The buyers returned and and we finalized the selling price. We congratulated each other.
It was a huge moment for all of us, and we all were pleased how the transaction finished up.
We then took Selkie’s new owners, and more importantly, our new friends, to lunch.
While at lunch, the funds for Selkie were received by our bank.
We went to the UPS store next to the restaurant, had a notary public witness our signatures on our documentation for Selkie, and Selkie was now the property her new owners…and no longer ours.
We shook hands, and parted ways for the last time… for now.
Who knows, it would be fun to see them again.
They say the two happiest days of a boat owner’s life is the day the boat is bought, and the day the boat is sold.
With our sailboat, “While I Can”, it was a sad day when we sold her. We never met the buyers and so we could not participate in their joy of purchasing her, nor handing her off with the acquired knowledge we had after owning While I Can for twenty years.
With the new owners, we had gotten to know them as we went through the motions of selling Selkie to them. They are a great couple, easy to work with. They were very excited to purchase a rare, sought after boat like a Kadey Krogen 39.
It made it so much easier to part with Selkie knowing she would be loved as much as we loved her.
We left a couple of bottles of prosecco in Selkie’s refrigerator for them.
That Friday night, the new owners went home, and the next morning they moved on to Selkie.
Meanwhile, we checked into a hotel near BWI for the evening. The next day, we flew home.
Upon landing, we received a picture in a text of the new owners toasting their new purchase with one of the bottles of prosecco.
It made us very happy to see the picture.
In summary, selling Selkie was a very positive experience for us.
We wish the new owners all the best. Selkie will treat them as well as she treated us.
I have one more post to write to finalize this blog.
Look for it in a week or two.
Selkie 