Month: October 2020

15/10/2020

I slept well last night and seemed to be adjusted to the stillness.

Opened a can of Bob’s baked beans put on the stove,added an egg on top, actually tasted quite good. Should add some cheese too.

J had been in touch with Ed Horstman, who designed Mustang, and Ed put the daughters of Al Coban (deceased), who built Mustang, in touch with J. His daughters sent some photos of the boat at early stage and told stories about their parents. They were delighted to learn that their father’s beloved boat is still in sailing condition today.

Our Mustang was built in Seattle in 1975-1976. It was rumoured that its designer, Ed Horstman, had passed away and J found his email on internet and sent him an email, which the old man returned! Says he’s in his 90’s also says that the people who said he’s dead must be his competitors.

J sent him pictures of the Mustang and he immediately recognized it was the boat built by Al Coban, back in the days Ed always drove his sports car to Al’s house and they had a lively discussion about the details of the boat. (I did find out later that there were a lot of ergonomic details on Mustang) The boat was named Mistral when it was first built, which means a monsoon in southern France. Don’t know which previous owner changed it to Mustang. I actually prefer the name Mustang because I first heard of the word is from an excellent Turkish film called ‘Mustang’, which tells the story of five beautiful, untamed maidens who defy the shackles of tradition. So Mustang means freedom to me.

It is said that when the boat was launched, it always received compliments. I remembered the first time I saw it two months ago and was attracted not only by its name, but also by the minimalistic 70s style.

In the afternoon, we took down the oven with stovetop from the old boat Dagmar’s for cleaning. I found a formula online: half cup of dishwashing liquid, one and a half cups of baking soda, and 1/4 cup of white vinegar, stirred it into a paste, rubbed it on the surface and leave it overnight, but we couldn’t wait to started brushing it up right after we applied it. The results were still great. Some of rusty stains we couldn’t get rid of, so we have to put a protective coating on it.

Lao Gan Ma stir fire chicken for dinner.

14/10/2020

Didn’t sleep very well last night, because it was too steady like being on land which I was not used to anymore.

Had tri-colored toast in the morning: avocado and bacon and eggs.

Then did three loads of laundry and sheets, no less than ten trips to and from the laundry room.

The two shoe organisers we bought for four bucks at a second-hand store were very handy, as we stuffed all of our daily clothes into them, and J improved the handle and hung them in the front cabin of Mustang. They fit so well. Removed and washed the covers of the mattress on both sides, vacuumed the mattress with the new small vacuum cleaner we bought the other day, it’s quite easy to use.

Took a shower and went to Beagles Pizza to have a family size Supreme pizza. Afterwards, we bought a box of half-priced drumsticks and ate two of each and after that I was extremely full.

13/10/2020

Finally J received the remaining payment from Daryl, the boat is now his and he says he will take good care of Dagmar. We now are able to make a smooth transition to Mustang, and Mustang’s previous owner Bob got the catamaran he wanted, and Rory, who had been thinking about buying our boat, got a cheaper and more suitable boat, so we have 4 happy new boat owners now!

Daryl also arranged for us to go into the marina, so that he could install some equipment on the boat later. He will come on weekend to sign the rest of the paper. He paid the marina fee and we could continue to live on the boat and use the marina facilities. I’ve never been in the Marina on a sailboat before, but getting the boat in was easier than I thought it would be: put three fenders on one side of the boat in advance, slowly get the boat in, and when you get close to deck, throw a rope over the cleat from the middle of the boat to stop the boat moving, then jump off and adjust the position, fix the bow and stern with ropes. Our boat (which should now be Daryl’s) was parked in the middle of a row of giant luxury power yachts, and it had never seem so small.

We went to the marina office to fill out forms to register the boat, and after answering a bunch of questions we were having trouble with the front desk to figure out who was the current owner (the money was paid in full but the bill of sale hadn’t been signed yet, and Daryl wouldn’t be here until the weekend, so the front desk said J was still the owner and would be responsible for the boat), then a lady in charge behind spoke to Daryl on the phone and said that put down Daryl’s name would be fine. I sweated in the air conditioned room, thinking it was much easier work we did before to get the boat in.

In the afternoon I took a nice hot shower in the spacious private ensuite bathroom. I’m a little worried getting too used to this comfort…

We celebrated with a nice dinner at a nearby Italian restaurant with a sea view called Sorrento. Their Mariana Fettuccine is as good as the one I had from the Fish Factory in Brisbane. I said why don’t we eat here every day, as Daryl paid for the marina so we should spend all the money we saved…

J said the days he was waiting for the payment was like being stuck in a limbo, hard to plan our next move. Now we are free to go!