Buy the ticket...

...and take the ride.

We reached a final agreement on Taiko today.  Tomorrow we'll exchange signed copies of the purchase agreement and then an avalanche of events will follow - money will be wired, documentation agents will be engaged, lawyers will offer advice, and insurance agents will be queried.

No one can be good at everything, of course, and I don't know if I'm really cut out for buying boats.  We have sailing friends who have swapped boats any number of times, and they have a real sang froid about the whole thing, an icy flow in their veins that gives them the confidence to make quick decisions and live with them.

Me, though, I'm a worrier when it comes to boats.  That quality might have stood us in good stead on Pelagic, as my habit of triple-checking things has likely kept us out of trouble at times.  But it makes the boat buying process a bit painful - everywhere I look, I see problems.  And really, as I've often said to Alisa, I don't actually like boats much at all.  The romance is lost on me - I just see the inordinate amount of money and effort that goes into keeping them going.

The trouble is, I really, really, like sailing.  And sailing relies on a certain amount of interacting with boats.

Our friend Paul, who has heard me moaning over the boat-buying process as much as anyone, had the perfect reaction to the news about Taiko - "I hope this boat gives as much satisfaction and pleasure as Pelagic", he wrote me.

And really, that's all we could hope.  For all the headaches that came our way with Pelagic, buying that boat and sailing across the Pacific as a family was the central event in our lives.  We should be so lucky with this new boat.

I can't wait to show her to Alisa and Elias.