When we left Gran Vida in March of 2020, broken and hauled out in North Florida, we expected to be back in a couple months. The plan: replace the prop and finish our trip back home to Canada. But then the nasty Covid-19 came along and changed those plans. Who could have known?! With borders closed and the pandemic wreaking havoc on the world there sat Gran Vida, slowly morphing into a pile of mold and dust, while we sat longingly in another country worrying about her and paying exorbitant storage and insurance bills. We listed her for sale but knew with a broken prop and full of our stuff, nothing was likely to happen. She sat from March 2020 until the Summer of 2021.
Then we got a bite. Hallelujah! Tiger Point Marina, which had been hard to deal with all along, upped their game and pretty much made the sale difficult at every turn -- which was both aggravating and puzzling as they knew we were unable to get into the country to tend to the boat. You'd think they'd like to get the boat happily settled elsewhere. But that's a whole other story. Let's just say they do not get our recommendation.
With some negotiation and working with a very flexible buyer we were able to get a new prop installed, ship the anchor pulpit we had taken home to refinish, and dot enough Ts and Is to find Gran Vida a new home. Very bitter sweet. Ironically it all fell into place just a month or two before the border reopened. If we had known we likely would have kept her and gone down to continued our journey.
But, life unfolds in mysterious ways. Even a "Big Life". We'll always be grateful for our time on Gran Vida (sniff sniff). Her new owner sends pictures occasionally and is continuing to maintain and improve her. She has retired to the West Coast of Florida.
This, however, leaves us perpetually "half-looped". What to do? Let's just stay Yacht-world has more than a few bookmarks.... Stay tuned....
Just for fun, a few little video clips of our years on Gran Vida:
I took all of the video clips off this site before I had it printed in hard copy. I thought I'd close off by adding just a few that I could find.
