Day 35: A Boat's New Abode

It's happened. My boat has found a new home. I really don't like selling the toys I've chosen to love and hold on to but like I said on day one: 'Sometimes life gets in the way of a good time'. At least with my three sales this year I'm 100% confident that those who've bought my pre-loved toys will continue the love affairs.

First there was the GSXR... I can categorically say that Pete is loving the 'bee', plus I get to see it regularly (it's even in my garage right now).

Then there was the Evo... After meeting Luke and helping him load it onto the car trailer I know he loves that car as much as I did... maybe even more.

And now the boat, this is the toy I was most attached to. I fell in love with it the first time I saw the photo on Boatsales just over 4 years ago. With it, I had possibly the best Christmas of all time with my family on the Molonglo River and some great weekends at Burrinjuck with mates and family too. Then there was the trip to Wisemans Ferry for my mate Kyle's bucks weekend... it didn't get much use that weekend but it was great to have it there anyway.

After talking to Locky over the last couple of days and meeting him, his mates, his dad and his girlfriend today I know the boat will be loved. Locky even offered to take me out for a wakeskate/board anytime I was up in Sydney and I do believe I'll be taking him up on that offer.

I've been sad most of this afternoon. Even car shopping and test driving V8 BMWs hasn't really helped me shake the mood. I know I'll get used to it but I also know the next time I go to the garage it'll hit me all over again... she's gone and is now being loved by someone else... but it's OK, I know we'll meet again.

Day 34: Last Minute Inclusions

After a couple of phone calls yesterday and a few more today I had to make an executive decision to take the Commodore to visit the in-laws this weekend. We were planning to take Belinda's new car (previously mentioned on Day 30) to show it off to Belinda's parents, but instead we needed to take the Commodore so we could tow the boat.

I've had it advertised for sale since the first of Jan (see my first post, Day 1) and subject to a satisfactory test drive I'm confident it will be sold tomorrow, so this afternoon I loaded the car up with all the usual stuff along with the box of spares and then hooked the trailer up... all in the drizzle that was steadily working its way up to being proper rain.

The interesting about the rain is that it actually made the boat wet for the first time in just over two years. I'm looking forward to taking it out on the water again tomorrow, I think that even if I don't sell it I'll be happy that I got to take it out for a run.

Day 17: Paperwork

In preparation for the impending sale of my boat I've been getting my ducks in a row. This has involved organising rego for the trailer; it hadn't been registered for over a year so it needed an inspection which was really just a formality. The registration surcharge for 'establishing' the registration was bit of a rude shock, it was actually close to double the registration fee.

I've also been trying to locate the papers for the boat to no avail so after a quick trip to the ACT Govt. shopfront to pay for registration on the trailer I made an even quicker stop at the NSW Maritime office in Queanbeyan to see if they could help me out. The lady at the counter was very helpful, she looked up my details, found the file and printed a new copy of the expired registration papers so I could sign ownership over to whoever ends up buying the boat. There was no charge for this service and the whole transaction took about 5 minutes.

I have to say that both transactions (apart from the unexpected surcharge) were easy, took very little time and the staff involved in both were very pleasant... in fact you could even say they were cheerful.

What is the world coming to when dealing with the RTA doesn't involve walking away feeling like you need a shower and a stiff scotch????

Surely my two encounters were flukes and my next experience with the RTA will be back to the hours of waiting to be served followed by dealing with the ineptitude of a cranky old biddy who stuffs everything up and has to do it all again from the beginning that I've become so accustomed to.

Day 1: Blogs, Boats and Beating the Clock

Talk about leaving it to the last minute... It's 11:57 and I've decided to join up with the crew and take a photo per day... better be quick!

First pic for the year is the boat, I've decided to sell it as it hasn't seen water for 2 years. I'll be very sad to see it go, it's such a good looking boat and I've had many great times on the water in it. Sometimes life gets in the way of a good time though.