You need a guy for that!
But first you search for a boat on the internet. We had a Bruce Roberts 53' and another ship in mind. Found in Sydney. The land of the Bruce Roberts designs, as the Netherlands has the van der Stadt designs Mostly DIY constructions. We preferred the second boat; de Sandmeijer 51. So we looked for a guy. We found Nic! We sent him to inspect two boats. First the Kalosini. However, before he was truly on board, he already had cut the asking price in half in consultation with the owner. So we thought he might as well buy it for us too. It was May 2020. Australia was just locked down. No Bruce Roberts.
We wanted to sail the oceans and looked for a boat abroad because then you sail homewards, not away from it. That seemed like a good motivator to us. After the purchase of the Kalosini II and with the Corona pandemic raging the world was locked. After two years of waiting, we were able to go to Sydney in April 2022 to have a look at our boat. There we also met our representative who had taken care of Kalosini II until then and rendered many services. Thanks to Nic we have a beautiful boat, beautiful new sails, the generator and main engine are in good condition and we were able to continue our plan to sail a few oceans without any problems. Thanks Nick.
Our first visit to Kalosini was in April 2022. The land of Oz was open again. We worked hard for two weeks to dispose of all unnecessary stuff. And that was a lot! We have used the time to get an understanding of all systems and to get the necessary things up and running again. Such as the light in the boat, the water system, the toilets and being able to empty the black water tank. We overhauled all pumps and removed all electronics. The compass was useless and navigation lights did not work. Removed the old unusable sails, polished the boat and made a long list of jobs to do and things to buy. Had a great meal with Nic at the famous Cruising Yacht Club of Sydney where he dwells. We did everything with Uber and it was quite costly. And because we couldn't preparev food on the boat, we ate all meals except lunch ashore. We did sleep on the boat. It was a costly affair.
Our second visit was in Feb 2023. We had three suitcases full of equipment. We tried to have all goods imported as per rules but we were led through customs without any problem. Which actually is okay as we were bringing Dutch bought goods in on a Dutch yacht. On the mooring we first fixed the gas stove, installed all new navigation lights, navigation equipment and communication equipment in two weeks. We removed a lot of unnecessary cables, installed solar panels, installed new batteries and were able to get hold of and instaal a very special compass thanks to Doug from Sturrocks Sydney.
This time around we rented a car. We drove it 600 km. A very good choise because it made it easy for us to do our shopping anywhere we had to. Shopping takes up a lot of time but it is essential for getting the boat ready to sail. Finally we also test sailed into Sydney harbor to check all equipment. All was operating satisfactory. Tired but satisfied we boarded the airplane home with another list of jobsto do and things to buy. Scheduled departure: early May 2023.
