We’d almost decided not to try to sell our boat and buy the Tayana. It suddenly seemed stressful and potentially difficult. As much as we love sailboats, we don’t want to own two of them. Who’s buying old sailboats in this economy?

A surprising number of people, according to the yacht broker we consulted with. She rattled off a list of boats she’s sold since the beginning of the year, all in our boat’s price and age range. So we decided to go for it. Within a couple of days, the paperwork was filled out and our boat’s listing was up on Yachtworld. Now that we’ve decided to sell it I hope it moves quickly—our offer on the Tayana was accepted (!) and we plan to go to San Francisco in a few weeks for a sea trial. Buying it will be the first real step toward our plans to sail around the world someday, which is incredibly exciting.

I’ll miss our boat, of course. It’s the boat I learned to sail on and we’ve had more good times on Camelot than I can count. But life is short and it’s happening now, not tomorrow or next year. The weekend we were in San Francisco looking at the Tayana, an immediate family member was diagnosed with an aggressive, late stage form of cancer. His doctors are optimistic that it’s treatable, and that his first round of chemotherapy stopped the cancer’s terrible growth. It was a strange and sad weekend, thinking about the dream we’re planning for and the very real possiblity that someone dear to us, a man not yet 45, may have very little time left to realize his.

Not to get all heavy on you, but a crisis like a serious illness in the family does have a way of turning life upside down, shaking away the trivialities and bringing what’s most important into glaring focus. It’s a reminder to take nothing for granted. There’s a greater urgency to our plans now. So we’re moving ahead and hoping Camelot becomes the perfect boat for someone else, as it’s been for us.

Maybe it’s yours. To see the listing on Yachtworld, click here.

About Deborah Bach

Deborah Bach is the editor and co-founder of Three Sheets Northwest. She is an avid sailor and long-time professional journalist. You can find Deborah aboard Three Sheets, an Island Packet 38, with her husband Marty and their cat Lily.

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