Thursday 10 November 2016

Make it so...

Without savings, buying a pretty big, expensive boat would normally be impossible. We did not even bother to ask the bank, or any lending company for a loan. Punitive interest rates would be hard to justify, even for a necessity, so for a luxury like our waterside 'hytte' (or, cabin in the sea), there was simply no way we could do that.

However, we did have a sizable chunk of equity in an apartment, and by refinancing part of that, we could buy the boat. Just. This was a pretty smart way to do it, since a) the interest rates for the mortgage on that property were considerably lower than a direct loan would be, and b) we rent out the apartment, and most of the increased cost to the mortgage would be paid for by the tenant.

Cool. We could afford it. Barely. Now all we had to do was the paperwork and get the money.

This process took several weeks. Luckily for us, the seller did not mind terribly. He displayed the patience of a saint. But I was sure to keep him informed of the progress, until that one fateful morning when I sent him a text message. The money arrived...

We made a date to meet at our house the next evening, and we signed the contract, did the bank transfer and shook hands. A bitter sweet moment for Øyvind. They say that there are two great days for any sailor. One is the day that they buy their boat. The other is the day they sell it. I do not think this was true in Øyvind's case. I suspect that he would have been happy to keep it. However, he had plans for the future that demanded an influx of cash, and that took precedence. But I will go on record and say that anytime he wants to come back and sail with us, he will be welcome.

But while the moment may have been bittersweet for the Øyvind, for us it was a great feeling. We now owned a boat. The only question was, where would we keep it?

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