Unexpected delay

Brief update on progress: last week, we learned that our application for a work permit had incurred a very unexpected delay. Until now we had understood that we would receive our permit last Friday, after an interview we had scheduled at the US Consulate in Paris. However, the US Citizenship and Immigration Services informed us that they need more information before they can make a decision, and our immigration advisers cannot make any prediction on how long this additional step might take.
This was a serious disappointment and a major surprise. Although after some researching on-line it seems this is quite normal: in 2014 the rate of these requests for additional information was over 50%, and that rate has probably gone up since then. It's just that our advisers never mentioned this, until we had already made all the preparations, picked out our favorite boat and marina, and so forth (everything you can read about in this blog so far). The thing we were least concerned about ends up being the biggest roadblock.
So I immediately canceled the contract for the boat purchase and the surveys we were going to have done, and informed the marina. Everyone was really understanding about this new twist, which is nice.
So we've had to adjust our plans quite a bit. We remain hopeful that, in the end, the visa will be approved because we meet all of the criteria, and that the process will not be delayed too much. Meanwhile we are looking forward to spending the holidays together (our son flew in from Irvine on Sunday, and I picked him up from Geneva last night) and keeping our hopes up that we won't have to wait too long.
When I joined my current employer, the estimate at that time was that the visa would take less than 6 months to obtain. That is now 15 months ago, and it could take many more.... When I joined a previous organization in Switzerland, also not an EU country that has tough immigration laws, the work permit process took three weeks and I think it is similar in my native The Netherlands. Oh well.
The Kha Shing boat is of course back on the market. Don't anybody buy it, you hear ?!  ;-)

Change of plan: when a boat has blisters on its bottom

Time for an update on our boat purchase process. After we had found Islandia, and agreed on a purchase price subject to satisfactory survey (= having two experts, one mechanical systems and one everything else, going over the boat in detail, including taking it out of the water for inspection of the bottom, and taking it out ON the water for a spirited run), this past week those surveys were done.

Unfortunately, 'Islandia' turns out to have the dreaded 'blister problem': water that gets through the coating and into the hull of the boat and starts to slowly cause problems. This plagues a lot of polyester boats, and has a lot to do with the quality of how it was built and subsequently maintained. In many instances it never becomes a really big problem so long as it is attended to on a regular basis, unless you are unlucky for whatever reason and it does become the Big Problem. At that point, the bottom needs to essentially be totally redone which costs months and many tens of thousands - not good, especially if this is your home! The surveyor nor the other experts who looked at the condition could really predict whether we would have 'The Big Problem' in the foreseeable future, or not. Fact was that this boat has hundreds of blisters, that are relatively close together.

A picture of the blistered bottom:

In addition, the mechanical survey turned up a host of smaller and larger issues, the cost of which to address would be around $6 thousand. One thing that really bothered us was that the engine oil had not been replaced in the last 6 years, a sign of neglect and nonchalance; oil should really be replaced at least every year.

We decided we would rather not take the chance and, yesterday, Steve (our marvelous broker) and I looked at two more boats we had on the reserve list: a 1986 Spindrift and a 1985 or so Hershine. We met the owner of the Spindrift, Rob. A very nice software developer in his early thirties who had bought the boat in May 2015 and had lived on it for a few years, until his newfound better half convinced him that life 'on the hard' (another nautical term, this one means 'land') was better after all, and so now it was for sale:

We woke Rob, and another person, up as we were thirty minutes early and the night before had seen 'a bit of a party'. What struck me was that this Spindrift boat was a lot roomier than the other boats we had seen until now, and certainly a lot roomier than 'Islandia'. This is because it is just a bit wider, taller and also it does not have a rear 'cockpit' so the entire length of the boat is used for living space. Here as an example is the rear ('aft') deck:

And here the master cabin. This had a tabby (red and white) cat lazily observing the newcomers:

Long story short was that we put in an offer for the Spindrift. If we can agree on a price, then the same surveyors who helped us surface the various issues with 'Islandia' will have a go at the Spindrift (which Anneke and I just agreed we would name 'Jantje' in honor of one of our cats). One thing Rob assured us of is that Jantje does not have any blisters - we shall see!

A quick update: we reached agreement on the price and other conditions with the seller of 'Islandia'. On Monday, a professional surveyor will take the boat through its paces during a 'sea trial' and the boat will be hauled out of the water to get a good look at the hull. Another surveyor will examine the engines. If those surveys come back positive, and we obtain the necessary permits, we will be all set. We expect to have all wrapped up by or shortly after Christmas.
So our visit this week has been highly productive: we found a very nice boat, also found LA and the marina to be better than we had hoped for, and 'en passant' also saw our son Victor, who started his university studies at University of California at Irvine last September, a couple of times during our week's stay.
Now we are all packed, ready for the flight back to France in a couple of hours. I will be returning on Sunday for a week in LA at work and to take care of a few things related to the boat purchase and permit applications.
Result!

Fingers crossed ... we made an offer on a boat

Last Thursday evening we arrived in Los Angeles, after a long-ish journey that had us fly from Paris CDG, via Montreal, to LAX. We picked up our rental car and settled into our AirBnB apartment in Venice Beach for the week:

The next day we met our broker, Steve Curran of Marina del Rey Yacht Sales, at his office in Marina del Rey:

Steve showed us the three boats we had selected to see, as well as another one that he had identified might fit our profile.

The first boat needed a lot of freshening up, literally as well as figuratively. It smelled a bit musty and was just tired. We then saw the second boat (our 'favorite' from an earlier post), a 1995 47 foot Lien Hwa aft cabin motor yacht built in Taiwan, named 'Islandia':

The third boat was much smaller and also a bit tired. The fourth was a true classic yacht, that had been owned by a prominent member of the Marina del Rey Yacht Club and was docked there, waiting for its new owners:

Long story short, after this tour of the first four candidates we decided to suspend the next day's viewings, in San Pedro, Long Beach and San Diego and put in a written bid on 'Islandia'.

We are keeping to Europe time, turning in around 4 (Anneke) and 6 (Cees) PM, and wake up around 3 AM. We're not the only ones awake at this time though; our friendly and laid-back neighbours are still out, chatting, playing music, sometimes making a small wood fire. It's definitely a beach community.

One great discovery we made early yesterday, as the sun was coming up, is that beautiful nature is only 20 minutes away from the marina. At the crack of dawn yesterday, we drove to Topanga State Park:

The park is just west of Santa Monica / Marina del Rey and gives us a very similar nature sensation we get at our home in Guyonvelle. So when we want to smell the trees we just circle up there and go for a hike. No doubt there is lots more of beautiful nature around.

We topped of the early morning with a coffee and omelet at this place, just off the Venice Beach boardwalk. A meeting place for surfers young and old, joggers but most of all dogs:

So now we are waiting to hear back on our offer on 'Islandia'. If accepted, next steps involve selecting two marine surveyors (one for the Ford diesel engines, one for all the other facets) and getting her out on the ocean for what is called a 'sea trial'.  Steve is confident we can work this out, and really likes this boat. We agree and hope this will become our new home for the next thirty or so years ...

Going to look at boats next week!

We have narrowed our search for a boat to live aboard in Marina del Rey to a shortlist of 10, all between 43 to 50 feet long (13 to 15 meters), most of them built in the eighties. Next Thursday we are flying to LA from Paris and our broker has arranged viewings on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Fortunately, all but one of the candidates are in or close to Los Angeles: San Pedro, Long Beach, San Diego. The furthest away is one close to San Francisco but we think we will drop it from the list.

Our current favorite is this one:

Essentially three living rooms (one inside, and two outside, which in the California and Florida climates are actually usuable) and two bedrooms. This boat is from 1995 and already berths in MDR. Yes, the boating world has a language of its own, as most people probably already know. Living room is actually called ' saloon' , bedrooms are 'cabins', the kitchen is called ' galley' and a bathroom is referred to as ' head'. Balconies becomes ' cockpits'.

Buying a boat has to be done with great caution as there can be many costly demons lurking underneath shiny exteriors, so the financial stakes are material. Boats like these can cost as much as $1 million new and good, older ones are still not cheap. So usually prospective buyers opt to have a professional perform what is called a 'survey'. which we will likely also do.

It is usually possible to negotiate on price as it is difficult to estimate a fair value of most older boats. For us, quality and features, and ' how it feels' are as or more important than getting the best deal. We look at this as our home for the next 25 or so years, so spending $20 thousand more now to get what we want will be ok.

Wish us luck next week! I will update this blog more actively when we are in LA, going through our process. Anneke and I usually act quickly, so we expect that we will buy the right vessel next week, or shortly thereafter (allowing time for surveys to be done ....).

Ahoy!

Finding a boat, and how about that slip?

When we took up the idea of living on a boat in Los Angeles, the first thing I did of course was to research on-line. I found some articles and discussions on web forums about living aboard in southern California. Generally, the opinion about Los Angeles was that it was doable, but not the easiest thing, to find a marina that would allow you to live aboard your boat, especially in Marina del Rey ('MDR'). Other marinas in the area, in Long Beach, San Pedro or Wilmington, would be easier.

Arial picture of part of MDR:

One of the fruits of my searching on-line was a boat broker, based in MDR, who specializes in liveaboards. I called them and talked through the possibilities. Then, on my first trip to Los Angeles in November of last year, I paid them a visit, and also checked out MDR and the other marinas in the area, closely. I concluded that indeed MDR would be our favorite, due to its location and general appearance. It's quite large, and actually consists of multiple individual marinas all located in the same area. Venice Beach is close by, and I bicycled all around the marina, Venice Beach and along the ocean to Santa Monica where my office is located:

Finding the boat: as it turns out, it seems that most boats offered for sale are listed on Yachtworld, which is an international on-line marketplace. Typically there are brokers representing the sellers, rather than people trying to sell their boats themselves, although one does find those, typically in the lower price segment, on places like Craigslist. We did most of our searching so far on Yachtworld, and we also decided to limit the investment to ' cheaper' boats - think still around $100 thousand. That seems to be the right amount for a good boat in the size we think we need (around 45-50 feet).

Here's one of our contenders:

So we are now waiting for the broker to make appointments with the boats we chose so far, adding what he thinks could also be good candidates, while our trip is coming closer: in just two weeks!

Our small village in France

We currently live in Guyonvelle, a village of about 100 residents in the Haute Marne province. We are about 60 miles from Dijon, a large city that draws a lot of tourists from all over the world.

Guyonvelle is in an agricultural setting. Our house is at the end of this street:

The house itself was built in 1806, on the remains of a castle that was much older, and very large. Our (wine) cellar for example is from that medieval structure and the north wall of the house is about three feet thick. The house itself is very comfortable and spacious. In addition, there are two very large stone barns and another, smaller house on the property which is on about 9 acres of wooded terrain. An abundance of space, all the more when comparing to the boats we are considering as liveaboards. Here's a picture of the front of the house:

It's been a very mild fall, although last night it dipped to about 40 degrees. We've been heating the house on firewood, with the large cooker that is in the kitchen, very cozy. We'll be going for a walk today to enjoy the fall colors, I need to mow the grass one last time before winter, and I am thinking of lighting the large pile of gardening leftovers from the past months (think large bonfire) so that's all cleaned up.

Loggers have been cutting down lots of century old trees on a neighbouring property, so our view from the house has changed a bit. Times are changing.

Waiting pattern

No post yesterday, as we are waiting for the boat broaker to digest our list of potentials, make appointments for showings and get back to us.
This has been a year in the making, actually a bit longer as we decided almost two years ago to eventually retire in Key West on a boat. Not in a house, because we are concerned that rising sea levels will eventually declare Key West, the other Florida Keys and many other places, unfit for living, cancelling out any investment in real estate there. Being from Amsterdam, we figure a boat is an investment unaffected by rising sea levels, so that became the idea. Neither my wife nor I have ever lived on a boat, but how hard can it be, right?

This is the marina we have a boatslip in, in Key West. We're all the way at the end, by the open water:

The main thing, judging from the (not so many - hmmm, wonder if that means anything?)  blogs, youtube movies and other media, is that you have to learn to do with 'less stuff'. This should be easier in warmer climates such as Los Angeles, where my job is based, and Key West. So we're looking forward to making the move and adjusting to life on the water. We don't have any plans to do long distance boating yet, however 'the great loop' could be something that we could get into, eventually.

Today we got in touch with a boat broker I visited last year, who are specialized in liveaboards in Marina del Rey. I gave him a list of boats we researched on the main website where boats for sale are listed, YachtWorld. The list contains some thirteen boats that fit our criteria: between 43 and 53 feet long, diesel engines, motor yachts as opposed to sail boats, and some other things like multiple living spaces and at least two cabins. Here's an example of such a boat:

We also booked a flight for November, to look at all of these boats, and hopefully narrow down the search to one or two that we can have a survey done on. The actual purchase could be done once we are back in France, 'long distance'. The aim is to have the boat ready and waiting when we move to LA, in January (if all continues to go according to plan).

Why this blog

To keep a diary of our daily life as it moves from living in a small village in France to Los Angeles, where we plan on living on a boat in Marina Del Rey. This move is supposed to happen in January, so we still have a few months of preparations to go. Part of those preparations will be to figure out how to make an interesting blog.