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 ...