Back Home and the end of this chapter in our lives

“43:45.856N 65:19.626W”

 7722 Miles since leaving Sandwich.

 27th July 2023

It has been over a month since I last put pen to paper and as you can probably deduce from the title, things have not gone well for our future travel plans. I am currently sitting in my son’s house back in the UK awaiting our house to become vacant so that we can move back in.

After our whistle stop tour of Nova Scotia and Tony returning back to the UK we had to face the reality that our lovely Spectra was fatally damaged. The quotes from repair yards started to come in or to be more accurate 99% of them said it was too big a job for the budget and/or it would take up to two years to fix due to the workload that the yards were under. After a couple of weeks of trying to find a yard that would take on the work the Surveyors from Lunenburg Marine Surveys David and Linda broke the news to us that it in their opinion Spectra was a write off and could not be repaired under the insurance policy. This was hard to hear but to be honest not unexpected at this stage. The next move was to pass this recommendation onto Richard at Admiral Marine Insurance who a couple of days later informed us that the underwriters had accepted the write off and we should dispose of Spectra. Now we hit a snag, I thought that the insurance company would now step in and we could walk away with a cheque but nothing is ever that easy. The insurance company insisted that we remain the owners until Spectra finally was disposed of.

What happened next was two weeks of stress and frustration as we tried to find a way of disposing of the hull. David and Linda were absolutely brilliant as they continued to support us throughout. Eventually we came up with a way forward. Norma and myself went down to Yarmouth for a meeting with the customs people and imported Spectra as scrap value, which involved us paying just under $1000 CD in duty and taxes. Again, David and Linda had calculated the value of Spectra based on scrap metal and parts which smoothed the whole process. To be honest Canadian customs could not have been more helpful and in fact bent over backwards to keep the costs as low as possible.

With Spectra now imported into Canada she could be sold and here we hit pay dirt. Kenny a Shelburne local resident owned a small boat storage yard and offered the scrap value for Spectra. Why is this hitting pay dirt you may well ask. Well Kenny is planning to fix her up himself rather than taking a chain saw to her and has promised to keep us posted on the process. That eased the pain of parting somewhat, as we now know that Spectra will carry on the dream for another lucky person in the future. Kenny had no problems with us staying aboard Spectra until we departed for the UK and with that all sorted, we started to arrange removals. Brad and Erin from Shelburne Yacht club came up trumps, yet again, and found us a corner of the Kayak shed to store our boxes. It took over a week to get everything boxed up and carried from the pontoon up into the Kayak shed and we ended up with 49 boxes of our worldly possessions piled up in the shed awaiting the removal company. Again Brad, Rick and co at the club came up trumps by contacting an English couple that had moved back to the UK the previous year and asking them to recommend a removals company which they duly did and we contracted Thompsons to do the move for us. They weren’t cheap by any means but all of our boxes were picked up and transported to Halifax early last week without any hassle at all and are now awaiting a shipment date.

That left Norma and myself alone on a still damp, smelly, and very sad looking Spectra. Our last night in Shelburne we went to the yacht club to ‘celebrate’ Norma’s birthday. Once again, the generosity and friendliness of the people of Shelburne astounded us. The club was packed with so many people who had all come down to wish us good luck for the future and to commiserate with us for the loss of our lovely boat. Many of them asked us to stay on, “why don’t you buy a house and stay with us” was a common theme and I must admit we were tempted. A cake for Norma’s birthday was presented and we all sang her a happy birthday song as you do, then it was back aboard for the last night.

The next morning luckily, we were so busy that before we new it we had handed the keys over, paid the marina and found ourselves sitting in the hire car ready to go. Norma had asked me the previous day to park the car facing away from Spectra as she didn’t want to see her as we drove away which I fully understood. I could not, not, look back and took a final walk down the pontoon to say goodbye to the old girl.

She has been a big part of our lives for thirteen years and it was hard to see her go even if I knew it was the right thing to do. I gave her a final pat on her broken but still shiny teak rail and thanked her with all my heart for seeing us safely home that last time. Then it was my time for me to walk away and not look back.

Bye Spectra

An especially huge thankyou to:

The Canadian Coast Guard Service and especially the crew of the Earl Grey.

The captain and crew of the cargo ship Manon, first on the scene and didn’t leave until you knew we were safely under tow.

Tony my son for being you when I took you on the sailing holiday from hell.

Gemma, Duncan and the fabulous four because we love you.

David and Linda Grant, from Lunenburg Marine Surveys, who went above and beyond to help us when we needed it.

Andrew from back home who coached me through the insurance process and kept us both sane.

Chris for grounding me and making me laugh when the black dog came calling.

Tommy for being such a wise old owl.

All of our friends and family who cared and supported us when we needed you.

Brad, Erin, Daryl & Janet, Linda (car trip), Tim and Linda from two fishes pottery, Rick, Ken Taylor, Bob & Sue, Shelburne’s finest.

Everyone at the Shelburne Yacht Club, who took 3 very wet and cold sailors into your hearts and kept them warm.

and to all of the people of Shelburne and Nova Scotia who made us oh so welcome when we really needed it.

To help your family is a given and comes with love,

To help a friend is expected and comes with appreciation,

To help a stranger in time of need is to grant a special gift and shows your true character. 

Of course, Spectra who even with broken wings kept us safe.

Finally, once again my biggest thankyou goes to Norma for sticking in there with me when things got tough.

“This is Spectra, Spectra, Spectra, Callsign MVLC2 signing out”