The trouble with having a sailboat is the engine. People often ask me, “What do you need an engine for? It is a sailboat, after all.” Well, the engine is what gets us out of the slip and out to sea so we can sail. It turns the alternator to recharge the batteries when we’re away from the dock. It’s a good tool if the weather gets bad to motorsail, or keep going when there isn’t any wind.

We need a good engine on Miles of View. The engine surveyor suspected bad fuel was causing the engine to not come up to cruising RPMs. The owner had a mechanic work on the fuel, taking it out, cleaning the tanks, polishing it to remove any water or impurities, and then return it to the tanks. It hasn’t helped the engine yet. Now we’re waiting to see if the owner is going to pay for more work on the engine to get it running right before the boat becomes ours. I really need the engine running well before we move it down to San Diego. It would be horrible to buy the boat and realize the engine needs completely overhauled or replaced.

We’re working with Marc Bay of Bay Yachts. He’s taken the lead as our broker since Matt is no longer with the brokerage. We’ve been slogging through this deal now since the end of October and I’m really thought we’d have this boat deal squared away by now. Good things do take time though, so Natalie and I are just going to have to wait it out.