August 25, 2012.

Love can make people do irrational things. But then again what I consider to be irrational might seem reasonable to another. So I won't quibble but....

Once upon a time a gentleman from Australia met and married a wonderful girl and they happily sailed their Gulf 32 for years together. But now the Gulf is long gone and his wife has since passed. But for the man the prospect of hunting for and purchasing a sistership to his beloved sailboat has become a quest.

And here in Annapolis we have the object of his desire, another Gulf 32.

He had the benefit of emailed descriptions and pictures before he journeyed halfway around the world to finalize the purchase of the boat of his memories. We were given the job of preparing the boat for shipment on a freighter to the land of the didgeridoo.

While he was here he had to prepare a ships inventory list to satisfy Australian Customs. I was handed the list and while perusing it I came across a few curious items. It seems that in the galley there's 2 squabs. Squabs? Small edible birds? Thanks to the Olympics I now know that a shuttlecock is neither a bird or a penis with a bus pass. Squabs, hmm, I dunno. Further down the list there's 4 seat squabs listed in the forward cabin. And 2 more in the salon. There’s also a squab extension and a squab back piece. WTH?

Among the 200 plus items on the list there’s also a “1 length green rope coxin sheet”. Exsqueeze me? So far Wikipedia has been no help. One of the guys seems to remember gasket material being referred to as coxin but hes a little fuzzy on that. So maybe “green rope coxin sheet” might be stuffing box packing which could be construed as being “rope gasket”. I dunno, we'll see.

The scope and detail of what needs to be done to prep a boat for shipping down under is staggering. Australia and New Zealand seem to have the most stringent rules for an undertaking like this. The bilge in this 30 year old boat has to be SPOTLESS. The fuel and water tanks are empty. The fuel filters are empty and even the refrigerant in the air conditioning system had to be evacuated. The boat had been power washed 2 years ago when it was put on the hard but now its being done again to blast off the copper

film thats formed across the bottom. All the underwater bits have to shine with no evidence of sea life clinging in the nooks and crannies.

Once the mast is down all the rigging and boom will join the rest of the topside unboltables down inside the boat for the journey. I hope he finds what hes looking for....