May 26, 2016
We just got back from our little four day, renew-our-visa trip to Melbourne, Australia. While there, we saw this boat in a downtown marina. This is the first Catalina 38 we’ve seen since we’ve been on this adventure of four years, so far. That’s interesting, at least to us, because Legacy is a Catalina 38.
(OK, for you boat aficionados, don’t scoff at the name Catalina–which brings to mind mostly coastal cruisers. The 38 is an S & S design and very much unlike other Catalinas. It used to be the Yankee 38 and was used in the congressional cup races before Catalina bought the mold and made 366 of them. We don’t claim it’s the ideal cruising boat, but it’s worked well for us. OK, enough with the apologies and justifications, back to our regularly scheduled story.)
We thought we’d see more out here. When we cruised to Hawaii, we found five others in Nawiliwili harbor. Lynn and Larry Pardey endorsed it as a cruiser and it really is a lot of boat for the money.
But no. Not a one. Not until now. And while it had a wind generator and solar panels, I’m not sure Boheme (that’s it’s name) is used for cruising. We’ll keep looking – searching every idyllic bay in the Pacific if we have to.
In the mean time, we’re back in Nelson after a wonderful trip to Melbourne. More on that very soon. -Rich
Note from Cyndi: Life was easier before Melbourne. We’d been to Australia. Australia had issues. I loved it in spite of the issues, but they were too much for Rich. End result: New Zealand was our place down under, plain and simple. Then, to renew our NZ visas as cheaply as possible, we took a trip to Melbourne, Australia. End result: We love Melbourne, Australia. We love Melbourne so much, we want to go back and stay there. Australia is now back on the table as a cruising destination, and suddenly life has become more complicated. Where will we end up next year? It could be New Zealand, or–I never thought in a million years I’d be saying this–a second round of Australia. It’s amazing how quickly things can change.
