A wise friend once told us: “You never really own a boat, you are lucky enough to care for her for a period of her time”. Only now we came to realize how true this sentence is. From her beginnings as charter boat in the BVIs, being home for a family of four, to fulfilling many people’s cruising dreams, Porky’s 35 year old history is much more complex and beautiful than her relatively short-time with us. I like to imagine all the previous and future owners of the boat sitting together at a table sharing memories, sailing stories as well as talk about annoying repairs and frustrating moments with probably still the biggest smiles on all of our faces.
In September and October this year, we spent the last weeks onboard sailing along the beautiful southwest coast of England and the Solent area, from the Isles of Scilly to Southampton. The days appeared a little slower as the weather was getting colder and tree tops started to turn colorful. We took it all in, especially the cozy British autumn weather, beautiful historic villages, and amazing nature walks along the coast. Most of our time, we visited traditional pubs, hiked over white cliffs and green fields, and also enjoyed being back to the same country where we started our trip in 2020. It was a perfect ending to our cruising journey. At the same time we were preparing for the end of the trip, which turned out to be emotional with many decisions to be made.
Luckily we had the support of Euan, a friend of Max and experienced yacht broker, who agreed to help us sell Porky. In order to find suitable buyers who preferably continue to sail Porky across oceans, we decided to do a small refit to make sure Porky is in great condition and ready for her new adventures. As always when we tackled boat projects, we had a clear plan in mind what needs to be done. For two weeks we split tasks amongst us three and checked off all the to-dos on the list. We installed the new fridge, fixed the rudder and wind generator, varnished the teak interior, polished the hull, applied new antifouling, replaced broken bits and pieces, cleaned the boat in and out, and sold things we no longer needed. Waking up in the morning, doing dirty boat projects all day, driving to hardware stores and chandleries multiple times and enjoying showers in the evening to wash off all the dirt reminded us of our initial refit on Hayling Island in the summer of 2020.
There were huge differences though. Back in 2020 we were at the very beginning of the trip, just moved onboard, highly motivated by the journey we were preparing for. Now we knew we will not put Porky back in the water and sail her ourselves. In a way, we were doing the work for somebody else, not us anymore. After all the boat jobs were done we looked at our beautiful boat and felt sad that we have to say goodbye. She looked in much better shape than we had ever seen her in, we know every detail about her and came to love her as she is. This boat carried us safely over 16,000 nautical miles without any problems and we are simply grateful that we were lucky enough to have been sailing her. This was goodbye and it broke my heart in a way. Some of you might think it is crazy to feel so emotionally bonded to an inanimate object. The sailors among you will understand the incomparable connection one develops to a boat that you shared so many hours with and relied on in calms and storms. We constantly cared about the boat, made sure she is fit to keep us safe, to bring us to our next destination, to protect us from the relentless forces of nature, and overall offered us a cozy home.
Luckily a likeminded young couple who plan to circumnavigate the world showed interest in the boat shortly after we put her up for sale. From the first time we talked to them, we felt they would take good care of Porky and hopefully show her much more of the world. They will potentially take her into the Pacific, finally, after all previous owners decided to turn back to Europe when passing the entrance of the Panama Canal. Most importantly it is good to know that she is in good hands now and will keep sailing the world’s oceans and make others’ dreams come true.
In hindsight the boat, the crew constellation and the timing could not have been any better. We are extremely happy how things turned out and what we were able to experience. Even though we are looking forward to what life brings next, it was hard to let this amazing adventure come to an end. We were emotionally and financially invested in the boat that carried us so safely across the Atlantic in all conditions thrown at us and it was a very hard decision to sell her. Some tears of sadness rolled down our cheeks when we said goodbye to her and officially signed the bill of sale. We were lucky to have had such a well-proven, solid and for us priceless companion like Porky for this trip of our lifetime. We will always think back to this wonderful time and will have a great collection of memories with all the pictures, videos, logbooks, and note books that we filled during the trip.
Farewell Porky!
Por Que No Sailing 