We’d like to thank you all who sent us so many warmhearted emails, comments or called us on the phone (mostly in the middle of the night :-) Without your support it would be impossible to go through this difficult time. Be assured, we read ALL your messages but right now we don’t have the time to answer them – we are really sorry for that.
We would also like to officially thank our austrian friends Hannes and Christine who took us in on their catamaran ‘Optimist’ while the Rancho was still on the reef.
We are discussing different options to repair the boat and today we will go to Port Phaeton to look at a used mast that supposedly should be the right size for our ship. In the evening we had long discussions as to whether we should try to continue immediately or if it would be better to fly to Europe, get a job and earn money for one year. Either way there’s a lot of things to do and even more stuff to think about.
On the positive side: Yesterday we built a little roof to protect ourselves from the sun and the kids love it. I also tested the engine and it has no damage, going forward & backward works, as does the steering. So we now consider ourselves the owners of a heavily damaged an incredibly slow motor boat. Heh.
Oh and as some comments and emails go in that direction: We are NOT insured ! We’ll have to pay the salvaging of the boat and the repairs ourselves. Luckily the heroic helicopter rescue is free.