Cruising Maya: Buying Maya- Marine Survey and Our First Trip!

Video of the survey on the boat: https://youtu.be/8L4HoD5XnNg

I apologize for the lengthy delay since the last post. We left you off just before our survey and sea trial of the boat. We hired a professional boat surveyor to look over every inch of the boat to make sure we were buying a good, functioning boat. The process took two days and involved us lifting the boat out of the water so the surveyor could see the hull and propeller. Our surveyor, Lynne, looked over all the systems and tapped all over the boat checking for water intrusion in the fiberglass. To our great relief, Maya came back with a clean bill of health and we were able to quickly come to a final price with the seller. At this point we worked with our marine title company to get all the paperwork, taxes, and other filings submitted to make the transaction official.

When we first found Maya on craigslist, we were overwhelmed by the amount of stuff that we needed to learn and do to properly (and safely) purchase her without the help of a marine broker. After going through the process, I can confidently say, anyone could forgo the use of a marine broker. We saved thousands by doing it ourselves, and it only involved some light correspondence and logistics to make sure the right people were at the right place at the right time. Learned a bunch, saved a bunch of money, and we feel great about Maya. Now onto the fun stuff….. sailing!

Maya was moored in Shilshole Bay Marina in Seattle. We were able to continue leasing her slip there until we found another slip closer to the San Juan Islands, which is where we want to cruise for the next year. To give you an idea, Seattle is a two day sail from the San Juan Islands, so it was important to us that we got her closer to the islands. We were able to score a slip at Cap Sante Marina in Anacortes, Washington almost immediately. Once we got the word a space was available we made plans to sail Maya north as soon as possible to avoid paying double moorage fees ($400-500/month for each slip).

While Jenny and I had taken a week long sailing class last year, we were a bit nervous about taking her out for the first time. We were confident about our ability to sail in the open water, but our class was only briefly touched on maneuvering a boat in the marina. To be honest, I was terrified of pulling the boat out and driving it around the marina, with all the other nice boats. Thankfully, the previous owner is a great guy and spent a day with us showing us how to handle the boat in the close quarters of the marina. Maya is a super sturdy boat that will handle open water and large waves like a champ. Unfortunately, that strong open water performance means we sacrifice maneuverability in confined spaces like marinas. After a few hours of practice we felt better about driving the boat in the marina, although I still lost sleep in the days before taking Maya out for the first time by ourselves.

Now the time had come to make our maiden voyage with Maya. This would be our first time sailing without supervision… just us and Disco! Fortunately, the winds were calm, and marina very quiet for that first mission from the slip to the fuel dock. We got Maya to the fuel dock without any issues and thus successfully completed the first hurdle! Phew!

After fueling up, we embarked on our way north. We sailed for the first few hours, but ended up motoring, as the winds were coming directly from where we were headed. Our boat has autopilot, which means we can set the boat on a course and it will make automatic adjustments without our input….. SUPER SWEET FEATURE! We kicked back, drank coffee, basked in the sun, and soaked in the views of Mt Rainier and the Olympic and Cascade mtns. With a motoring speed of about 5mph, we cranked out the miles and made it the marina in Port Townsend by mid afternoon.

Upon reaching Port Townsend, we met some other sailors who informed us of a big blow coming in the next day. We had planned on crossing the Strait of Juan de Fuca the next day, but with weather reports showing winds of 40mph and gusts of 60mph, we made the easy decision to stay put in Port Townsend an extra day to let the wind die down. Sure enough, the next day, the wind blew like we’d never seen it blow- we were very thankful for our decision to stay in port to wait for a weather window. Having the extra day in Port Townsend worked out great because it allowed us to explore this quaint, Victorian style port town. We walked all over town enjoying the sights and sounds of this somewhat secluded town. I highly recommend visiting if you have time.

The next day we were met with calm winds and nice weather to make the final push to Anacortes. We headed out into the Strait and encountered some swell that was left over from the wind storm, but Maya handled like a champ and were quickly into more protected waters and calm seas. After approximately 17 hours of motoring/sailing over the course of 3 days we landed in Anacortes and successfully closed our maiden voyage with Maya. While on the trip, we got to know Maya better, and learned what things we want to upgrade before sailing south. We had a wonderful first trip and look forward to many many more in the future. We’ve a pretty full summer of travel coming up, but we are squeezing in some time for sailing. Stay tuned for the next post! Thanks for reading!