14 countries, hundreds of islands, 686 days aboard, 5,952 nautical miles and countless memories made! I still can’t believe we flew home with only 3 bags and 2 backpacks!! Hopefully Sea duction’s new owners will get to enjoy some of those same awesome experiences.

Why we sold?

Lifestyle change, and it feels like the right time. After 4 years of ownership and 2.5 years of full-time cruising we’ve achieved exactly what we set out to do in this chapter of life. Selling also allows us the freedom to pursue other travel — US & European #RVlife perhaps 🙂 When the world is ready.

We also knew going into Season 3 that we were ready for a change and felt a bit fatigued. Sailing was never a long-term lifestyle for us, traveling was and will continue to be. We may seem like fools walking away from “the dream” because she’s given us so many great adventures but per the Seek to See More motto “life is short and the world is wide”. Time to move onto a new and exciting chapter!

Read about our adventure from the beginning >>here<<

Let’s backtrack a little…

With a global pandemic sweeping across the world. We had a lot of time sitting (and thinking) in the St. Martin lagoon and decided to list the boat for sale and see what interest it might generate. Well, the response was positive and quick! By the end of May 2020 we finally got approval from the French government to leave the lagoon and sail to USVI and Puerto Rico!

Our original plan was to either haul out in Puerto Rico OR sail north, retracing our steps back to Florida, secure the boat for hurricane season, and put her on the market. At the last minute our insurance denied a haul out in PR – bummer. And I’ll be honest 4-8 days at sea back to Florida was a pretty tough plan due to island closures, lack of resources (water, diesel, dockage), and that we were basically sailing back to a hurricane hot spot (Florida). So to list the boat for sale in the Caribbean seemed like a safe and logical alternative as we navigated through Covid restrictions.

With plans to show the boat to a potential buyer in Puerto Rico, we spent some extra time in USVI isolating and relaxing in St. John and making a pit stop in St. Thomas to spruce up the boat after months of sitting due to the pandemic. We spent several days doing a deep clean on the entire boat: Polishing stainless steel, rigging inspection, boat and dingy wash, interior, bottom cleaning.

After a few weeks of sea trials and negotiations, Sea Duction officially sold on June, 19, 2020. I’ll admit, after the second sea trial we felt confident that she was going to sell in Puerto Rico and a few happy/sad tears were definitely shed. This wasn’t a decision we expected to make so soon and she sold a lot faster than we ever anticipated. Bittersweet, yet we were also relived that we no longer had to sail the 400+ miles back to South Florida.

We listed the boat ourselves, so no brokers were involved. It was a little more work to handle the sale ourselves, however it was nice not paying the broker fees on the final sale.

The Day You Buy A Boat, and the Day You Sell

I’m referring to the old saying, “The two happiest days in a sailors life are the day he buys his boat, and the day he sells it.”

We say F-A-L-S-E ! Making this crazy leap to break away from the rat race and live life on our terms has taught us that we can really do anything we set our minds to. We’ve had a ton of fun, learned a lot, and overall the challenges we faced have been worth it for all the things we love about boat life.

As Ralph Waldo said “It is not the destination, it’s the journey.” Indeed! Sailing gave us the opportunity to not just see our destinations, but also everything in between. So, this definitely won’t be the last boat we own.

However, we are looking forward to taking time to re-group from the hustle of this self-sustained life we’ve created. As well as enjoy the little, everyday things we’ve taken for granted; hot showers, reliable wifi, air conditioning, and a normal size freezer that we can stuff full of ice cream. lol.

Like most changes in life, this one is bittersweet and we had all sorts of mixed emotions while packing up our tiny home.

Puerto Rico to FLL

With no immediate future plans, except a one-way ticket back to Ft.Lauderdale, we found ourselves a week away from being “homeless”. It’s safe to say that we’re never certain of our plans, I guess were allergic to making them. Which we like as it leaves room for changeability. BUT this moment felt different, it was final, and reality was no longer something that belonged to the future, it was suddenly here. A part of me always thought that over the course of our 2.5 years sailing it would have given us the time to figure out an exact plan of what’s next. However, boat life isn’t about the future, it’s about the moment. The furthest we could ever plan anything out was the weather, days in advance. So, even in the end we still weren’t sure of what was to come.

With that, we say farewell to S/V Sea Duction and boat life for now. Stay tuned! We stumble upon an unexpected and exciting project!

Cheers from Puerto Rico!