Regrettably, frustratingly, annoyingly, upsettingly . . . .  and, and . . . many other adverbs . . . we have pulled out of the deal.

What happened? We found concrete in the bilge – a big NO NO for us. Fortunately, we had this stipulation in writing.

Why didn’t we see this before? The floor is completely sealed, which did put us right off initially. However, good relationships developed between vendors/buyers and they drilled a hole in the floor for us to view the bilge and check for concrete. (After they categorically denied that any concrete existed).

So what happened? We paid the deposit and they very kindly let us move on board, prior to the survey. This was reassuring – there couldn’t be anything wrong with the boat if they let us move in, so we announced our ‘new boat’ to the world.

Searching for the right holding tank valve one evening, we found concrete remnants. At midnight we were pulling up/out whatever we could (without causing damage) to investigate. There is concrete under the bathroom, under the holding tank, under the galley (completely athwartships – where they didn’t drill). With heavy hearts the following day we rang the owners.

What commenced then can only be described as bloody awful. In short, they don’t find concrete a problem and ‘didn’t realise that we were that worried about it’ (that’s not quite true, why would we ask them to drill a hole though there floor, stipulate it in writing . . .  etc etc . . )

Anyhow, we and the technical experts at the surveying company (that we talked to on the phone) ARE concerned about it and that is what matters. As I say, luckily, we had it in writing and now with deposit back in our account we are heading back to our wonderful (and supportive) friends in Petten.

What next? Who knows? Who cares? . . . right now wine’s more important.

Picture of us on happier days!