Well, it was make or break day today. We decided to open the Harebell Negotiations at a cheeky £16,000. We soon got a call rejecting that offer, but accepting £17,500. Marcus was quite sure that we should counter offer £17,250 and although I just wanted to seal the deal on Harebell, I made the call anyway. To our delight, it was accepted!!!! I now think Marcus has plans to change the boat name to “I was right”.
I quickly paid our deposit and we tried to get on with the rest of the day. We didn’t FEEL like we’d just purchased a boat, but we also had trouble focusing on work. I needed to make a call to engage the services of a Marine Engineer for the survey and on site at Sawley is none other than Mr Steve Hand, who was so badly behaved at Longport Wharf when Aqua Roma was out of the water. I was a little reluctant to use him, but as he was already on site, it made sense. Interestingly enough, we had read Paul’s 2013 diary on the last trip and commented on the episode with Mr Hand.
He was as nice as pie on the phone and sounded very reassuring & professional. If he recognised our surname, he made no remark. He was quoting £500 plus VAT for the survey, but that included the compliance. This is where the costs start to add up to eye watering amounts.
