It is now mid April, and it has been almost 4 months since my last blog post. The last time I wrote a blog, we had just bought our cute coastal cottage in Northport, Maine and at the same time, we had decided to start a new adventure on board an 83 foot catamaran named Blue Gryphon. Since January 1st, Jon and I have been out straight, which of course has made the time fly by extremely fast!
Blue Gryphon arrived from Palma on a cargo ship to West Palm Beach FL on January 27th. At that moment, we immediately started prepping her for the large refit we were undergoing in just 4 weeks. The amount of work that we had slotted to be done would normally take at least six months, but due to a charter booking in the Bahamas at the beginning of March, we had to be completed by March 3rd at the latest.
While the refit was progressing, we also had to completely outfit Blue Gryphon for charter. We had to start from scratch. Blue Gryphon had no dishes, towels, linens, pillows, decorations etc…you get the idea. Thankfully, our stew Michelle arrived February 16th to help with this huge undertaking! Shopping all day every day for a straight month became quite trying! At the same time, what a great experience as the crew.
Our deadline of March 3rd crept up extremely fast. On any given day, we would have around 20 workers on Blue Gryphon trying to meet this deadline. To give the workers a visual of our timeline, we had a large dry erase calendar posted on our salon door. We crossed off each day as it went by ,and you could see the stress in everyone’s eyes. Our 83 foot home was completely torn apart, so much so that it was hard to imagine the work ever being finished.
Just like many home renovations, Blue Gryphon was not completed in time to make our first charter in the Bahamas. It was extremely unfortunate that we had to cancel, but fortunately the guests landed on another yacht and were still able to enjoy their vacation. The refit that was slated for one month, ended up taking 6 weeks. Still not bad for the amount of work we had done! Blue Gryphon looks drastically different and all of the hard work, stress, and time put into her was more than worth it!
We arrived in Nassau, Bahamas on March 16th. We had two full days to get Blue Gryphon ready for the owner’s first trip! The owner himself had only seen Blue Gryphon through photos before purchasing her! Throughout the refit process we would ask him if he wanted updates and amazingly enough he wanted it all to be left to surprise! His wife, kids, and closest family friends had no idea of his new purchase! This first charter with the owner was the unveiling of their new home on the water!
When the owner and his guests arrived on the morning of March 19th, they were all completely blown away…with a side of shock :-). As the crew, we all felt a sense of relief as they thanked us immensely for the amount of hours we had put in to get Blue Gryphon ready for this day!
The owner’s trip was a complete success on many fronts. After talking with our boss almost every day on the phone about the refit, it was great to finally put a face to the voice. He himself, his family and friends are extremely grateful and appreciative of us as the crew. We are unbelievably fortunate to work for such a great owner…it hasn’t always been that way 😉
We have now completed two charters on board Blue Gryphon. The owner’s charter and a repeat guest charter from the past. We offically feel at home on Blue Gryphon and are excited for what the future holds.
As I am typing this blog, we are underway to Freeport, Bahamas where we are performing a short maintenance period in their shipyard. Due to the large beam of Blue Gryphon (40 feet) we were unable to get hauled out in West Palm. The yard in Freeport has the ability to haul us out on a dry dock, so that we can finally get our bottom painted, and install our new insanely bright underwater lights!
Following this short yard period, we will remain in the Bahamas for the rest of this charter season. We have another owner’s trip for 3 weeks starting May 25th, a guest charter for two weeks mid June, and three more charters following that which will take us to the end of our season in mid August.
Last week we completed a photo and video shoot (thank you Mike Spark @msparkphoto!) to show off Blue Gryphon’s new look! Here are a few sneak peaks of the photo shoot! As always, thank you to all of our family and friends for the continued support! Cheers!
Kait and Jon