Alas, it took me more than a year to get going again and retie the loose ends of my sailing stories 🙂

Just before Easter 2016 I received a call from a person interested in finding out more about Mem Pas Peur. Since for the previous six months I had already spoken to more than a dozen potential buyers and travelled many times to show them the boat without any second calls, I did not expect much from this new contact. But in any case I decided to give the boat a thorough sweeping, which was required any ways after the long winter.

The week before meeting the guy I took advantage of an incredible spring day with clear skies, steady breeze and warmish temperature and together with my friend Andrei drove to Limanu for the first sailing of the season.

The following week I met Nicu and his son and we drove together from Eforie Nord to Limanu. During the trip we talked at length about Mem Pas Peur, sailing and many other things more or less connected to our common hobby. From the start I realised Nicu was entirely different from all the other potential buyers whom I met previously. He told me that he had wanted to purchase a sailboat for a long time, not too big but also not too small so that he could sail for a few days with his family or friends onboard, relatively well equipped, with a nice and fairly comfortable interior layout. On paper Mem Pas Peur looked like the ideal boat, for its size and age having all the needed and desired features. Now the only question was, would Nicu like my boat once he saw it?

We were fortunate to have another fabulous day and got the chance to take Mem Pas Peur out on the sea. Although we got delayed on the canal due to a large container ship that was brought to the Daewoo shipyard, we managed to sail for an hour or so. Nicu enjoyed the experience so much that we actually agreed on the price and shook hands while still sailing. At the end of the day I could hardly believe that I was so close to saying good-bye to my first boat, before even getting the chance to know her better and take her on some of the longer cruises that I had in mind. But despite being extremely seaworthy and very well equipped, Mem Pas Peur turned out to be slow for me… and hard as I tried I could not get over this element. Once I started racing, I became completely obssesed with trimming and getting the most out of every moment and situation, and somehow Mem Pas Peur was not quite atuned to my mood. She enjoyed sailing at her own pace, safely, peacefully, without drama. Whereas I dreamt of planning downwind… and grinning while fighting to keep a flying boat on its course. I was dreaming to sail fast in a pocket-rocket, in a Mini…

A couple of weeks later, after I signed the papers with Nicu, we met again for my final sailing trip with Mem Pas Peur, bringing her from Limanu back to Constanta. On this ocassion I tried to show Nicu everything on board and answer to most of his questions. I also brought him all the papers with instructions that Marc prepared for me in 2014 when I purchased Mem Pas Peur.

The trip was very slow because the wind died completely about an hour after we left from Managalia. So we motored at a constant speed of 4 knots all the way…

And thus began my quest for a Mini Transat!