Happy holiday’s from Quixotic and her crew! Hope everyone is taking some time to relax and enjoy being with friends and family. Alyssa and I are in New Zealand this holiday season and will be spending Santa day with some good cruising friends aboard Quixotic. Our tree is slowly dying so it must be almost time to open presents. Thanks to our family for sending us some holiday cheer to put in and under our tree!
We wish you all well. Thanks for being our friends and helping us to accomplish all that we have this year. It’s been awesome to watch our dream of owning a catamaran come true inside of a year (I never would have guessed it possible). The work is far from over as we are still in the midst of refitting her, but we’re close and she is coming along nicely. Her port side now has new wiring, lights, fans, shower sump, new fixtures, rebuilt heads and some have even said it’s ready for guests. In early January I will pull her engines to strip, bore and carefully rebuild them.
I have also been meaning to make a post to thank all those who helped with bringing Quixotic back to life. We could not have done it alone and those who helped are greatly appreciated. Even those who were hired really poured heart and dedication into the project – thank you. We did it guys, she’s back, so thank you very much for all the hard work.
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year from beautiful New Zealand!
I want to say thank you to:
Alsace Miller and his awesome team of fiberglass guys: Rodney, Natani and the rest of the team. Guys – she took a beating and all the glass work held up to the southern ocean – you can all be very proud of the Fijian repair work!
Rotesh and Simi – our welders – thanks guys, the rig stayed up where it should be thanks to you!
Jolene at Waitui Marina in Savusavu for all her support, help and guidance. Sorry for being such a pain Jolene!
Savusavu marina – Robin, Layla, Benny and other cruisers there
Bruce Harbour (aka The Pirate) for tipping us off to Quixotic and all the help along the way. Thanks man; you helped make our dream come true.
Ed and Nila for selling us their home of 20 years and believing that we were the best people to bring Quixotic back to her former glory.
Chris and Monica Glubka for their financial support and friendship
Sanjay – for giving the port engine a freshwater and then diesel bath and getting it running initially after its two-week underwater excursion
Hans at List Marine in Sausalito for the diesel advice and parts list for bringing the port engine back from the dead
Jono and Jarnie of Encore – thanks for bringing us the critical foam core
Allan and Rina, Alyssa parents for bringing spares and the two weeks of Fijian labor of love and all their support
Danielle and David, my Mom and her husband, for carrying hundreds of pounds of spares to Fiji and all their love and support.
Dave and Wendy of Elysium for their help fixing our watermaker and always being there for us
Rich and Charlie at CruiseRO watermakers for enabling the watermaker fix to happen
The guys at Husseins Hardware (especially Ratu) in Savusavu for putting up with us every day and getting us the parts we needed.
The Gokul painting team (Bob) for downing that milk and spraying all that two-pack paint on the interior and exterior.
Mahendra and Mitun – our main taxi drivers for running us all over town every day
Binla – our taxi driver from Labasa for driving across the island to bring that critical drum of epoxy right when we needed it
Arun of Taste of Paradise restaurant for bring us dinner every other night so we didn’t starve while working late nights in the workshop.
Kurt Roll of Eleutheria “Ellie” for helping with the engine install and for buying Ellie!
Craig Chalker of True Blue V for helping with the engine install, the launch and all the support
Kay at Voyage Yachts for fielding all my questions and not getting annoyed at me
Jeff and Jose of Stravaig for the advice and guidance on the rebuild and for the support
Mark of Karma for looking over my shoulder and speaking up when he saw me making a potential mistake. Thanks man – the belts are properly tensioned now
Jim of Intention for being a friend and allowing us to buy all his spare fiberglass materials. His v-berth was like our west marine!
Brian and Liz of Pura Vida for hauling the engine parts for the rebuild all the way to New Zealand.
Our friends Glenn and Debbie of Beach Access for helping with the launch and bringing the much-needed margaritas!
And to the amazing blonde mermaid for her amazing support and all her tremendous help. She was never afraid to get grease under her fingernails while working on the engines or getting fiberglass dust on her arms while running electrical. For believing we could do it and for always standing by my side. Merry Christmas!
