SV Batland FOREVER

Guess who gets to keep their freakin’ boat! That’s right, WE DO!

Last week we finally got word from our insurance company.  Truth is, we didn’t think it was good news at first.  Steve got a call that went straight to voicemail (for whatever reason) and we were so frustrated when we realized it was the insurance company because we had been missing their calls the last few times they’d reached out.  They left a voicemail letting us know that they had sent us an email to decide how we wanted to get our check (mail, direct deposit, etc).  Based on the sum, which was more than Steve paid for the boat 3.5 years ago, we just knew it was totaled.  We thought this because when we talked to people about the hole and the damage they began telling us how the insurance process would probably work.  They mentioned that if the damage was going to cost over a third of what the boat cost then the insurance company would most likely just cut us a check and move on.  Well, it was definitely over a third of the boat’s worth, so we began processing that.  We took a couple minutes, I definitely shed a few tears (okay, maybe more than a few) and then Steve called the company back.  We began asking what totaling would look like, and the woman seemed quite confused.  At first we weren’t sure if it was because she wasn’t our official case worker so she wouldn’t be familiar with it, so I told Steve to clarify that it was totaled.  “No, your boat is not registered as totaled.”  Holy cow, we could breathe again. 

We went into my room at my parents’ house, because we had been there for thanksgiving and this was just one day after, and discussed our plans.  What did we want to do?  Should we fix it?  What does that do to our plans of traveling?  Would we still be able to go South?  Honestly, we still don’t know a lot of the answers that we talked about that day, but we knew we wanted to fix our boat. 

So, it’s GREAT news.  We are working on talking with the yard to get an actual plan on when the work will start, but we have a feeling that some of it won’t be able to get done until the weather warms up a bit.  It has to be a certain temperature outside for the fiberglass to form correctly.  We are also going to work with them on what we can do to on our own, like fixing the warped floor down below where the water came in.  This will decrease some of our costs, which is ideal. 

We still don’t know what this next year looks like, if we’ll travel West while the yard does their work and then come back when it’s time to work on the flooring.  Or if we’ll stick around and get as much done on our part as possible so that we can sail next summer.  Or if they’ll say they can have it ready in two months and we’ll be able to go South for the end of the season.  We have zero clue what it all looks like, but the weight of losing our home is off of our shoulders.

For the 10 minutes where we thought our boat was totaled, I was wrecked.  It wasn’t the fact that our boat was totaled, or that we’d have to find another one or make new plans.  It was that we wouldn’t have any more sunset sails, or be able to watch the dolphins as they crossed our bow, or dance in the cockpit with the autopilot turned on.  It was all the things I knew I’d missed if it was truly gone.  It was all of the things I love about our life on the water that I didn’t want to let go.  When we learned we didn’t have to say goodbye to all of that, it was as if all of the stress fell off of us.  Don’t get me wrong, we still have a lot of decisions to make and the work to be done will not be easy, but we get to keep our home, and we get to keep making memories on it.

It’s been an interesting few weeks since the hole happened, but we’ve figured it out. We were lucky enough to have family and friends nearby. We stuck to our Thanksgiving plans of being in NC with my family, although we went by car instead of boat. We even put a Christmas tree up at the river house so that we still have that cozy, homey feel for the next few weeks that we’re here. It’s the little things that create a home. A coffee mug from home, snuggles with our pup, twinkly lights, our own blanket, big sweatshirts, my best friend. We figured it out. And honestly, isn’t that what life is all about? Just figuring it out? I mean, we never truly know what’s going to happen next. Plans change all the time, maybe not as drastic as this, but they still don’t go exactly as planned. We were made to adapt and adjust, and having someone with you to say “yeah, we can do this” makes it all the more doable. I’ve said it once and I’ll say it again, we have each other and that’s what matters.

THIS WEEK (in pictures)