We became proud owners of “Duduza”, which immediately became "Hasta La Vista" (“See you later” in Spanish) on 23 July 2008, only four weeks after we arrived in the US! Everything just seemed to fall into place. “Hasta La Vista” is a 46ft Fountain Pajot Bahia (24ft beam) with a large cockpit, spacious saloon and galley, four double cabins with ensuites and one single bunk. We arranged for the boat to be delivered to a mooring right next door to where we were living in our apartment. This was ideal, as it gave us a week to get “Hasta La Vista” organised, ready for our move aboard at the end of July.
On delivery to the mooring beside our apartment, Mal noticed that the stern was quite a lot lower than the bow which meant there was a lot of weight on board. There were 10 diving tanks on the stern that had to go and a very heavy inflatable dingy but that didn't seem to explain the weight. On investigation on the first day of officially owning her, we discovered 11 years of accumulated possessions by three owners. There was diving gear, water skis, surf skis, old linen, crockery, bread makers, eskys, old bent parts and numerous other items from years gone by. We cleared the gear by hiring a trash/second hand collector who went away that day with a full tip truck of old and grubby items.
Our second day was spent exploring each cavity to establish what else was on board. There was every spare part that you could think of. “Hasta La Vista” is fully air-conditioned but the system was not working so that was our first job; to organise an inspection and a quote to repair. Mal and I also made a list of the repairs, replacements and changes we wanted to make before we left Fort Lauderdale for the Caribbean.
During our first week, organising quotes and jobs to be carried was a priority, in between commencing the cleaning of every inch of “Hasta La Vista”. We also shopped for crockery, cutlery and other items for the galley, linen and work tools, hardware and marine parts. We installed a radar, commissioned the air-conditioning water chillers to be replaced, ordered new seats for the saloon and a new inflatable dingy and outboard. Mal installed a flat screen TV and DVD and plans were made to rebuild the galley oven and microwave unit, install a washing machine as well as generally replace every ageing item on "Hasta La Vista”. Mal bought new tools and equipment for the work he needed to carry out and a 49cc “Tomos” motorbike to put on board for transport when we are down island.
