As I'd said previously, Dave had written computer scripts that searched for and found the types of boats he was looking for. I would also do manual searches on an almost daily basis. On most sites, I would put the length search parameters at between 36' and 40'. One night I extended that to 42' and up popped a Cabo Rico 38 (41' overall).

Dave had always dismissed these boats as he said they were outside of our price range and so they weren't on his search lists. When I showed him this one, he assumed that the price showing must be a typo. I couldn't let it go. Using my feminine wiles and gentle nagging... er... persuasion, I looked at the photos again and, as I leaned gently over his shoulder said “WANT THAT ONE!!”

The following night, after I had looked a hundred more times at the advert, Dave rang the broker. They chatted for a long time and I was trying to make sense of the one sided conversation that I could hear. Eventually he got off the phone and said, in a low, quiet tone 'It's under contract'. 'NOOOOOOO.” I yelled. It felt so right, it felt like it should be ours. Well poop (fill in your own expletives... I probably did)!!

Our name and expression of interest was noted and the broker said that, should anything happen, she'd get back to us, but there was another couple on the list before us. All felt lost.

Days went by with nothing and we started searching again, but I went back time and time again to the ad. Then one evening, Dave's phone rang. It was the broker. The original potential purchaser was a little 'odd', a nervy sort of guy who wouldn't commit to buying the boat, despite the fact that he had gone to see it, had had a survey done, and gone through all the preliminaries. Okay, well that's odd but good for us... one step closer, but there was another couple lined up to look it over and they surely would love it. We all but gave up hope. We'd had the crappiest luck during the year so we didn't hold our breath.

A few days later a call came through. The couple were looking for something bigger, were we still interested? AAAAAAAGGGGHHHH!!! Mad panic, planes booked, hotel booked, car booked and we were there two days later.