The taxi honked its horn and it was time to step ashore for the final time as Captain of this magnificent yacht!

I glanced at the log, it read : 38,452 miles!!

“Wow” I thought, 38,452 miles, 22 months at sea and 5 oceans, what an incredible journey we have sailed!

I was thrilled, as all who sailed onboard, had a blast and came home safely with no injuries.

As Captain / Skipper you are totally responsible for not only the yacht but the safety and welfare for all of those onboard. When I am skippering this responsibility is always on my mind and although it may not show, I am constantly running my, “Inner Game” to make sure whatever we do is safe and the risks of anything going wrong are minimised!

“Well Done Paul” my inner voice said as I hugged the new team and wished them the best of luck with their new adventure onboard LUSH!

I then promptly walked down the Passerelle and hopped ashore into the taxi.

As we pulled away, a tear fell from my right eye and rolled slowly down my cheek as I welled up and realised that this chapter of my life’s journey had just come to an end.

All I could feel in that moment, is a total feeling of complete gratitude from head to toe to Eddie and Marie for giving us both this incredible lifetime opportunity!

Rewind 7 Days! 

Tim and Sybilla Beebe arrived at the stern of Lush and walked onboard their new command for the first time!

Alvaro, our Deck Engineer met his new team mates and talked fondly of Lush and how they will enjoy sailing and running her.

Tim & Sybilla have come from a long line of Oysters! In fact only 5 days earlier they had stepped ashore from the Oyster 72′ “Magrathea” they had been running to come and take over Lush from us!

This was the beginning of an intensive week onboard Lush!

The previous 3 weeks had also been full on as I wanted to ensure I handed over LUSH to Tim in the best possible condition and so I completed a full final run through of every system and fitting and fixture of the yacht.

Part of this process included a full on rig check by John Spear who originally rigged Lush when she was built. I arranged for John to fly down from the UK to fully check the mast and standing rigging survey. I have some really interesting insights on this process which I will share with you on a future blog!

You have to imagine how complex a yacht like Lush is, she is a £6M luxury sailing yacht that is packed full of systems that not only power her and propel her but also allow guests to enjoy and relax in 7 star accommodation!

For Tim & Sybilla they would need to become acquainted with Lush and all of those systems and understand how Eddie likes Lush to be run.

One of the benefits of working in the “Oyster Family of Skippers” is Oyster only pick the best manufacturers and keep the systems the same over the whole range.

In simplistic terms, what this means, is all the yachts are fitted with the same Manufactures’ systems and those systems are either spread out over a 90′ yacht like ours or more compact into the smaller yachts in the range!

This means, when you transfer to another Oyster you will have a great grasp on the systems fitted, you just need to learn if its more complex and where the components of the system are located.

So my job initially was to take Tim through every nook and cranny onboard and show him where absolutely every, fuse, relay, pump, control valve, inlet, tank and many other items are located onboard! Trust me there are quite a few!

We spent the first 3 days going through the entire yacht and Tim made notes, asked many questions to get good feel for what he was taking on!

Whilst I was taking Tim though Lush, Audrey was taking Sybilla though the Galley and all  the interior so she became familiar with the interior side of the yacht.

By Day 4 we ready to go for a sail and give the guys the opportunity to handle Lush.

Tim expertly drove us out of our berth and we set sail in a beautiful 12 knots of Southerly breeze and Lush slipped across the Bay of Nice at 9.5 knots!

I could see the new team Lush form their bonds and all three of them, Tim, Sybilla & Alvaro were grinning like Cheshire Cats!

I knew in that moment that this crew transition would be really smooth and Eddie & Marie would be very happy with the new team!

I thought back to when we got Lush blessed in Southampton and considered the words the priest spoke from the, “Mariner’s Prayer” which was, “Guide us safely Lord” and I thought to myself, “Guide This New Team Safely Lord” 

So it was with great pleasure to handover Lush to Tim, Sybilla & Alvaro and I wish them the absolute best onboard!

One Life…Live It!

Paul  🙂

So whats next?

Many of you have been asking us what’s next!

Well….stay tuned because we are working on something right now that is going to be absolutely outstanding and will make a massive difference! I can’t tell you quite yet what it is but I know you will LOVE IT! 

If you want to be the first to know then join us on our mailing list so you will be the first to find out! Just Click the button below now! 

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