- On 31 January 2015 at ~09:30am we made an initial inquiry about sailboat Indra on the Boat Sales Tasmania website and sent email to Margie Jesson.
ENQUIRY TYPE: Boat sales enquiry
BOAT NAME: True North 34 “ Indra”
BOAT ID: 163873
URL: http://www.boatsalestas.com.au/sail-monohulls/true-north-34-indra/163873/
NAME: Joe Abbott
EMAIL: joedabbott@svrainbow.com
PHONE: 063-0915-647-2937
MESSAGE: Interested in this boat. I currently live in Naga City, Cebu PI. What would be needed to see boat in person in at Davao? Have sent e-mail inquiry to Margie at 'margie_jesson@yahoo.com.au' also.
- On 31 January 2015 at ~18:00 received email response from Kim Brewer of Boat Sales Tasmania.
Thanks for your enquiry. To arrange an inspection you can contact Terry Sargent 63-9297879078 yachties@yahoo.com
Terry apparently is based at Oceanview Marina and will be able to show you the boat. "Indra" is owned by Margie and Rob Jesson. Rob is seriously ill in New Zealand and they are unable to cruise further in "Indra". They are friends and we have cruised the South Pacific together, hence my involvement (in case you were wondering why a NZ yacht in the Philippines was being advertised by a Tasmanian broker!). Please don't hesitate to get back to me if I can help with anything.
- On 31 January 2015 at ~18:30 sent email to Terry Sargent and had cell phone conversation with him that evening.
- On 1 February 2015 at ~0945 received email from Terry Sargent.
Confirming our phone conversation, anytime after this Tuesday, 3 Feb, is good for us. With advance notice of your arrival we can pick you up at the airport (unless it's the day when we haul our boat and I don't think that will happen in the very near future). The owner, Rob, died this morning at 0030. After the funeral I know that Margie's plan is to come here to collect their personal items from the boat. No dates known at this time. That would also be an excellent time to learn from her the ins and outs if you find you are interested in buying the boat after seeing it.
Needed to make arrangements for travel and hotel to visit Indra - back to internet searches.
Located a hotel just south of Holiday Oceanview Marina called Precious Garden of Samal Hotel & Restaurant. Contacted them and made reservations for two nights, 6-7 February, for the three of us. They quoted a rate of 2,500 pesos per night for two persons plus 600 pesos for extra person - breakfast was included. The total charge was 6,200 pesos (US $124.00) with 1,500 peso advanced deposit; which we sent by wire transfer from our Bank of Philippine Islands (BPI) account. They in turned confirmed the reservation and sent voucher receipt by email.
Obtain airline tickets for three person from Cebu Pacific Airlines website. Departure was 6 February 2015 at 0720 from Mactan Cebu International Airport with arrival at Francisco Bangoy International Airport at 0825. Return flight was scheduled for 8 February 2015 at 1730 departing Davao with arrival back in Cebu at 1830. The cost of tickets was 14,935.92 pesos (US$ $358.09).
- On 4 February 2015 at ~0600 received email from Margie Jesson.
Hi Joe, this is Margie Jesson here. Great to hear that you and your family are going to see Indra. As you know my husband Rob has just died. We visited her for 10 days in October last year, for Rob to say goodbye. But he was in the midst of chemotherapy at the time, and still hoped to come back again one more time, so we didn't take personal things off. The inventory is as is stands and includes a good Sailrite sewing machine which will do anything you want from sails, covers down to home sewing. The diesel tank has been kept full. The only thing I wanted to mention is the sea cocks which were all turned off. For the engine, the raw water sea cock is on the port side and you lift a floor hatch to access it. The engine exhaust has a gate valve in it which was to be used if you were hove to and engine not going. I am not sure if we left that closed. You access that from a hatch at the back. The round cover at the rear of the cockpit seating is where the Whale manual bilge pump is accessed. Other seacocks are under the kitchen sink and there are 2 under the bathroom sink for the toilet. The pressure water pump sometimes keeps going, so I would turn it off at the electrical panel when not in use. We lived full time on Indra since 2004, and she was our home, and very comfortable with masses of storage. I will be staying in New Zealand until Rob's memorial service on 21st Feb, so cannot be in the Philippines until after that. Please email if you have any questions I can answer.
- On 4 February 2015 at ~1140 responed back to email from Margie Jesson.
Thanks for the response and information. Our family’s deepest condolences and prays are with you on your loss. To be fair, I have search the internet on you all and boat Indra – the PYGC articles were quite interesting. My daughter, Mary Ann, was fascinated with your stay in Japan as she has a current infatuation with the Japanese cultural – particularly Anime and Manga. I have also read extensively on Terry and his website. You both seem to have considerable experience and appeared to have enjoyed the adventure a board. Your opinion and judgment on what you would improve or fix next on Indra, i.e. To Do list, would be valuable information and welcome advice. We have been “looking” for a boat in this area for over a year and have checked websites and visited both Port Carmen, Cebu and Bonbonon Bay, Dumaguete Negros – met some great folks but didn’t find anything suitable. Your Indra looks very appealing from web site pictures.
- On 4 February 2015 at ~2000 received email from Margie Jesson.
Hi Joe, nice to hear from you. Indra was our home from 2004 when we bought her from an American couple in New Zealand. They sailed her out from Oregon. Previous to that she had been owned by someone from Alaska. She was the perfect size for us. We looked a friend's boats, and although many were bigger, we thought we had just as much room inside because of the clever design. Our favorite place in our travels was Japan and the diesel heater kept us really warm in the winters there. As Terry can tell you, we did extensive work on Indra while she was in Oceanview Marina as it was a good place to stay with good workmen and stainless steel fabricators in Davao. We flew back to NZ twice for 6 months at a time to do house sitting as a change from the heat of the Philippines. Our intention was to sail Indra back to New Zealand and keep living on her there. In fact, I originally intended to get a delivery crew to take her from Davao to New Zealand, after Rob died, but the cost quoted was too high. And as I am not a natural sailor, I would have been putting her into a marina in NZ, and simply using her as an apartment. It is much better if she is kept sailing as she was designed to be. We had done pretty much everything we intended to do, just a few things left to do sometime. We had found a paint color we liked in NZ and were going to replace the varnish with paint. I loved to varnish and would put 12 coats on, but you need to sand lightly and do a couple more coats every 6 months in the tropics, so painting is a much better idea. The color we liked has been used on the new name board on the sissy bars by the mast. And I think there is a small sample tin on board. And we intended to put new Formica (lino) on the cabin table as the black Formica had been damaged over the years. That would be very simple to glue a new piece in. The fridge is very efficient and is sea water keel-cooled via the sink outlet - which works by the rocking motion of the waves (so you do not need a pump). That Danfoss fridge compressor is extremely quiet. We had just moved the anchor chain aft so it falls under the front berth instead of in the bow itself (to reduce weight at the bow). So one berth cushion needs a slit made in it, to accommodate the new s/s pipe. I had purchased some matching denim fabric and thread to redo that cushion. So as you can see Indra is in a sail away condition and there is nothing major that needs to be done in the future.
Everything was setup for our visit to the True North 34 sailboat Indra on 6 February 2015. Both the wife and daughter were excited to go and see!
