“Of course, no point fighting the currents.” I told her that once we left Turkey there would be no turning back or landing until we reached Canada. “Halifax, non-stop, maybe Vancouver. We’ve got no choice.”
“Vancouver? From here? Non-stop? This really is a joke, right?” Sinem drilled into me with dark eyes. Waiting for the punch line.
“It’s no joke.” I said.
“Alright, what kind of sailing experience do you have, Jess, is it?”
I embellished slightly. Telling her, “I’ve done some offshore racing.” I added my experience as commercial pilot, which was true, so at least I knew about weather and navigation. Of course, filing an IFR flight plan, tracking a series of VORs then intersecting and following the ILS in for landing might be a little different, but the same principals had to be at work.
Sinem strolled around the travel lift. “So, you don’t stop in Florida, but that’s where you’ll be headed. Gibe to starboard with the Windward Passage on your port side and head north until you see the iceberg that sank Titanic. Pack a lot of groceries. You’re going to be out there a long time.” She shook her head, then pointed at a couple of disks implanted in the hull, visible now that the occluding strap had been cut away. “Depth sounder and water speed.” Then, pointing at the top of the mast, which could have been in the clouds had there been any, “wind speed and direction. This boat has an autopilot?”
I didn’t know, but assumed by her asking that it must have, “Oh yes, fully equipped, top of the line, yes-sireeee, really impressed the heck out of me.”
“Beneteau puts good stuff on board, but you are going to need a lot more than it comes with. And how are you set for charts? Are you getting a package mailed in for your route or are you flying to London to get them from Admiralty Nautical?”
I hadn’t come up with an answer by the time she started rattling off a list of equipment. Some of it I recognized from the book I was re-reading or from yacht club presentations, but a lot of it was unfamiliar and sounded expensive. “We’re really going to need all that?”
“If you want to stay alive, you will. This boat is equipped for charter. It has what it needs to get to pretty bays and yacht clubs. I’m sure the guest accommodation below deck is splendid, but I can see from here, this yacht is not ready to cross any oceans.”
“Well, it’s not like we’re sailing the Vendee Globe.” I hoped a little name dropping would add to my credibility.
“Around the world alone non-stop, you are not doing, certainly not in a charter yacht, but you and your boat can be in the same conditions, troubles, dangers and emergencies as those racers. Especially because you can’t stop and rest, or fix things. You need to be prepared for anything. If, as you say, Anna can not be caught between here and Canada and you can’t call for help, then you and your friend can die at sea with the Coast Guard a radio call away. It is crazy.”
“Look, I don’t have a choice in the matter. I, or we, will do the best we can with what we’ve got, which is why I want you to teach Anna how to sail this thing so I can concentrate on getting that equipment and getting it installed.”
Anna zoned out. She started to wobble, apparently too bored to stand, she found a place to sit.
“I’m just trying to help. My job is teaching someone to sail and teaching them to know what the boat is capable of. You want to leave soon? This is Turkey! You can’t just go to the store and buy the equipment you will need. It can take months and thousands and thousands of Euros to get something from customs if it even gets here.”
“I didn’t know that, but we’ll find a work-around. What do other people do?” I asked.
“They island-hop to Greece, then Italy, then France or they put the yacht on Dock Wise and ship it. Why do you think yachts are so cheap here?”
“What if they want to cross oceans or sail around the world?”
“They don’t do it with a charter yacht and they spend a long time, sometimes years, preparing themselves and the boat!” Sinem caught herself, stopped, shook a cigarette from a pack of Marlboros. “Business is bad and I want this job, but I don’t want to help you two kill yourselves.” Something caught in her bronchi and Sinem doubled over with a wet racking cough.
“I guess it’s do-or-die.” I let Sinem hack away.
“Die? What about dying?” Anna broke in. “I do not want to die.”
“Then you two better have the right equipment, and if Anna has to be out of Turkey in two months, you may not have time.” She took a long drag on her cigarette. “If you like his report, see what your surveyor has to say about your plans and see if he can get the equipment you need. I’m just a sailing teacher.” She turned and started walking. “Call me when the boat’s in the water.”
The survey report was beautiful. Spiral binding, glossy covers, high quality paper. Harvey must have had a sophisticated print shop on board that gulet of his. There were pictures, recommendations, assessments, and finally a description of the vessel calling it, “A good charter yacht worth more than the agreed upon price.” That, I really liked.
I met with Harvey, gave him the agreed upon cash for the survey, and asked him if he could help with my plans to go seriously offshore. Well, I’d come to the right place. Harvey’s Yacht Inspection Service morphed instantly into Harvey’s Yacht Outfitting Consultancy. He assured me he had designed and built yachts for far more demanding tasks than simply crossing oceans. I was promised a hand delivered proposal the very next morning.
That proposal, although as nicely bound and printed as the survey report, was less than inspiring. In fact it was downright sobering. Did Harvey think I was made of money? In it, he included a map with three routes; to Halifax getting close to Florida, to Vancouver going around Cape Horn, and to Vancouver going through the Panama Canal. His footnotes referred to the Panama route as the most likely to succeed. The Panama route had the added benefit of bringing the yacht home instead leaving it in Eastern Canada. There would be no market for a serious cruising yacht in marinas that freeze solid over winter. I’d forgotten about winter, and by the time I’d finished reading his proposal, I had completely dispensed with Halifax as a destination.
The equipment list was broken into two parts: need to have, and nice to have. The estimated cost was more than the price of the yacht — completely out of the question. The necessary stuff rang in at merely astronomical, but within my borrowing range. It included modifications and upgrades I hadn’t considered, like extra fuel tanks. If we needed it to get home, then there was really no choice. I convinced myself the parts and work would increase the resale value of the yacht and gave Harvey the green light to go ahead. His take from the project would be a ten percent commission on the parts, shipping, fees, taxes, labor (including his), you name it. For the next two months Harvey was not only going to be a project manager but our new best friend.
With Shadow in the water, we moved back on board and the sailing lessons started in earnest. They went according to plan, with Sinem teaching Anna how to use the engine, maneuver the yacht, tie knots, and handle the sails. I watched and even tried a thing or two with comments like, “interesting, I wonder how that feels on this boat?” as a foil.” Sinem never again brought up equipment or preparations, although stuff was showing up and being installed by the various tradesmen hired by Harvey.
When things finally unraveled on Harvey, they did so spectacularly. The two brothers I’d met during the travel lift incident started things off by sneaking back into the marina and setting fire to the yacht. They’d been welding together an ungainly steel cage Harvey had designed to hold equipment. Although the fire was quickly extinguished, the commotion brought another crowd of shouting, fist waving, epithet hurling Turks to the boat. Harvey, of course, made himself scarce and the two brothers, who knew nothing about boats or welding, found themselves the focus of an angry crowd getting downright ugly. I worried about a public stoning, right then and there.