Features
Over a few Skype calls, we agreed the ‘conditions’.
I was to cook and help with provisions. The cooking
was a bit worrying, as I hadn’t really cooked for many
years. I was also to carry out solo, alternate threehour watches at night. I would share in the everyday
living costs and make a USD 10 daily contribution to
some of the costs such as the costly Panama Canal
fees. Being keen to do a passage down the Canal,
and the overall daily cost being less than my current
living expenses in Singapore, I thought this reasonable.
It did cross my mind that sailing off with a stranger
may have some pitfalls, especially living in a small
confined space on a boat which is somebody else’s
home, with possibly rough seas. Despite this, I booked
my flight to Trinidad to join Moonshadow, with a little
trepidation, but looking forward to my adventure.
Within a few weeks of being online, and with some
dedication to shaping my profile, I had an offer to sail
with Richard on his yacht, Moonshadow.
Moonshadow is a very pretty 38-ft traditional full-keel
cutter, based on a Norwegian lifeboat from the mid
1800s. It’s a Colin Archer–type boat with a long bow
sprit and, for the size of boat, it has a large sail area.
Despite her weight, she doesn’t need much wind to
get sailing. She seemed a safe and solid boat and,
whilst not roomy down below, matched the sort of
boat I wanted to sail.
Richard and his partner from Portland had sailed on
Moonshadow westwards around the world over the
last 11 years. As his partner has returned to Portland
to be with her grandchildren, Richard has been
accompanied by various crew members sailing
through from the west Mediterranean and over the
Atlantic, on to Barbados and Trinidad—where I was to
meet up with him as his crew member. We would be
sailing on to Panama through the canal and maybe to
Costa Rica. He was then planning to return to Portland,
sailing up the West Coast via Hawaii, finishing his
circumnavigation.
44 Hebe jebes • Jan/Feb 2014
The rest of the story is on my blog site—except for those events that should always
stay on the boat (if interested see the archives www.emgtame.wordpress.com).
I would do it all again: the three-hour watches, the cooking, the sunsets, those
wonderful places of Bonaire Island, Cartagena, San Blas Islands, the interesting
towns of Colon and Portobello, our passage in the pouring rain through the Panama
Canal and, of course, the many interesting people I met.
Many thanks to the Captain and the yacht Moonshadow; I have now had a
taster of cruising.
45