Florida V

Oyster 66

Dominican Republic to Nassau then Newport RI. Two

When I was asked if I wanted to be involved and possibly skipper this Oyster 66, I was in Newport Rode Island shipyard rummaging around in a large container belonging to the Gunboat Pheado, a 65’ rocket about to compete in the North Atlantic race. The idea being to pack their gear away for shipment to Southampton UK., that way, the guy I was helping, my great friend Rolly Bennett and I could have some time together before he went to South Africa and I went back to UK to start teaching for Southern sailing.
Bearing in mind that it is the hurricane season, a time when few sane sailors will venture out of their comfortable marinas! I of course said yes please!

The trip was to be in two legs the Dom Republic to Nassau in the Bahamas, with the current skipper in charge, where the official transfer of ownership took place, then on up to Newport for some work to be done prior to the Owner and his family joining the boat for a cruise at the end of August.

Unusual airport transfer.

I am often sceptical of a vessel which has been up for sale for two years, especially when it is been kept in a hot humid climate like the DR. I was to be pleasantly surprised; both by the Island and the quality set-up.

I was transferred to this beautiful Marina in a smart land cruiser driven by a guy with 9mm automatic in his waste band! I was told he carries it always because he is in the Navy!? Having been around weapons for some of my life I was unsure as to if he was my protector or I was his prisoner. Maybe I thought the boat was so bad they expected me to turn and run.

The boat when we arrived was without doubt very well presented, clean, the deck recently sanded, fuelled crewed and ready to go. The sea trials completed before I arrived threw up some issues and except for a serious problem with the Hydraulic sail handling “there was none” we were off the dock and away.

The Crew were something else!

The skipper for the first part of the trip was Carlos the Cuban, an amiable and competent seaman, always smiling and willing to help, the drawback he could not speak English, the owner, Steve who was joining us up to Nassau had a novel way of communicating with him, he used to speak to him in Italian which seemed to work, me I just adopted the old method of speaking louder and some sign language. Carlos has a fascinating history he used to be the boat master for Raoul Castro, Fidel’s brother, the guy now in charge of Cuba. As they say, scratch the surface of any man and there is a story, it is a pity he had to leave in Nassau otherwise we could have explored his colourful history deeper.

Then there is Toni Torres the proverbial jack of all trades, and he thinks the master of all, an OK chef/cook, and maintenance man constantly looking for work, agile in the rigging, but with a biased opinion on all things, his energy was wearing, just to watch him was tiring and his basic seamanship was non existent, totally dependent on electronic navigation, His opinion was always the only way to do things. He would change the fuel filters and half an hour later produce a sushi dinner made from scratch, every boat should have a crew member with Toni’s energy but they should all come with a muzzle and re-education to make them understand that both Yes and No are complete sentences. He slowly became my confidant and when we came to the end of the delivery I had hoped we could have had a heart to heart, but that was not to be the case, his decision to drink himself into loud oblivion the moment we were along side precluded any further chat. There is no basis for future work together.

His other talent is that he is the on board fisherman, he did not endear himself to me however when he woke me up in the middle of a deep sleep to tell me he had at last caught a reasonable Wahoo and a small Dorado but he was soon forgiven when it appeared on the plate thirty minutes later.

The other member of the crew is Greg, aboard for his additional local knowledge I have sailed on one short trip to Maine with him before. He has skippered a few boats since getting his Yachtmaster ticket. I wanted him on this trip because his last boat was an Oyster and I guessed that he would be in touch with the systems and in some ways that has proved a blessing. He was paid off in Newport.

 The Trip

Several weeks earlier I did a similar trip” Ironically on another Oyster” albeit a 56’ that time from Antigua via Bermuda to Newport that was a incident free comfortable ride even though the weather was sometimes a bit lumpier. The degree of comfort and air conditioned splendour on this larger vessel together with its increased length and the benign weather conditions have been great. I must say however that I have missed Alex and my old mate the half man half mattress Pete Mac with the tall stories and solid back-up.

I was beginning to think that there was no wild life left but for the last few days ending the trip we have seen Whales and dolphins galore, not to mention a Wahoo and a Dorado. In Nassau we managed to fix the hydraulics for the furling except the main out haul which we will be addressed in Newport together with some other issues.

Well I have been told by the owner that he has now appointed a full time couple to run the boat, so I wish him and the new crew the very best of luck for the future.