The crew and the vessel...

Actual Date of Events: Early October

Having only spoken with the captain via emails, I departed Portland airport with only one bag and with no expectations. After a painful layover in Las Angeles and an excruciating sleeping Spaniard whose head rested on my shoulder the majority of the flight, I arrived in Tahiti.

The temperature was in the 90’s and it was so humid that within the thirty minutes it took waiting for my ride, my shirt had literally melted to my body. As I waited, sitting in the airport I realized that the lady who had been sitting across the isle next to me on my flight, was Marina, the Scottish woman who also would be on our boat. It was quite hysterical that we had sat next to each other and had not spoken a single word our entire flight. I even debated asking her if I could sit in the vacant seat next to her in which she so comfortably lay across sleeping so that I might escape the snoring sleeping Spaniard whose drool steeped my shoulder.

Dave our captain finally arrived and after some difficulties fitting Marina, Dave, and myself along with our things into a small friends car, we were finally off. Dave, or DD “Dirty D” as I later nicknamed him and he soon became known by the crew as, was a 61 y/o Canadian who had been both the captain of delivery and charter boats for some thirty years. He had left the British Virgin Islands, sailed to Panama and had made it to French Polynesia before getting a near deadly staff infection in his foot. Dave had been hospitalized in Tahiti for over two months and had his dinghy stolen by his previous crew leaving him stranded. As I slowly got to know Dirty D, I could understand why his three previous crew had deserted him but these reasons will be explained in due time.


After a short ride, we soon arrived at the harbor and made our way to “Ferdinand” our boat that was anchored out in the free anchorage. Since the Dirty D had his previous dinghy stolen he had recently purchased an official cheap piece of crap and upon my first sighting I knew this man was a cheapskate. The red dinghy that can be seen above had several holes, about two inches of water in it, no motor and two oars. Among the other dinghies on the dock, it had the appearance of a rundown moped parked next to a Cadillac.

As I shuttled first Marina, then Dave to the sailboat, I realized the necessity of obtaining a motor and fortunately Dirty D had already found one to purchase. The next morning I soon realized how my relationship with the captain would unfold when he asked me to go to the ATM and get $500 US dollars to purchase a motor. I did so reluctantly and felt a little strange that my first instructions were to get money for the captain. Clarifying that he would pay me back I did as instructed and paddled nearly a mile in our dinghy to purchase a Yamaha 15 motor from a fellow cruiser.

Just for reference, cruising is a lifestyle. One sails from country to country, living on their boat unemployed. Doesn’t sound so bad does it; typically cruisers consist of the wealthy and I consider their boats to be the RV of rich folk. Ironically, the boat and captain I arrived to were quite the contrary, broke, cheap, and barely getting by.

The final crew, who had arrived the day before was a 21 y/o Canadian by the name of Josh. He can be described as a tall gangly, uncoordinated man who often appears as if he is watching some bird off in the distance. Although he often would amaze me with his ability to be both in a conversation while at the same time having no idea what the conversation was about, it was the friendship between him, Marina and myself that made the journey and captain both bearable and enjoyable. Josh also has a Blog from our trip and to better understand our crew, I’ve inserted his description:

“My new shipmates turned out to be Eli, also known as "Manimal" and Marina the 40 something Scot who is not afraid to tell you she is always right! She also enjoys to party a lot and reminisce about her days in the Caribbean on a party yacht which sold shirts saying "I came I saw I jumped off of the Willy T naked!” which you had to do to get the free t-shirt. And then you have me of course and our Cap'n who upon my arrival told me that some of his previous crew think that "the sun shines out his ass" while others regard him as an "anal prick"! So far he's not proved too popular with the crew who like to imitate his cries of "asshole" and so on in his nasally and annoying voice. So he definitely suffers from a case of Grumpy ol’ man syndrome, which can put a damper on things. He's also a nudist who can be a little shocking in the mornings to wake up to and has a swollen foot to contend with from an old infection, but that's another story.”

The Crew

"Dirty D"

Marina

Josh

Eli

Life on Dirty Dave’s sailboat can be described in few words, cramped and cluttered, with cleanliness consisting merely of salt-water showers. Cramped describes both our eating, sleeping and lounging atmosphere and cluttered describes the fact that Dave had never cleaned his boat out. It looked as if he slept in his office with no clear understanding of organization.

Unfortunately I took no pictures of the inside of our boat, so I will do my best to give a verbal tour. As you walk through into the cockpit and down the steps, you arrive in both the galley and Josh and my bedroom. Our beds were the seats to the table which both folded down into small beds. Depending on the side the boat was heeling, either Josh or I slept, rarely both. At the foot of my bed was the stove, sink and ice chest. It was conveniently positioned so that when Dave would walk past to make his coffee, naked usually, he would graze my feet that overhung off my bunk and into the galley. At the top of Josh’s bed was one head (toilet) and at the base was the chart table. The Stern quarters belonged to the captain, with a separate head (toilet) and the bow quarters belonged to Marina.


After a few rounds of drinks and our first night sleeping on the Ferdinand we all became acquainted and knew immediately that our voyage was certainly going to be interesting and an adventure to be remembered.