Chapter One

This story commences in mid September 1998. (Well it actually starts about 35 years ago when something sparked a desire in me to sail a yacht across the ocean… Anyway, getting back to the present…)

One morning the telephone went in my office and on the other end was Jamie Thomas. He asked if I could be remotely interested in helping him deliver a yacht from Tonga to New Zealand for its potential new owner. After asking what type of boat, the number of crew and of course giving it serious consideration for all of 30 seconds, I replied yes depending on the dates. Jamie then went on to explain that it was only a possibility at this stage as the job was dependent on a successful tender being made for the boat by his contact.

I asked Jamie how his name had come up and he said that Jim Manning had referred Frank (the potential purchaser) on to him as someone who could be interested in undertaking the delivery trip.

Around the 10th of October Frank received advice that his tender had been successful. However, as he was away in Australia on business, he arranged with Jamie to secure confirmation of the gear that was on the boat, determine if the boat was in a seaworthy condition and provide estimates of the final costs for provisioning and sailing it back to NZ verses shipping it as deck cargo. To achieve this, contact was made with Trevor Gregory (the seller) via a phone call to Putaruru, a fax to The Moorings base in Vava'u and then a radio link to Tranquillo which was down in the Ha'apai group, which lie approximately 100nm south of Vava'u. Trevor then put a call through to Jamie here in NZ where all the above was discussed plus what was available in the way of gear and provisions in Vava'u. It was also arranged that Frank would make contact to advise what the final plan would be, upon his return to Auckland on the 19th of October.

On the 20th Frank confirmed that we would sail the boat back and faxed Trevor to arrange where & when we would meet. This only left 5 days to arrange flight details, buy the provisions not available in Tonga, and assemble gear and clothing for 16 days. Initially we talked about Frank going up on the Friday flight to check out what was needed so that Jamie and I could bring it up with us on the Monday. However this did not happen as the boat would not be back in Vava'u until Tues the 27th. We each had a 22kg weight limit on the flight for personal luggage so what do you take ? Well my list went like this:16 pr underpants, 8pr shorts, 12 teeshirts, 1 jersey,1 fleece jacket, 2 hats, 3pr sun glasses, wet weather gear, safety harness, 1set thermal underwear, 3 towels, 3 disposable wp cameras, sunblock, seaboots, 2 pr track pants, thermal socks, books to read, log book, candy bars, GPS & spare batteries, full toilet bag, personal strobe light & torches, tools & spares, sleeping bag, assorted dehydrated meals, 2kg fillet frozen steak, charts of Pacific, chocolate bars, salami etc, not forgetting a 600 pack of baby wipe toweletts.

We arranged to meet at the airport on Monday morning at 06:15 hrs and Robin & I would collect Jamie en-route. I spoke with Frank on the Sunday night and he informed me that he had 2 alarms set and would see us at the airport. At 05:00 our alarm went off. I gave Jamie a call, had a light breakfast, picked up Jamie and got to the airport at the arranged time. Here we waited for Frank to arrive as he had the plane tickets. At quarter to seven we started to get concerned as the flight closed at 7:05am and still no sign of Frank and Alison. We tried calling his home, no reply, his cell phone, the same. All of the other passengers had by this time checked in and been processed through customs. We asked the check in staff to hold the flight open as we were sure that Frank would arrive at any minute, and sure enough he did at 7:06 am! After hurried goodbyes, and a rush though immigration and customs, there was no time for duty free shopping, straight to the plane and aboard. (Actually we tried to buy some DF grog but we were chased out of there by the airline staff! and told to get on the aircraft NOW. What ever happened to the "Island time" concept?

Waiting at Auckland airport for Frank to arrive.

What caused Frank to be late? Well there was a party in his street Sunday night to farewell a neighbour and Frank and Alison did not get to sleep until 4 am, then slept though both alarms and only woke up at 6:30 am in response to the call of nature. Panic ensued as they tried to call the airport to let us know that they were on the way but could not get put through to the checkin desk. Still, in the end the crew (consisting of Jamie, Kerry & Frank) all ended up aboard the "Royal Tongan" service to Tonga via Niue. We departed Auckland at 07:30 hrs on Monday the 26th October 1998 climbing away to the NNE. I am sure that as we flew over Auckland harbour down below on the water, I saw Alan Brown wiping the dew off Skana's cabin top and Paul Leydon heading out fishing in the inflatable with his thermos of coffee.