As a yacht Captain, returning home to Australia from the Mediterranean, Caribbean and the USA for the past seven years, I quickly found work at Brisbane Ship Yard refitting a large sloop.

A young English Captain approached me about a British Flagged yacht called “Lord Jim”, which was leaving after three years, He then joined as a deck hand and ended up as the only person left on board after crossing the ocean.

The Boat was at Able Point Marina. Whitsundays, Queensland. It needed a available Yacht Captain to go to Phuket Thailand via Cape York, Bali ,Indonesian. Singapore and Malaysia. It had a brochure that looked fantastic.

It was an old Camper & Nicholson made in 1977 it had a steel hull with aluminum sub structure which was riveted together.

A CV was submitted and forgotten about but then I received a call from the owner who consequently was a psychologist in the motivational business .Of course I was very quickly convinced and took the job.

Arrived at the marina I saw the boat, an quickly realized I was Conned It was very badly looked after, which presented some problems.

As It turned out every thing about the boat was expired from the cruise permit to the ships regulation. Even the safety equipment was way past its used by date and sad to say needing to be replaced. This was very upsetting because I wanted to go.

With the old Captain leaving two days later and the owners disputing his return ticket to England, this was a harrowing time for a new captain.

As a relief captain Phuket started the rebuild paying bills with my own money to save face, as the promised boat money and boat credit card never arrived.

About 2 Years later I arrived in Thailand. I even continued to restore the vessel to her past glory with all systems running and on a limited budget and lots of problems for several more months.

Being Part of the nautical history of this magnificent boat has given me a great sense of pride and I am glad that I finished the Job.
Sabung Ayam
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