Cristina in BY ROD MCCALLUM The Cristina B
ack in the late 1977, I arrived in London after a fairly arduous trip through South America and 3500km up the Amazon River in an old leaky boat carrying salt. The noticeboard at the hostel I stayed at in London had many advertisements for prostitutes offering various services and in the middle was an ad that read Sailor Wanted! With some trepidation I rang the number, expecting some heavy breathing, but was pleasantly surprised to speak to someone who actually wanted someone to sail some yachts out in Greece. I flew to Skiathos the next day and joined a flotilla of 12 Mirage 28 yachts sailing round the Sporades, in the Northern Aegean. It started my love affair with yachts and the Mediterranean. I always believed I would return to the Med one day and revisit
many of the places I sailed around during the eight years I was there. Marriage to Pippa and two children meant a 20-year commitment I
30 Professional Skipper July/August 2011 r
Italy Rod beside sulphur vents on Volcano Island
wouldn't have missed, but the dream never diminished. I was heavily involved in yacht racing in the United Kingdom during the 1990s and returned to New Zealand in 1999. I crewed racing yachts on the Hauraki Gulf for a couple of years, did a spell as master of the Sealink from Auckland to Great Barrier Island in
k
2003 and delivered several large yachts to and from Fiji. Last year I help to take Discovery 5 to Honiara in the Solomon Islands. We spent many weekends with our friends Brooke and Nicky (also ex-flotilla staff) at their holiday house in Turangi, skiing and trout fishing, and agreed the time had come to look for a yacht. After a year trolling the internet I found a Beneteau Oceanis
473 for sale at Trapani, Western Sicily, and she seemed to have everything we would need and apparently had had very little use. I emailed 10 questions I wanted the broker, Luciano, to answer and he came back with all the answers I wanted, plus about 10
