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.

I was approached by a young English Captain of a British Flag yacht called "Lord Jim", who was leaving after three years, He joined as an unpaid deck hand and ended up being the only one left on board after crossing the Pacific.

The vessel was at Able Point Marina. Whitsundays, Queensland. It needed a available Yacht Captain to take it to Phuket Thailand via The Great Barrier Reef Cape York, Bali ,Indonesian. Singapore .Malaysia The brochure looked great, as they always do.

It was an old steel hull ketch with aluminum super structure, riveted together, and built in the UK by Camper & Nicholson in 1977.

I submitted a CV and forgot about it till I got called from the owner who was in the performance coaching business . I was quickly convinced because of the owners skills.

After driving north for two days I arrived at the marina and saw the boat, I realized I'd been conned. The yacht was a mess.

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.

The captain of the ship quickly left unfortunately for him the owners were disputing his return ticket home.

The Boat was desperately in need of repairs and I as the relief captain Phuket started on my own. I wanted to save face and get going but had no boat money or cards.

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.

Refitting this boat has bought great happiness to me and I am Proud of my efforts.