The Nearly Man - 11:57 AM, Apr. 19, 2005

Spotted an ad last Thursday from a regular on a well-known yachting forum Crew Wanted - Short Notice! Seems that the gentleman in question was unable (an eleventh-hour family situation) to skipper his new boat back from Florida to the UK and while one of the crew was able to step up to skipper, they were looking for a fourth. Mystical is a Nicholson 39 (an excellent choice for anyone's first ocean passage!) but she still needed a few jobs completing and so the whole trip was likely to take 7 or 8 weeks. It sounded like a wonderful adventure for someone.

Now, I've never even been out of sight of land on a yacht (unless you count thick fog in the Sound of Mull) but that didn't stop me mentioning the ad to SWMBO (just in the passing!) who pointed out, in one of her more perceptive moments, that very few people were likely to be able to take 2 months out at a week's notice and why didn't I try for it? She may not be any kind of a sailor but my sweetheart is nonetheless a real treasure!

So I sent off my PM on the Friday and after a brief flurry of PMs and emails I was on, as far as the owner was concerned but with the proviso that the skipper had the final say. SWMBO was right, there were no other hopefuls. All was quiet on the Sunday though I was in high gear; yes, flights were available at a reasonable price; NO, my passport was just about to expire but a trip to Glasgow would fix that; decided I'd invest in a triple-hook life-line though the rest of the gear would do; and so on.

Then I got an email from the skipper on Monday morning. He had also been looking for crew and had signed up an old pal literally minutes before getting my details from the owner. He was most apologetic. However we had a good chat on the 'phone and he did hold out one small glimmer of hope. It seems that one of the crew may need to drop out at the Azores and would I be interested? So here's hoping he wasn't just trying to let me down gently.

Never mind, "Whit's fur ye 'll no go by ye" and I'll be able to do The Chentleman's Cruise after all!