Dismasted!

(Photos courtesy of Yari Nunez)

Lotus is lying forlornly in Oyster Bay, without a mast. She looks a sorry sight, moored with no spars or rigging. She is surrounded by other boats in a similar condition. It seems it is re-rigging season.
We've opted for a complete set of new standing rigging, not cheap, but sensible considering where we're going, and we have no idea of the rig's history.
Apparently, Oyster Bay is a very nice place to be stranded.
Two more weeks and the rest of the crew will be frantically preparing for their flight. We have acquired a temporary passenger to Nova Scotia, Jane, but she's family. Lucky girl, she gets the fore-cabin for privacy, and the lovely motion. She should be fine though, she was in some pretty rough waters off Iceland and wasn't ill, even though it was a small motor boat.
The rigger is working on our double-spreader mast as I type, so it should be up by Monday.
Shelton & Dan sound pretty upbeat. Just spoke to William, so is he.

Finally Afloat

Old Photo, BTW

Well, the news is good. I got a call on Friday. She's finally in the water. They had a trial run on Wednesday, but there was a problem with a seacock. It was changed out, and as I spoke with them, they were coming into Huntington after a trial engine run. A really starring effort from Dan, mostly on his own. Luckily Shelton is there to work on the boat as well now. Considering she hasn't been afloat for three years, and has been re-engined and "modified", this is no small feat.
Now we need to make a cruising yacht into a bluewater. The watermaker is in, I think the watertank is still there, but needs to come out, or we foam it up. We have decent instruments, a sextant & tables
I've been scaring myself rigid reading "The Storm Tactics Handbook" and "AN140, the Atlantic Routes From North America".
I think a certain amount of concern in these matters is a good thing. If we foul up, it won't be from lack of research beforehand

The Grim Reality

William and I don't have Visas. Much as we tried to buck the system, we didn't do it. So, we put on a smiling face, and hit the US Embassy in London, armed with every piece of evidence were were going to return to the UK.
I went first

Mr C. What is your purpose in visiting the United States?

I'm sailing a friend's yacht back from the US
What's your sailing experience?
Now this gets me. I have no formal sailing qualifications whatsoever apart from some bizzare windsurfing certificate. I always said I wouldn't muck about and go straight for Yachtmaster. Not Yachtmaster Ocean, Self-doubt right now in the US Embassy? In buckets. Will the US let an idiot like me into their waters?
Errrm I've won Cowes Week, Round the Island race, as tactician/navigator , err I've....
What kind of boat is it?
A Swede 55, 52 foot long, rates 55m under the Scandinavian metre rule
What's the furthest you've sailed?
Probably Southampton to Kiel (I neglected to point out this was with work, on a 70m Corvette)
She looked at me and said
"You've clearly earned your sea legs, and you've earned your Visa
William had an even easier ride.
The day after we booked our flights
The trip was on.

The Realisation

What exactly have we done?
Dan's got a boat on the Eastern Seaboard, but we live 3000nm away

Hmm

There are three options:

Get her delivered by freight
Get someone who knows what they are doing to deliver her
Sail her home ourselves

We weighed up the options, and came to no conclusions. Each had its merits, the above were listed in cost, if not necessarily risk order.
Anyhow, Dan had to go to the US for work. Finally, the call came:
"Chris, can you skipper the boat back to the UK ?"
I took a while to answer
"Yes, but we need a crew"
Lots of people were really keen, until we called the dates.
Two more guys, William & Shelton were completely committed, a few others were hovering, so I put my foot down. If they dither, they're out.

It was only an option for William and myself to take time off work, in both cases, the whole year's allowance. If we do this thing, we do it quickly, no pleasantries lounging in the Azores. Our only choice is the Northern route:
Nova Scotia
Flemish Cap
Hit the Gulf Stream, but run away carefully in bad weather or heave to
Southern Tip of Ireland
Southampton

Its really not the nicest way to cross the Atlantic, but it is fast, plus Lotus is very good in the expected conditions.
I should be keel-hauled for that.
No conditions are expected, they are just dealt with when they happen

The Start

An idea by an old friend set us thinking, could we buy a yacht in the USA, and sail it back to the UK?
There seemed to be quite a difference in prices in secondhand yachts between the UK and the USA, and we combed the market for ages. By November 2007, we had a reasonable idea of the costs and the price differences. We had also found a few contenders, one of which stood out from the rest. We planned our trip to the USA, to look at seven boats. Ten days before we planned to go, Dan decided to go a week earlier. I had two days to sort out time off work, and off we flew.
After a nightmare flight, involving a ramble in a 747 around JFK trying to find an open terminal, and the usual hell of JFK customs, we grabbed a hire car & drove to our hotel. The following morning, we drove off to see the Swede 55, Lotus. Guided by our satnav angel "Garmina", we finally found the boat. I was quite disappointed. She seemed shabby, and had lots of "Improvements" from a previous owner which hadn't always been thought out, let alone finished.
She looked a wreck.
We went on to choice number 2, as a storm hit the Eastern Seaboard. In bloody awful weather, we looked at another few boats, including a very neglected Compass 48. It seemed the idea wasn't quite as smart as we thought.
After a trip to Bridgeport, to see another boat, nice, but not nice enough, we crashed just outside New Haven.
The next day, we took a day off & went to Mystic Seaport, which was really good, then drove back to Manhattan. After a long discussion in "The Slaughtered Lamb", we decided the Swede was actually a very good boat, but cosmetically tatty. We are both good enough to fix that. It was worth another look.
The next morning we drove out to Long Island to look at Lotus again. We spent hours looking over her, then decided to buy her. We offered a sum, but there was a problem:
The owner had said yes to some other people, but they hadn't paid when they said they would.
We were gutted, and went off to lunch. As I struggled with the size of my delicious meatloaf, I had an idea.
Would the brokers take a credit card deposit? Money, there & then?
We went back to the brokers, and after two hours of hell, wondering if this had been a futile journey, the owner turned up to sign the deal. Half an hour later, the Surveyor turned up to sort it all out.
5-30pm, the yacht was Dan's.
Had Dan not decided to go a week earlier, she would have been sold before we got there.
We returned to "The Slaughtered Lamb" to celebrate, albeit quietly, for reasons obvious in the next sentence.
The next morning, we turned the hire car back to Avis at 5-00am at JFK, and joined the queue for the flight to London.
Dan had bought a boat in the USA
I was back at work the next day.