Bringing Curare Home: Part 1

Shipping on a freighter

Once we made the  decision to ship Curare home we set about looking into how to accomplish this.  GG had previously done preliminary research looking into the various means of transport and which ports were better to leave from.  As it turned out, Palma de Mallorca was the most popular and frequent shipping point in the western Mediterranean.  We would be sailing right past this port on the way to our scheduled haulout in mainland Spain, so we decided to investigate further.

GG contacted nine shipping companies and narrowed it down to two reasonable possibilities.  The first choice was to use the float on-float off Dockwise Yacht Transport that had space available in March 2023.  This would require storing Curare on the hard in mainland Spain while GG and LE reset their Schengen time clock, and then returning to Spain in the spring to sail Curare the short 120 miles back to Mallorca.

The next choice was a freighter chartered by international shipping company Peters and May to transport an assortment of yachts from the Med to the Caribbean when the hurricane season was over and the start of the Caribbean cruising season was beginning.  This was scheduled for the third week of October and presented a number of positive aspects.  We could delay our scheduled October 20 flights home, prepare Curare for the sea voyage via freighter and fly to Miami in November to receive her rather than flying back to Spain in the spring. 

But before committing to the ocean transport we had to make arrangements for Curare in Florida.  With the recent hurricane (Ian) that damaged a lot of marinas on the west side of Florida, combined with the influx of yachts for the start of the cruising season, not to mention the Fort Lauderdale boat show, marina space was at a premium.  We needed to be at a marina to prepare Curare for her truck trip and the marina had to have enough space for the transport truck to load Curare. GG contacted many marinas by email and phone and finally one was selected that said they could haul us out and place Curare on the truck trailer.  So now we had a freighter and a place to go in Florida but we still did not have a trucking company. More phone calls were made, and even more emails were sent before finding Joule Transport, a trucking company that was experienced in yacht transport and was available when Curare was scheduled to arrive.  With all the pieces loosely schedule we were able to commit to the shipping company organizing the freighter, Peters and May.

Wire transfers were completed to secure space on the freighter, brokers were assigned to clear Curare out of Spain and another into the US, insurance policies arranged, and a marina and hotel in Palma was selected while we prepared Curare for her ocean voyage.  It was an organizational challenge to get everything to fit together, but GG persevered and got it done.

And then things started getting complicated.  The chartered yacht transport ship, MV Sophia, was delayed leaving Turkey, delayed again in Italy and Curare finally departed Palma 10 days behind schedule.  This delayed arrival in Fort Lauderdale until the third week of November, closing in on the major American holiday of the year, Thanksgiving. 

Loading Curare onto the Sophia on November 8 was delayed by almost six hours but as soon as that was finalized LE and GG raced to the Palma airport, barely making their flight to Madrid. From there we flew home to the west coast, arriving to Gabriola on November 10. We figured the ocean crossing would take about 14 days from Palma via Antigua, but then Sophia put into the port of Algeciras in southern Spain for an unknown reason, causing a further three day delay. We could not make a plane or hotel reservation in Fort Lauderdale because we did not know exactly when the Sophia would arrive and this waiting period added to our stress. Finally we received notice that the Sophia was scheduled to be in Port Everglades the evening of November 27 so we quickly made plans and flew to Fort Lauderdale on Saturday November 26.  Curare was offloaded Monday morning, November 28, and we were waiting to receive her.

We must give Peters and May good credit for their organization and handling of the sea transport.  Their local office in Palma was very helpful in finalizing all of the small details that needed attending to and the main contact in Southampton England kept us informed of dates, procedures and schedules nearly everyday.  The loadmaster, Colin, was very enjoyable to work with in spite of the need to shuffle numerous boats around the deck of the freighter to ensure there was sufficient room to squeeze Curare into her cradle. He took great care while lifting all of the transported boats on and off the freighter’s deck and Curare arrived in Florida looking exactly as she did when we left her in Palma, no extra scratches and very little grime on her topsides.

Now it was time to take Curare to the marina Geoff had found – more about that in another post.