Everyone who knows us has heard us talk about Aschanti, the beautiful black classic schooner on which we worked as first mate/engineer and cook from June 2005 until October 2006.
It was our time on Aschanti that gave us the confidence, experience and financial boost to embark on our sailing escapade on Bandit. Meeting Kalle Ebner (skipper) and sailing on Aschanti changed our lives forever…..if not for him we’d probably still be living in NZ!!
David met Kalle in 2000 when Kalle was skippering another schooner, Sea Gypsy, and David was pounding the docks in Palma, Majorca, looking for yacht work. Given they are only 11 days apart in age and share the same sense of humour….the two immediately hit it off.
Kalle employed David as crew for the season and a friendship was formed that exists to this day and resulted on us doing a three month stint on Aschanti from Italy to the Caribbean in 2004. The following year we flew to Brazil to join Aschanti as permanent crew.
David joined Aschanti in Belem in the Amazon and I flew to Rio de Janeiro a few weeks later. We had three months based in Rio (a fascinating time) with a couple of trips down to the magnificent cruising ground around Isle Grande, south of Sao Paulo.
In November it was time to head north to the Caribbean with a month stopover in Trinidad. To my delight Kalle agreed to let youngest son Ryan join us. He stayed on as deckhand for several months before getting work on a motoryacht in St Maarten bound for Australia.
We had a busy but enjoyable season in the Caribbean spending most of our time in beautiful Martinique but with trips to the British Virgin Islands, St Maarten, Guadeloupe, Dominica, St Barts, Tobago Cays and Antigua for the classic yacht race.
All too soon it was time to head back across the Atlantic for the Monaco Grand Prix. The long days at sea cooking for a delivery crew of 10, followed by provisioning and preparing for the owner’s arrival were made worthwhile when we were invited to the Grand Prix. Not just any old seats either – but special guests of Gulfstream (jets) at the VIP suite of the Hermitage Hotel overlooking the racetrack with plenty of champagne and lobster on hand. What a magical day!
We spent the Mediterranean season cruising the French and Italian coasts and Sardinia and Corsica. Aschanti took part in the Rolex maxi race out of Porto Cervo which was another highlight.
Between times we were based in La Spezia in Italy where we had weekends off and spent them exploring the Italian provinces of Emilio Romagno, Tuscany and Liguria plus trips to Croatia, Germany and France. On one of our trips back from beautiful Portofino our faithful crew car caught fire and burnt out!! Oops…sorry Kalle.
During our time in the Med, David’s youngest daughter Ping joined us for a few months as nanny for the owner’s children which was a big thrill. She later rejoined as a stewardess – continuing the family tradition of working on Aschanti.
After 18 months, 12,000mls, two Atlantic crossings and visits to 17 countries we decided the time was right to buy our own boat and continue the sailing adventure on our own. We left Aschanti and spent a month driving through Italy, France and Spain exploring and looking at boats finally finding our dream boat – a Moody 46 – in Gibraltar. She had all the features we wanted – centre cockpit, a genuine blue water cruiser, two completely separate main cabins with en suites and at 46ft, able to be easily handled by the two of us.
Sadly, she was looking a bit sad having been neglected for some time. It took three months of hard work to get her back gleaming. Worst still, she was called Rinsewind….which sounded to us like a brand of washing powder. So Bandit it was – a name that always creates smiles wherever we go. We’re now five years into our sailing adventure and still can’t seem to find any reason to point Bandit’s bows towards New Zealand. We love our lifestyle and love our boat to bits. Watch this space!
