Unlike the name of his 25-foot home-built wooden yacht, Lucky Linda, Cornwall sailor Dean Swift encountered a raft of problems on his recent transatlantic adventure. However, he remarks the mythical gods of the sea must have been on his side.
Apart from having his boat battered, and dealing with a first mate who couldn’t steer straight, Swift was almost accused of human trafficking in Brazil.
He set off from Cape Verde, off the west coast of Africa, in late December, covering about 1,600 nautical miles in 29 days before dropping anchor in São Luís on Brazil’s north coast. It was there that he learned his first mate, a native of Ghana, had entered Brazil illegally because he did not possess the required special visa.
“When he went missing, I went to the police station. I didn’t know that he needed a special visa. The police thought I had deliberately smuggled him into the country,” recounts Swift. “I thought I was going to be put in jail.”
In a journal, he wrote: “Will it be prison of will the whole matter be deemed a matter of bad judgement on my part and forgotten?”
The authorities concluded that Swift was not a smuggler, but if the first mate is found, he will be responsible for covering the cost of his deportation.
This has already been an expensive voyage for the 79-year-old, who has been obliged to pay marina fees while he tries to move Lucky Linda out of Brazil.
“The rigging was damaged in rough seas with 12-foot swells,” says Swift.
He also faces hefty import taxes.
“The people in Brazil were very helpful and understanding,” he relates, but it was frustrating dealing with bureaucracy and three levels of police.
In a series of mishaps, Lucky Linda, which had run out of fuel, was towed into a harbour, where it could not be moved without cutting off the anchor. At one point, the two-man crew had only one can of beans left to eat onboard.
Swift laughs when he explains the title of the book recounting his second trans-Atlantic trip – Salacia, Neptune and Discordia, three ancient Gods. Salacia was the goddess of the sea and wife of Neptune, who was the god of freshwater and oceans, and Discordia, goddess of strife and discord. He jokes that he suffered the wrath of the mythical figures as they tried to force the fearless crew to abandon the trek. But eventually, the gods smile on the sailors as they crossed the Equator. “And as if by magic, the ocean has calmed, the winds have steadied and the rains have abated,” he wrote.
Reflecting on the ups and downs of his trip, Swift shrugs. “I expected a snag here and there but I was used to snags. It was part of the adventure, something to look back at and laugh about.”
Lucky Linda was built in 1986 in his back yard and launched in 1995 at Cornwall Island. His “home-away from-home” had earlier taken him to the Bay of Fundy, the Azores, Portugal, Morocco and the Canary Islands.
