On Monday afternoon, Patrick Knobel entertained us all with his telling of the tale of My Fair Lady for our monthly Sailors’ Scuttlebutt.
About a decade or so ago, Patrick was lucky enough to be included in the crew tasked with delivering multi-million dollar luxury motor yacht “My Fair Lady” to her new home in Luanda, Angola.
The journey started with offloading of the vessel from a cargo ship in Walvisbay harbour, Namibia, finding a local supplier to repair and polish the very damaged and very large props, polishing the entire boat and covering her in plastic, and last but not least: spending a couple of hours filling her with 14tons of fuel.
From there, she had to navigate the Skeleton Coast, narrowly escaping a collision with a cargo ship in the night, keeping any eye on the fuel consumption the whole way… The two engines used fuel at a burn rate of 67litres per engine per hour!
Thank you Patrick for thoroughly entertaining us once more and for not causing bodily harm to the captain on night watch who nearly forgot the difference between red and green lights! Considering the Rand x Dollar exchange rate and the price of fuel, we are very glad not to have footed the fuel bill for your voyage!
