Not Your Average Sailing Gig
The Trip: Palma de Mallorca - Gibraltar - Barcelona, Oct 2019
The Yacht: 84' Palmer Johnston ketch
I was asked to skipper this yacht to help the owner check out of the EU after a two year refit in Palma. The idea was to sail to Gibraltar, clear in and out and then sail back up the Spanish coast to Barcelona where the boat would spend the winter with the owners onboard. Sounds pretty simple doesn't it?
Well suffice to say, things didn't quiet go according to the owner's plan. It's a complicated story to do with Spanish Customs and a tax agreement called the TPA. I won't go into the ins and outs here but effectively to comply with the TPA, we had sail straight to Gibraltar to clear out of the EU. Instead the owner had his family onboard and a more leisurely cruise was on his mind. We had a few mechanical and electrical problems which forced a side trip to Ibiza where the fun began. The Spanish Customs ordered the boat to the main harbour of Ibiza as we were no longer on our designated course to Gibraltar. This began 8 days of paper warfare and inspections so the authorities could work out why we diverted to Ibiza.