Living the Delivery life - Simone Hill

How did you get into this line of work?

When the opportunity to join some yacht deliveries arose at the beginning of Australia’s COVID lockdowns in 2021, I jumped at the chance for a new adventure. Having grown up around boats in a sailing family and competing in racing on Sydney Harbour and up and down the Australian coast most of my life, I saw it as a chance to build on my experience of previous shorter deliveries to the Whitsundays and from New Caledonia back to Australia.

Over the last two years, I have had the privilege of visiting about thirty countries, many of them more than once, taken well over 50 PCR tests, spent plenty of time in quarantine facilities and airline lounges, rolled out my yoga mat in some exotic places, and swum laps in swimming pools of all shapes and sizes. I have covered 35,000 nautical miles on yachts from 38 to 100 feet long, both catamarans and monohulls, and it has been amazing.

During my travels, I also used the time to complete my Certificate II in Maritime Operations (Coxswain) studies and keep my First Aid and Safety at Sea qualifications up to date. I am now working towards my Certificate III in Maritime Operations (Master up to 24m) while running my business remotely.

I’m currently crossing the Pacific Ocean on a 78-foot classic yacht, one of only three in the world by Hoek Design and the sister ship to ‘Drumfire’ on Sydney Harbour. We picked up the yacht from a marina in Papeete in Tahiti and sailed via the French Polynesian islands of Huahine, Raiatea, Tahaa and Bora Bora with the owners on board before departing on a passage of 1800 nautical miles to Port Denarau in Fiji and then on to Sydney. This is a journey of 3,300 nautical miles in total with a crew of four onboard.

So - what is involved? What is delivery life really like?

You need to be very open minded and flexible in your outlook to enjoy deliveries. Things don’t run to a schedule and there is a lot of ‘creative problem solving’ required. You are building relationships with yacht owners, crew, and trusted suppliers around the world. Managing expectations for these people is important and takes time as they are entrusting you with one of their most valuable assets. Clear communication and lateral thinking are key - especially when there are several different languages involved.

My role as the Logistics Manager for each trip begins with research on the destinations, we will be collecting the yacht from, and those we plan to stop at along the way, with regards to entry requirements, visas (Crew or Seafarer), COVID testing and vaccination rules.  These are constantly being amended by various authorities so it’s a moving feast of regulations to keep up to date.

When we have new crew joining us, I collate all the paperwork required and manage the passports for Border Force, Customs, Immigration, and port control.  We need to prepare copies of crew lists, authority letters from owners, copies of registration, previous entry and exit papers and yacht insurance.

I look after the flight, accommodation, vehicle, and marina bookings as we move through various countries. Meticulous record-keeping and tracking all expenses is ongoing.

Once we arrive on the yacht, we conduct a full inspection and ensure it is ready to undertake the passage ahead. This includes safety gear, engine servicing and spare parts, test sail, calculating fuel and water consumption and requirements, first aid needs and navigation charts.

It is important not to have a fixed date in mind for departure or arrival – we can only leave when every aspect of the yacht is ready.

I have several checklists to work through that are refined each time we leave. Labeling the location of all the important items on the yacht and learning the various systems like autopilot, water-maker and generator ensure operations run smoothly. I enjoy the navigation and take responsibility for radio communications and our courtesy and quarantine flags along the way.

Provisioning is important to keep everyone happy and I use a spreadsheet to estimate amounts for each item based on time to next port.  We eat a mix of fresh and canned food depending on the esky/fridge/freezer on the boat and what methods of cooking we have – on the racing yachts this is often super basic – a butane cooker on the floor. It’s useful not to rely on only one source of power – if there is an issue with an inverter, microwaves and induction cooktops quickly become useless. Modern yachts need a good understanding of electrics/power to keep everything running.

Once we have cleared out and are on the water, we move into watches and settle into life at sea.  Watches run 24 hours a day - either three hours on/three hours off if we are two-handed or two hours on/four hours off if fully crewed.  Decisions are discussed and made as a team. Keeping a vigilant lookout is important – many vessels don’t use AIS and fishing nets are a constant through Asia. Fishing platforms, oil rigs, squid boats, and reefs are other distractions.

We work closely with an expert meteorologist to obtain relevant, timely weather updates to assist in planning routings, entering waypoints, and calculating sail time and fuel consumption.

It’s important to self-manage your sleep, water, and meals to keep yourself in great condition.  Using the time off for reading, podcasts and learning is ideal – we generally do not have internet when offshore, so I download audio books in advance using Apps like Borrow Box and Libby (free with my local library membership). I love learning about the areas we travel through and following in the footsteps of the previous explorers. Mental fitness is just as key as physical on the longer passages.

Tell us a about some of your previous trips….

During the past few years, the cost of freighting a yacht on a container ship has dramatically increased and the availability of boats available for sail in Australia has been restricted, so several deliveries have been from Asia back to Australia to new owners. These included two trips from Phuket – Darwin double handed, and the relocation of a Swan 48 for an owner in Hong Kong back to Sydney.

While travel restrictions applied, we were able to obtain special permits for work purposes to enter countries, such as Japan to return a race yacht that had been left in the Philippines after a previous regatta.

Ongoing work is also the movement of race yachts from their base to the start of the next event. A previous delivery trip from Hobart – Sydney – Hamilton Island – Rabaul – Palau – Subic Bay on the carbon fibre Scallywag 100 was completed with six crew over a period of five weeks.  Steering a performance race boat in 35 knots of breeze is something I would not have done if I hadn’t joined the delivery.  We then returned the yacht to Rivergate in Brisbane for a complete re-fit later in the same year.

After each major race in Australia there is always the need for reliable delivery crew to return yachts to their home ports – post Hobart and Hamilton Island Race week are busy periods with bookings made well in advance by owners.

When a yacht is a new build, we act as the owner’s representative as it comes out of the factory, is launched, has its rig installed and conduct sea trials.  Earlier this year we collected a catamaran from Ho Chi Minh City in Vietnam to deliver it back to Airlie Beach in Queensland to go into charter.

Talk us through some highlights….

Taking in nature and wildlife is beautiful – until you have seen stars 360 degrees around you down to the waterline you haven’t lived! Jumping overboard as we crossed the equator, watching dolphins swimming in phosphorescence, seeing huge whale sharks, meeting new people, understanding maritime history, and learning about different cultures have all been unrivaled experiences for me.

The advantage of traveling via yacht is the slow arrival into a new country, often you can smell the land before you see it, then it’s a smudge on the horizon, then an island, a coconut, or other jetsam floats by, you see some small boats and then navigation leads and lights and finally trees and mountains and the harbour.  So different to landing at an air-conditioned airport and taking a bus to a hotel.  Immediately you must engage with local people and authorities during the clearing in process.

Most of our time is taken up sourcing jerry cans, fuel, spare parts, and food so it is standard procedure for me to find a driver, showing them images saved on my phone and asking them to take me to a store where I can buy something similar - usually with my limited French or in sign language. 

Travel reminds me that people the world over want to help and will go out of their way to point me in the right direction, let us ahead in a queue, share their drinks and food, and just generally want to understand where we are from and what we are doing.

Each time we arrive at a new port I take the time to explore a new destination when I can during our short stopovers.  We don’t drink alcohol on deliveries so a few cold beers and meals that someone else has prepared is always appreciated.

I take a lot of photos and make notes in my phone when travelling and enjoy sharing my trips with family and friends when I’m back in range.  I plan to stick with the delivery life for as long as I enjoy it.

Article by Simone Hill

Courtesy of The Compass Rose, A newsletter for the MHYC Cruising activities.