Fast-forward to February 2022, a summer evening at Westhaven Marina. In the Member’s Lounge of the Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron, Quintin Fowler seems very relaxed. He is with new friends he has made during a highly stressful sea voyage of an unusual sort.

The new friends are Ted Dixon and Jenny Johnson. Like Quintin, they were on the cruising adventure of a lifetime, in Georgetown, Bahamas waiting to head south to the Panama Canal and four years into a five-year stint of world cruising when the world progressively went into lockdown in response to a new pandemic threat called Covid-19.

Right at this moment, Ted and Jenny also seem very relaxed and happy. They are enjoying living on their beautiful Nordhavn 47, M/V Southern Star, in Auckland’s Viaduct Marina. They both have enjoyable work in the CBD, although they are working from onboard due to the pandemic restrictions, and life is good.

When the pandemic struck, Ted and Jenny were forced to make a difficult decision: continue cruising for another year in an unknown pandemic world, sail home to New Zealand, navigating many unknowns and problematic insurance prerequisites, or fly home and make arrangements for Southern Star to board a vessel carrier.

At the same time, Quintin was realising that he had little chance of being reunited with Rum Bucket in the near future, and if he wanted the beautiful More 55 cruiser-racer home before the 36th America’s Cup, he would need to make arrangements to ship her back.

It seemed straightforward. Albeit for a significant fee, Quintin would finally get his boat home, without the need for dicey travel across international borders. And for Southern Star, once fuel and insurance were factored in, the financial equation was a balanced one. For both boat owners, who hadn’t yet met, it provided surety that they would receive their boat, safely and with minimal fuss.

What they didn’t know was that underworld criminal activity was playing out onboard a small sailing catamaran called Quest on the other side of the world, that would eventually play havoc with, not only their plans, but those of several boats in New Zealand and Australia.

In October 2021, Southern Star was loaded aboard the Happy Dover in Newport, Rhode Island. The ship travelled to Fort Lauderdale and then Panama, where it collected Rum Bucket, before stopping at Ensenada in Mexico, where a Kiwi-owned 62foot multihull cruiser called Kinetic was loaded – and, ominously as it turned out, Quest was lifted off.

Ted, Jenny and Quintin, and fellow Kiwi Scott Dickson, who had loaded Kinetic on behalf of its owner before flying back to NZ, avidly tracked the Happy Dover’s movements on AIS, waiting for its departure from Ensenada and anticipating its continuing voyage across the seas and into the South Pacific.

But nothing happened. Happy Dover didn’t budge. For days and weeks, they individually telephoned their respective shipping agents and brokers, seeking information.

There was deafening silence until a whole month later, they heard that the ship had been detained in Mexico – but no explanation as to why or for how long. This was on the same day that Ted and Jenny were released from MIQ.

Eventually, news broke with the Mexican media reporting that 200kg of cocaine with a street value in the millions, had been hidden on board Quest.

“The ship was called the Happy Dover but here in New Zealand the boat was known as the Unhappy Dover, and also at times the Ship of Broken Dreams,” jokes Quintin. “This was January 2021, the America’s Cup was about to kick off, and after nearly a year, Rum Bucket was no closer to home.”

Weeks went by, and sensing trouble, Quintin made it a mission to track down others in the same situation and was put in touch with Ted and Jenny by his crew member Jo Clarke who located them on Facebook, as well as Scott Dickson who was overseeing the shipping of Kinetic on behalf of its owner.

“We got a therapy group together,” Quintin jokes. “We figured that together we would have more influence, and be able to get much information. We were told the boat should be released after a court date, and then nothing happened. A month would go by. The America’s Cup happened. We were told another ship was coming in six weeks. This happened three times.”

Finally there was a concession from the Mexican authorities and the owners were offered the option of waiting for Happy Dover to be released, or having their vessels offloaded. Southern Star was also offered transport to Florida.

The ‘therapy group’ continued to convene at the appropriately named Swashbucklers in Auckland, and eventually a new ship named Happy Dragon was offered by the shipping companies as an option to carry their boats home. By this time, with the Cup and over done with, they feared that a voyage to New Zealand was a less and less attractive option for the shipping companies.

“In the end we watched on Marine Traffic as the new boat, the Happy Dragon collected our boats from Mexico. We saw it arrive at dock and then later pull away with the pilot boats,” recalls Jenny, who received many hugs and congratulations from her work colleagues at the moment when this happened.

While Jenny and Ted maintain a pragmatic perspective about the experience, it was a highly emotional time. Not only had their world cruise, one they had spent years preparing for, been cut short, the boat was also their much-loved home and without it they relied on the generosity of friends for accommodation.

“We have gratitude for the wonderful years we did have cruising, but that time was highly intense and stressful,” says Jenny. “When we left Southern Star in Newport Rhode Island, all our possessions were onboard and we just had a bag each, thinking we’d see the boat again in a few weeks. Little did we know.”

They happily followed the progress of Happy Dragon through an unexpected detour to Australia, and through to Auckland.

Now, after 17 months of separation from his boat for Quintin, and 11 months for Ted and Jenny, you might think that is where the story finishes, and it almost does – but not quite.

Happy Dragon was due to arrive in Auckland with its precious cargo around the middle of August. Had the boat stayed on its original itinerary, it would have docked days before the Level 4 lockdown commenced on 17 August.

But thanks to the unexpected stopover, it finally docked at the Port of Auckland on 24 August, when the country was firmly in the grip of stay-at-home orders. Negotiating to release the boats to their proper berthage was just one more hurdle for both sets of beleaguered boat owners to jump through.

Ted and Jenny had ample time to prepare Southern Star for the trip and the boat arrived in very good condition except for a fouled hull from its weeks in the Mexican marina. Quintin, who had left the boat in a hurry 17 months earlier, wasn’t so lucky. The boat was filthy, the backstay had been disconnected and parts lost, the bilge and showers were seized and there was water egress into the sail drive. He says it seems the boat was hit by lightning and, so far, he has spent more than $25,000 repairing broken electronics and replacing batteries.

But no matter the challenges and obstacles, it’s apparent that the boat owners are delighted to be reunited with their boats. The challenges of the years are not forgotten but are now behind them, and out of it they have made new friends too.

As for the Happy Dover? At the time of writing the vessel is still where Rum Bucket and Southern Star left her, in the port of Ensenada. If you have a moment, take a look on Marine Traffic just for fun – it may still be there now. BNZ