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for a few minutes. “I hear you do a fair bit of offshore
sailing,” he said. “Yeah, a bit,” I replied. He looked me in
the eye: “Well – I’ve got a proposition for you.”
It went like this. I would fly to Australia and pick up a
boat. The boat would have about 800 rare birds on board,
all heavily sedated and put inside sections of PVC pipe
stowed near the engine. “That’s because when the Orions
put their heat-seeking radar on you – the birds will look
like a warm engine to them.
“You’ll drop the boat off at (he named a small, Far
North river port) and the money will go in your bank
account. If this trip goes well, we want you to do one
from Papua New Guinea – you could pick the boat you
want – we’d put the birds in it – and the boat will be
yours when you get it back to New Zealand.”
“What sort of mortality rate do you expect?” I asked.
“Oohhh – somewhere between 25 and 40 percent.”
“What happens if the birds have a disease?” I asked. “I’d
hate to bring in a virus or something that wiped out every
Tegel chook farm in the country – or decimated the native
bird population.”Working in the Caribbean as a charter skipper, it wasn’t
uncommon to see a boat arrive and disappear after dark –
and the crew reappear, gaunt and haggard, weeks later.Whether you’re racing up the coast, or around the globe, you
can rely on North Sails cutting edge technologoy to outperform
the competition. To find out more contact us today.LOCAL
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T 09 359 5999 E [email protected] northsails.com