Captain EARL SYLVESTER “I WILL SAIL TILL I DIE!”

While chilling at Gertrude’s on White Bay, Jost Van Dyke this writer saw a man who is recognised sitting by himself on the picnic benched on the beach. I got up and decided to join him. I introduced myself and asked him to remind me of his name. He knew my name, but I had forgotten his since it has been a long while since I have seen him. In conversation he started to share his stories of fifty years as a sailor. Very interesting stories so I asked him if I could record him for SailingBVI magazine and Captain Earl Sylvester gracefully agreed.

VIL&S: Earl Sylvester, you are one of the renown captains here in the BVI, how long have you been doing this?

ES: About 45 years now; I started with CSY, TYC, Go Vacation and it goes down the line, all the way.

VIL&S: And have you ever had your own boat, or have you always worked for companies?

ES: I always worked for different companies.

VIL&S: At what age were you when you got into sailing?

ES: I was about 16 or 17, somewhere round there.

VIL&S: So, tell me how it was being a skipper then and what’s different about it now.

ES: It’s completely different.  The boats are completely different; they are more upgraded and faster.  At the time when I started it was only mono haul at the time, but now we have catamarans and power boats.

VIL&S: What would be your preference if you had to choose catamarans or power boats or mono hull?

ES: I would go for mono hull.

VIL&S: Is it about the way they tack and lean?

ES: Not really, it sails nicer, it sails a lot nicer. I love the tacking and leaning. I love when it leans so low that I can put my hand out when I am sailing.

VIL&S: What is your most memorable or most challenging experience sailing, the one that sticks out to you the most?

ES: Going from here to Key West, Florida. We were delivering a boat there and, on our way, when we almost got there, we got caught in a terrible storm. I didn’t think that we would make it through. I said to myself, “If I make it out of this I would never sail again.”  But when I got home, the very next week I went back sailing.

VIL&S: You know what year that was?

ES: It was in the 80’s, 85 or 86. I think it was in June or July.  It was a Moorings boat at the time, and it was all downwind from there.

VIL&S: So, who are you sailing for now? And where do you see yourself in the future?

ES: Right now, I am sailing for BVI Yacht Charters. I’m thinking about getting my own charter boat.

VIL&S: I suppose you are thinking of a monohull?

ES: Nope! I would like to get a catamaran; a 50 ft. catamaran, because that’s what most of the guests prefer.

VIL&S: That’s a good move. So how is it with the industry now with so many yacht companies compared to when it was just the Flying Cloud and Cunard Princess and Countess?

ES:I believe everyone is doing great. Whatever anchorage you dock in you will see charter boats from every charter company and private day trippers, and even those from the USVI.

VIL&S: How is it with the local captains?

ES: We are still getting a hard time, here in the British Virgin Islands.

VIL&S: In what way?

ES: Not getting enough work because the charter companies prefer to bring people from outside to do the work, and they don’t have the experience that most local captains have. We can sail anywhere in the Virgin Island in the darkest nights and know our course without a compass by looking at hilltops or points. They only want to use us when the season slows down and their captains are gone.

VIL&S: You have been a skipper for so long have you been given the opportunity to train others?

ES: At times clients want to sail themselves but have little experience.  I am sometimes given the task of taking them out to make sure they can sail the boat. I do that in two to three hours, and if they can’t sail within that time, I take them back to the company and tell them they need to get a captain. Sometimes they are determined to skipper the boat themselves, they must get a captain that would go along with them for the week or three or four more days for them to get it.

VIL&S: You are a veteran captain. You must have certain expectations or demands when you are being hired to be a shipper, what’s your number one?

ES: Yes, I do! I would like to have a cabin; I don’t like sleeping in the hole; I would never do that because I’m an older man now, I need a cabin with a bathroom. It I don’t have that I am not doing the charter.

VIL&S: How old are you now?

ES: 65

VIL&S: Oh wow, you are of retirement age, but you don’t see yourself retiring anytime soon, do you?

ES: I will sail till I die my brother. I love to sail.

VIL&S:  So, tell me something that fascinates you when you tell your stories? What story you would like to share about your career?

ES: I have a lot of stories.  I have people that I have been sailing with that tell me they are the best sailors and all about their sailing experience.  But you know they are lying when they get seasick.  Let me tell you this, I have been sailing this man and his wife all week and this guy will not shut up. He talked and talked and had something to say about everything.  We were to Virgin Gorda from Anegada and do you know what his wife told me? She asked me to give her the wheel, “I am going to knock him overboard.”  I did and you what she did? She told him go up there and sit, he did, and she tacked the boat and hit him with the boom and knocked him off the boat.

We put the boat up into the wind and I had to jump overboard, swim for him and I pulled him back on board. When he got back on the board, he asked what happened?  Up to now he does not know that his wife knocked him off the boat.  I said nothing and she could not stop laughing. She wanted to do it because he knows too much and yet knows nothing at all.

Another time, I was sailing from Cane Garden Bay to Marina Cay and same thing again, the man he talks, talks, talks all the time, he has something to say about everything; you know what happen to him? He got seasick, and not just get seasick, he vomited all his false teeth overboard and his wife asked him, “Honey did you walk with another pair?” and he said, “Earl, take me to the airport please?”  He went straight home and left me with his wife for the rest of the week. It’s a lot of stories.

VIL&S: For the young sailors what would you have to share with them coming into the industry?

ES: You must be calm.  You must be selective; you must know what you want and go towards it.