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by Ronald White (Author)
The Turk and Caicos Islands were a hotbed of smuggling and intrigue in the 1970s. A broad spectrum of humanity vacationed, immigrated, or just went for the opportunity and adventure. The sailing yacht Fortunella III broke down while transiting the island group. She started her life in a Dutch shipyard. She was commissioned by a wealthy Belgium merchant and then sailed to the French Riviera. There she was placed in a private charter fleet of seven yachts, all named Fortunella, numbered 1 through 7.
She was chartered and then stolen by the charterers. Fortunella III was sailed off through the Straits of Gibraltar to the Canary Islands. The thieves abandoned the boat at a pier and left the country. The owner somehow found the vessel, in the Canaries, and placed a captain on board and left her in the Canaries for storage. The new captain took the maintenance funds and stole the boat again. Her next port of call was Miami, where she was "transferred" to an organization that started moving her back and forth between the Greater Antilles and Miami.
While working as a teacher and manager for a nonprofit research and educational foundation, in the Turks and Caicos Islands, Captain Ron discovered the abandoned yacht anchored in a local harbor. The reader is taken on a journey to find the owner and recover the yacht. Fortunella started out as a collection of exotic tropical woods, polyester resin, fiberglass cloth, stainless steel, and cast iron. Assembled into a boat, she became a tax dodge, pleasure boat, illicit cargo-hauler, and finally an educational platform for high school and college students. She has also carried many thousands of adults and children over her forty-five-year career.
