For Daniel Guerra, an aspiring Brazilian sailor keen to travel the world, the job ad was a dream come true.
A British yacht owner was seeking two deck-hands to help sail his boat from Brazil across the Atlantic, one of the great ocean journeys.
There would be no salary, but all expenses paid – and, crucially, Mr Guerra would gain some of the sailing experience he needed to qualify as a sea captain.
“My dream was to become a captain and go work in Europe,” remembers the 43-year-old, who saw the advert from an online sailing recruitment agency.
“So I was super happy, knowing that my path to my dream was beginning.”
Things looked even better when Mr Guerra and his fellow recruit, Rodrigo Dantas, 32, met their new British employer.
They had feared he might be some snobbish yachtie or posing Instagrammer, who would make sure they knew who was boss.
But no. George Saul was a smiling, friendly figure, who did not insist on formalities. The sailors, he said, could even call him by his nickname – “Fox”.
“I used to work on some boats and the owners were old, super demanding, super rude and talked down to me,” adds Mr Dantas. “He was like, very cool, very friendly.”
Fox even passed the approval test of Mr Dantas’s parents, who were worried about their son doing such a long journey on a yacht owned by a total stranger, and asked to meet him for themselves.
To borrow the old sailing expression, they liked the cut of his jib. They learned that Fox had brought the Rich Harvest over to Brazil for renovations, and wanted a competent crew to sail it back to Europe on his behalf.
As well as the rookies, Mr Dantas and Mr Guerra, there would be two others, including a qualified captain.
“I said: ‘Look, watch out for my son’,” remembers Mr Dantas’s father, João. “He said: ‘Don’t worry, I’ll take care of Rodrigo.’”
As it turned out, his parents were not the only ones who wanted to check that all was well on board the Rich Harvest.
Before the departure from Brazil, local police spent around six hours searching the yacht for drugs, with the help of a sniffer dog.
They did not find what they were looking for, though, and the sailors assumed it was just a routine check.
They had heard stories about cocaine being planted on boats, and now at least knew they were in the clear.
“When you travel through an airport… your bags go through the X-ray machine,” says Mr Dantas. “So I thought, well, it’s an international trip and they’re coming to inspect the boat.”
