Egon was my first ever Captain in yachting, and even though at first I found his large size and even larger personality somewhat intimidating, I soon grew to know and understand what kind of person he really was.
I remember my very first time helping Caroline serve lunch, on my very first guest trip, and I was so nervous. The lunch was Italian and it was on the main deck aft, we had to carry the platters of food through the main salon and out to the table and set them down, not so hard… First went Caroline with her platter, then came me with my platter of spaghetti and tomato sauce.. and Egon was to follow us with a salad, he liked to make an appearance to the family at lunch and chat a bit. Well, as I was walking through the main salon the spoon on my platter went sliding and it fell off the side and right onto the carpet! I was mortified and I froze not sure what to do, Egon who was right behind me instantly came to my rescue, he picked up the spoon, put it back on my platter and said with an encouraging smile “keep going princess, don’t worry about that!” I kept going and made it through the lunch, ever since that day I knew that Egon was a man who cared for his crew and always made sure we felt his support.
There was one particular sea passage we made from Fort Lauderdale to St. Thomas which sticks out to me because it was one of the worst passages I ever made in my whole yachting career, but it was also the passage where I got to see what an incredible captain Egon was, he was so at home while at sea. It was in November 2015 and the boss wanted us to get down to St. Thomas to wait for the family so they could celebrate Thanksgiving in the Caribbean. I remember Egon told us all that it had been a last minute decision of the boss and although the weather wouldn't be great for us, we could do it. He had advised the boss that the trip would be rough on the boat but the boss wanted us to get there and so we prepared to go.
Well it didn't take long after we left for the rough weather and the waves to hit us, it was bearable at first but that first night it began to get quite bad. Things only got worse, to the point where Elena and I moved ourselves to the couches in the main salon and stayed there sick and miserable for the rest of the trip. Every crew member was sick at least once on that passage except for Egon. He was as comfortable at sea as a fish in water. He told Elena and I that the weather would get better once we rounded the corner, and periodically once of us would call out on the radio to ask him how far away this “corner” was, little did we know he had just made up this little corner to make use feel like things would soon get better. Once in a while Egon would come down to the main salon to check on us, and make little jokes and loud announcements to cheer us up. Sometimes we would hear him singing at the top of his lungs “Rule Britannia!” From the galley. At one point I made my way into the galley to try and drink some ginger ale only to see Egon standing in there swaying with the movements of the boat with the surest footing and holding in one hand a chicken drumstick and in the other hand a glass of wine, he looked at me with what was definitely pity and asked how I was doing? not good I told him, he made some jokes and then assured me it would get better and I made my way back to my couch. I think it was at this point I just realized how amazed I was at Egon, nothing the sea could throw at us seemed to faze him, in fact he seemed to be enjoying himself.
A few days later we arrived to our destination, Egon announced loudly and cheerfully over the radio that we were in St Thomas. Thinking back on it now I realized that as horrible as that trip had been, the crashing waves the thunder, lightning, rain, the seasickness, as hard as that had been… not one time during those days had I felt afraid. Not while Egon was with us, he had the confidence of a true captain, I knew and trusted that no matter what, he would get us safely to our destination.
The night we arrived in St Thomas the boss said Egon should take us all out for dinner to make up for the hard trip, and so out we went, we all went out for dinner leaving one watch keeper on board. After dinner Egon took us all out in St Thomas, we had so much fun out that night that we stayed out so late the gates of the yacht haven marina were closed when we came back. The only way in was over, the boys could climb over the fence but Elena and I were not able to and so with Mark on one side to help us down, we were one by one hoisted over the gate by Egon before he climbed over himself. It was a fun night and I’ll always remember those times.
He was always there for us, that was always how it was with Egon, he inspired confidence in his crew, led us by example and always expected the very best from us, he was gentle unless a firm hand was needed, if you gave respect and worked hard you got respect in return. He was understanding and empathetic, he was loud and larger than life, a force of nature. In the following nine years of yachting to follow that first year, I never had a captain to equal Egon, he was truly the best. First a captain, later a friend and in the end he was family.
