Yacht Captain

Captain Ed & Black Diamond all dressed and looking their best.

Captain Ed Radonic

Yacht Captain

QUALIFICATIONS: 

With 34,000 Nautical miles of experience and 1,900+ sea days and nights on the water. 

(1,900 sea days is like 5 years on the water, 365 days a year!)

I am a RYA Yacht Master Offshore 200 ton certified Captain, with an ICC International Competent Captain’s License, currently working on my Commercial endorsement. My qualifications include; MED A2 Emergency Safety at Sea, Helicopter Rescue, Life raft deployment and use, Offshore Rescue and Fire Fighting at Sea, etc, Marine First Aid and CPR/AED, I am an Open Water Certified diver and completed various CYA & Canadian Power and Sail Squadron certifications which include Power/Sailboat handling, Seamanship Sail, Piloting/charting, CYA Coastal Navigation, GPS Navigation, Extended Offshore Cruising, VHF Radio operation license and a Toronto Harbour License.

 

I am now providing skippered charters and yacht deliveries globally, including crew positions for offshore passages. However, my specialities are the Bahamas, US East Coast, The Great Lakes, Erie Canal and the Adriatic Sea, Croatia, looking to add Greece. 

Feel free to contact me at [email protected]

Keeping an eye on the tell tales. – (c) Copyright 2009

Black Diamond is a Jeanneau 39i Performance sailboat. My wife Roxane and I have 2 wonderful boys, Alexander and Thomas, now 18 and 22 years old. Much of this blog was created on our first trip south when they were just 4 and 8 years old. I am currently working on updating it, with content while cruising with them and other guests aboard Black Diamond in the Bahamas. We have been boating ever since we were dating which is now 30 years ago and our boys were basically born on a boat. They know no other life, other than boating and cottaging (Lake House) in the summer months. In 2008 we decided to extend our season by heading south with Black Diamond. Our final destination the Bahamas and perhaps a little further. We have been returning ever since.

I have been boating for 32 years, at the age of 52, this is more than half of my lifetime. Starting out with a number of smaller power boats, now experienced with large twin engine motor cruisers. Switched over to sail 20 years ago. I have sailed various boats from windsurfers, dinghies (lasers), trailer sailors, keelboats from 26 to 50 foot yachts, including up to 50 foot Catamarans. 

I live in the area of Toronto Canada on Lake Ontario. I have been racing yachts for the past 15 years. I have also entered many long-distance races such as the Fort Lauderdale to Charleston, completed in 2 days 8 hours, we received 4th place in division, 8 minutes in PHRF behind a 3rd place trophy. Then 6 times finishing the Susan Hood, a 75 mile over night race, 6 times entered in the Lake Ontario 300 the world’s longest fresh water race, a 308 nautical mile race around the perimeter of Lake Ontario. My crew and I on Black Diamond finished in under 2 days. Our best placing was 3rd in division, and 12th overall in PHRF for the entire LO300 fleet of almost 200 boats.

Multiple, deliveries of yachts back up to Canada from the Bahamas, Caribbean and the Great Lakes, we entered in a few interesting races along the way, one from Fort Lauderdale to Charleston described as a sled ride up the gulf stream,  the Charleston race week regatta series and the New Year’s Day Staniel Cay Regatta in the Exumas, Bahamas. We have raced in this regatta three now, and came second each time. Most recently, second by only 6 seconds. This was a boat for boat race, no PHRF scoring. A free for all, mix bag of large to small yachts and catamarans! Fun times!

“Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do,

than by the ones you did do. So cast off the bowline, Sail away from the safe harbour.

Catch the trade winds in your sails.           Explore. Dream. Discover.”           Mark Twain

Blue water experience include yacht deliveries of multiple yachts from the BVI’s and the Bahamas to New York City. Including deliveries of yachts through the Erie canals, the Hudson River and all the Great Lakes, Georgian Bay and the Trent Severn waterway. These deliveries are non-stop, thousands of miles. We crossed parts of the Bermuda Triangle, rounded Cape Hatteras, sailed in Hurricanes and during most of the deliveries were over 200 to 300 miles offshore, once over 600 miles offshore. The delivery of Black Diamond a 40 foot Jeanneau racer/cruiser has been delivered to New York City and then offshore to Florida and the Bahamas from Toronto, Canada. This delivery from NYC to Florida was completed 100 miles offshore, for a distance of over a 1000 miles non-stop to Jacksonville, Florida. Completed in what might be a cruisers record of 5 days 3 hours non-stop offshore. We have sailed all the island chains of the Bahamas over a 15 year period.

2011, completed the delivery of friends boat Tracey & Nilson Ruiz, from Tortola, BVI to New York. Tortola to Georgetown Bahamas in 5 days non-stop. Last leg from Charleston to New York over the memorial day long week-end non-stop Friday to Monday in 4 days. All completed safe and sound without incident.

2013/14/15 We again brought Black Diamond south to the Bahamas. Non-Stop from NYC to Georgetown Exuma, in 7 days. We have spent these 2 years sailing most of the Bahamas, Abacos, Exuma, Nassau, Eleuthera, Long Island, Little San Salvador

2016 Sailed Black Diamond back up to New York and then back down to the Bahamas once again.

2016 We are entered in the Miami to Nassau Race, and will be cruising the Bahamas once again.

2017 and 2018 Cruising the Bahamas, Exuma and Abacos.

2018 Adriatic Sea, Croatia.

2019 East Coast of Canada, USA, and the Bahamas

2020/21 Deliveries across all the Great Lakes, Georgian Bay, Manitoulin Islands and The Welland Canal.

2022 Yacht Charters in Croatia, and Yacht deliveries Through New England, Long Island Sound, Hudson River and the Erie Barge Canal.

Captain Ed, Half naked : ) with son Thomas after just catching a 4 ft, 45lb Mahi Mahi, Sometimes called Dorado or Dolphin.

TESTIMONIALS & REFERRALS:

“Mission accomplished!! Worth every penny!! We are indebted to Ed for caring for our boat like it was his own and safely delivering it through the Champlain Canal and down the Atlantic coast to Hampton, VA. Ed is a very knowledgeable captain who quickly got to know our boat and helped us learn all that we needed to get started. He stepped the mast up and down, built the mast craddle and made sure all the equipment and instruments were working again. We were lucky to spend some time with Ed on the boat during one of the delivery legs and he was amazingly patient with us and helped us far more than we ever expected. Ed was very considerate, saving us money wherever he could and left the boat beautifully clean at the end, which was very much appreciated! Ed has become a friend who we reach out to first when trying to solve a problem on the boat as he always has some keen advice for us. Everyone we’ve met who knows Ed has told us he that he’s the man to trust, and after our experience with him, we agree!!”

Thank you so much, Ed! – Charles & Sabrina Cameron s/v Paradise Nine

 

 

“We purchased a boat in the BVIs and needed to have it delivered for us to the Great Lakes. That’s when Captain Ed came through for us, consulting us on the equipment and resources that would be needed and weather for the voyage among other things. He also helped us take it off-shore from BVI to the Bahamas, and accompanied us for a leisurely sail through the Bahamas with our family. He knows the Bahamas inside and out, having sailed there for the last 10 years. He really made us feel comfortable and the whole experience enjoyable.  Capt. Ed and his crew also delivered the boat offshore from Charleston, SC to New York and up the Hudson, where we picked it up the rest of the way. Captain Ed safely delivered the boat, with no issues, no damages, on time and as quoted! Now having had the opportunity of getting to know him better and followed some of his offshore adventures, I would not trust too many other people more than Ed with my boat and my family.” 

Tracey Devine s/v Sealight out of Port Credit Yacht Club, Toronto, Canada.

 

 

“I’ve known Ed – and been sailing with him – for over three years now, having first met him in the summer of 2015 when I was looking for someone to help me take my boat from New York to the Bahamas. I had not done ocean sailing and wanted to find someone with the experience and expertise to run the crew and safely deliver the boat south.

Ed came highly recommended and with good reason. He has logged thousands of miles on multiple deep water crossings. His thorough preparation gave me and the rest of the crew the comfort and confidence needed to embark on this 24/7 sail to the Bahamas. This was not down the ICW, rather it was well offshore to get out of the Gulf Stream (flowing the wrong way for our purposes) and to head to the Abacos, the Bahamas using the most direct route. This 6-day sail went flawlessly due to Ed’s planning and blue water skills.

As a tremendous bonus, Ed also knows the Bahamas like the back of his hand.   I have spent the last three winter seasons cruising there and relying heavily on Ed’s guidance around the best harbours, and the best ways to navigate in the perilously shallow water that encompasses most of the 700 islands in the Bahamas chain. Ed has an inexhaustible store of knowledge about the Bahamas and he seems to have friends strategically placed near every great bar/watering hole across the Abacos and Exuma!”

“If you are considering a charter in the Bahamas then Ed is 100% the best Captain for the job!”

Paul Ter Weeme, Toronto, Canada

 

“I hired Ed to help me sail my new-to-me, 40-year-old 30′ Hunter sailboat across Georgian Bay to the North Shore.  Wiarton to Little Current, Manitoulin Island. It was only a couple days  of sailing but with my minimal experience, I thought it was a great opportunity to crew and learn my boat as we had it delivered. Up ’till then, the largest boat I had ever sailed was my 17′ sloop and never on any water larger than a small lake. From the very beginning, Ed made the experience as easy as possible. He arrived at the boat half a day ahead of me, provisioned for the trip, picked up safety supplies the boat lacked, and even topped up the fuel and oil. I took the ferry across to Tobermory and he picked me up at the terminal and drove me down to the boat in Owen Sound. Nice and easy.

Summer Squals! Captain Ed advised that we wait it out in the anchorage at Cabot Head. I wanted to proceed in hopes the squals may pass to the north of us. When we started sailing North and the weather started to change, it didn’t take me long to be thankful to have a seasoned hand on the wheel. Strong winds, torrential rains, and poor visibility pummeled us just as we were crossing the mouth of Lake Huron.  At one point, we found that the lines holding the Dinghy had broken free at some point and the Dinghy was nowhere to be found. Reading the wind/waves and using superhuman vision, Ed was able to track down the grey Dinghy in the turbulent grey wanter from miles away. I still don’t know how he did it but with the Dinghy  back on board, we beat away from the storm and the waves with zero visibility and before I knew it he found a safe anchorage to wait out the storm. 

Ed was only with me for a few days but in that time, I didn’t sink, I didn’t break down or didn’t set fire to the boat which may not seem like an odd thing to say but thinking back, if it were not for him, I would have for sure. He was knowledgeable, patient, and cool during a crisis.

“Best money I’ve spent on my boat so far and would recommend him without question.”

Jeff Nelson, s/v “Moon Struck”, Sault Sainte Marie, Canada

 

 

Doing anything complicated during the Covid 19 crisis is almost impossible.

Imagine delivering a 36′ Hunter from Geneva Ohio to Midland Canada! Well, that was the dilemma we faced when we purchased our dream boat. Having already recruited a US Captain to bring the boat as far as Sarnia, we were in urgent need of a Canadian Captain to bring her the rest of the way home, Up Lake Huron, around the Bruce peninsula, and across the unpredictable waters of Georgian Bay. And time was of the essence, battling a
deteriorating window of fall weather.
But Captain Ed stepped up to the plate and hit a grand slam! Ed’s valuable know-how wasn’t limited to sailing the vessel. In addition, he and his wife Roxane helped us provision the boat, organize the trip, provide and delivery the crew, stage an assembly location and Air B&B in Sarnia, and to top it all of, deliver our prize to Midland Ontario in record time! One day, 15 hours, 30 minutes in some challenging conditions. Non, stop!
For me as an owner/sailor, accompanying Ed and being a part of his crew was also a valuable learning experience and an exciting new chapter in my sailing career. I had never sailed the “big lakes” and this was like “sailing boot-camp”!
With a “Safety First” attitude, Capt. Ed reviewed my boat survey, helped me prepare and source my gear, and make necessary safety modifications to the boat like installing jack straps and tethers.
If you are faced with a challenging delivery and time window, Captain Ed is your guy, and his select crew members ensure a safe, enjoyable delivery.
“I assure you, you’ll also make a new friend in the process!”

John Sare,  s/v “R Time”, Midland, Ontario, Canada