They paid me MAC Tarriff rates or what it would cost to fly a person back. However since I had the my boat "Georgia Peach II" on my orders I could bring her in duty free.
Unfortunately due to the fickle finger of fate I no longer have the boat. That was one of the best times in my life. But not all of it. The first 1,500 miles was a nightmare. I can tell you first hand what it is like to go through a Force 12 (by the BBC) for 18 hours and take three 100 degree or more knock downs in one night. Or to get hit by a big wave and notice water coming in all the hatches which meant the entire boat was under water.
We went through three major storms during the trip but it was still worth it. We navigated with a sextant and got so good with it that from a known point we were able to get within 1/2 mile of our longitutude and 200 yards of our lattitude using noon sights. When we got to Savannah, Georgia we had 100% confidence in both ourselves and the boat.
If ever a non living object could have a soul the Georgia Peach II had one.
Sounds like you could well understand the storyline in "The Perfect Storm"! When I was in college I worked three summers in the Deep Sea Drilling project on the Glomar Challenger. The first summer we were in transit from Istanbul to the Atlantic through the Med. We hit a particular bad summer storm right on the beam. The Glomar Challenger was a drill ship, with this big old heavy derrick in the middle, reaching up over 100 feet above the waterline. And also, just below the level of the bridge deck was the drill pipe racker. All this heavy drill pipe sitting flat, adjacent to the derrick about 20 over the main deck.
I was told the ship could take a 57 degree roll and recover. A couple of times we rolled over 40 degrees (There was a roll meter (inclinometer) in the galley). I swear to god I knew where every life raft was located and where every extra life vest was. The Captain kept those of us on duty (ships crew and scientific crew alike) in vests for one day. On a couple of those big rolls the ship just shuddered and hung there for a few seconds before diving back down into the wave trough and getting right again.
This is nothing like your experiences in the small boat - its just you against nature! I will say however, that a sister ship of the Challeger, the Glomar Java Sea went down in a typhoon in the South China Sea. Apparently she broke her back and sank in seconds!