The captains of the 246ft Turquoise Infinite Jest value running an elite global cruising program above all else
Captains Tom Shipton and Cuan Nicolay want to make one thing crystal clear — they don’t want the spotlight. Despite running one of the most expansive and ambitious cruising programs in the world, the two men point to just about everyone else around them when asked why Infinite Jest has met early success in its lifetime.
“A big part of what we do is practicing gratitude,” Cuan says. “We’ve got great owners and a great team. This boat, this builder, this crew, this management company, all of it makes what we do possible. We are here because others who came before us made it possible.”
“Here” could be a lot of places, as Infinite Jest has traveled an eye-popping 30,000 nautical miles since her delivery last year. The six-year build leading up to that moment was typical for a boat of this size, save for one thing: both captains spent the final two years of it on site in Turkey overseeing construction.
“It’s not the usual way,” Tom says. “But I think having us and other members of our team there so early allowed us a lot of influence over the build and we, and I believe Turquoise, were exceptionally proud of what came of it.”
After the boat splashed, she did a shakeout cruise in the Med, and after a quick trip back to the yard, it was time to get down to serious business — all the way down, that is. Cuan took her and her newly rebuilt support vessel, Jester, down to Argentina where they rendezvoused with Tom for the last leg to Antarctica. That final passage included, of course, crossing the Drake Passage, one of the most notorious stretches of water on earth. With no land to the east or the west, its fetches are nearly unbroken and storms roll through every two days or so. Ironically, because of that weather phenomena, vessels typically need to leave during a storm to ensure the safest passage, which is what Infinite Jest did. “Once we were actually in the passage it was almost eerie,” Tom says. “It was so calm and flat and actually made for a relatively easy time of it.”
The long trip turned out to be a rewarding one. Both men describe Antarctica as one of the best, if not the best, place they’ve ever gone. “It’s hard to believe just the ice down there, the colors, the blues and whites and everything in between. It’s incredibly beautiful,” Tom says.
Though, as Cuan notes, you need to be careful while you’re being mesmerized. “Those ice floes, even if they look small, they play hard,” he says. The orcas also play hard. The first time they showed up was at 2am. With gentle knocks, the crew woke the guests and they watched the massive apex predators splash white foam just off the bow. Another time a raft of penguins hundreds strong came rocketing at the yacht in full force. It was a confusing sight until those on board saw what was chasing them — a pod of orcas. Some of the panicked birds tried to jump up onto the boats’ swim platforms, only to fall back into the water to rejoin the biomass as whale food.
Another thing that struck the captains was just how isolated they were. “Everything needs to be planned out six hours in advance because of the weather,” Tom says. “If something happens, you’re really on your own. And you have to be prepared for that. If we were putting one of the tenders in the water for an expedition, you had to pack the boat as if you were going to spend the night on it, because you never know if that’s going to end up being the case.”
But the risk is worth the reward. “Imagine being surrounded by all this splendor, and you’ll understand why people go to Antarctica,” Tom says.
As for crew, a program this rigorous tends to not only attract the sharpest recruits, but also prepare them for a bright future. “We don’t have high turnover rates here,” Tom shares. “We are proud of that because we believe that it means we are running a program that’s rewarding and doing right by our crew. If they do leave, they leave for promotions.”
“Not as people who burned out,” Cuan adds. “That’s our way of giving back to the industry.” It’s a gift that keeps giving, ad infinitum.