Tom wants to ensure every Nordic Tug owner he encouters absolutely loves their boat.
Tom Callan is the owner-operator of Nordic Tug Yacht Service. He’s a man with a mission: to ensure that every Nordic Tug owner he encounters absolutely loves their boat. Tom makes himself available on electronic message boards, so his reach extends far beyond Connecticut, his home state. His reputation is impeccable.
That’s how Joe first met Tom—online. Joe found Tom’s knowledge of the inner workings of Nordic Tugs to be encyclopedic. Joe reached out to Tom via an old-fashioned method, the telephone, and asked him to help us commission our new boat and get her ready for cruising.
Three months later, Tom met us at the Brunswick Landing Marina Boatyard in Brunswick, Georgia, the day our boat arrived. He hopped out of his van, ready to work, sporting boat shoes and contractor’s knee pads. Tom made the two-day drive from Connecticut to help us splash our boat, a 34-foot Nordic Tug we named Blue Wander—splash, as in drop in the water for the first time.
Blue Wander crossed the country on a flatbed trailer. She arrived covered in road dust with her bow wrapped in plastic and her pilot house window wipers taped down. Blue spent her first night in Georgia propped up on jack stands waiting for high tide.
In the yard, Joe and Tom inspected her exterior, then pulled off the road-protection plastic and looked for any evidence of hull pitting from roadside gravel. She looked good! They climbed up to her aft deck using a step ladder and went aboard. I followed. Inside, the galley’s L-shaped bench seat cushions were wrapped in plastic. Maneuvering in the living quarters was challenging as the tug’s signature stack was secured to the galley floor with blue painter’s tape and a bungee cord. Stack is short for smokestack. On our Nordic Tug it’s a cosmetic touch. The pony mast and the two VHF radio antennas were secured to the stateroom mattress. Not only did Blue look hatless without her stack and mast, but she would need a few hours of prep work before she was ready to operate. On a motor vessel, the pony mast (a term for a small mast) is the perch for marine electronics. Ours provides mounting points for the anchor light, Garmin GPS antenna, Garmin radar, and satellite radio antenna.
The next morning, the boatyard crew used the hydraulic boat hoist to move Blue Wander off the jack stands and over to the boat well. The hoist is equipped with two slings for cradling a vessel as it moves from land to water. Watching the boat roll across the yard while held aloft by the slings reminded me of scenes from Toy Story—inanimate objects coming to life. The large blue metal hoist frame dwarfed the operator, and it wasn’t immediately apparent that he was using joy sticks on a small controller to move the hoist. Before gently placing her in the water, the yard crew power-washed off the cross-country road dust Blue picked up on her journey from the Pacific to the Atlantic.
Once in the water, we thought she was ready to motor over to our assigned slip at the adjacent Brunswick Landing Marina. Well, she floated. But when Joe plugged her into shore power, we heard a series of popping sounds. Her electrical systems blew breakers in the boat and at the marina dock. We had a big problem. The circuit breakers safeguard electrical systems from power surges and, in our case, crossed wires. They serve as overcurrent protection and stop the flow of electricity. The breakers saved Blue by preventing an electrical fire.
The thought of almost losing our boat was terrifying. Without Tom’s expertise and help, Blue Wander might still be at the boatyard in Brunswick. Tom traced the electrical issues and rewired Blue’s circuits as needed. Within a few hours, she was on her way to her new home, slip O on dock four.
Tom and Joe worked tirelessly over the next two and a half days assembling the mast, stack, and antennas before testing Blue Wander’s systems. At just over five feet tall, Tom’s compact size was advantageous as he worked in Blue’s tight spaces and engine compartment. My job was to stay out of the way, refrain from my innate need to clean and run to the local West Marine store for parts. After my third visit, I introduced myself to the store manager. She taught me to always return to the boat with the broken part or empty part box so there would be no questions about my purchases. I also went to the local UPS depot to retrieve the six large boxes of goods we shipped to Georgia before we drove down. While unpacking the gear, I might have engaged in some covert dusting and mopping. The dirt-adverse part of my soul is hard to control. Joe and Tom were down in the engine compartment, so my alleged actions lacked eyewitnesses.
We rested during meal breaks, laughing as we swapped life stories. Tom’s tale about a window air conditioner prone to jumping out of an upper-story window at his home had me laughing so hard I cried. At our first meal together, Tom mentioned a recent trip with his wife to celebrate a milestone birthday. I asked Tom, “How old are you?”
“Seventy,” was his reply. “Seventy,” I repeated, my voice tinged with surprise. Tom pulled off his ball cap so I could see his iron-gray hair. I hope I’m as agile and spry as Tom when I reach his age.
When Tom left, Joe was exhausted, but Blue Wander was ready for her first cruise. Tom is at the top of Joe’s cellphone favorites list. His boating know-how is just a text away. During our first boating season, Tom called every couple of weeks to check in and see how we were doing. In our short time together, we made a lifelong friend.
