Thursday, September 01, 2011
Thursday, August 18, 2011
Wednesday, June 15, 2011
Monday, June 13, 2011
Our friend & fellow yachtie Cap'n Fatty of WILD CARD wrote another book
"There are currently around 2,000 Somali pirates actively engaged in stealing, kidnapping, extorting, enslaving, imprisoning, torturing, terrorizing, and killing innocent sailors in the Indian Ocean. Piracy in this area currently generates over $238 million annually, and costs the public around..."
| Gary Cap'nFatty Goodlander | 11:27pm Jun 12 |
Hot off the press...
Editor: How did this latest book come about?
FATTY GOODLANDER: Minutes after the news hit that the yacht Quest was seized by Somali Pirates, I was asked by an editor to write a magazine article about it. There were three obvious reasons: Carolyn and I personally knew Jean and Scott Adam, we'd transversed the Gulf of Aden the previous year, and we'd just published a book about it called Red Sea Run—Two Sailors in a Sea of Trouble. The editor and I assumed, of course, that this unfortunate situation would develop along classic lines, and that the four Americans would be held hostage in Somalia for many months until a ransom was paid. A few days later—when we heard the crew of Quest had all been killed in cold blood—everything changed for me. I was completely outraged and sad and angry and upset… so I pounded out my frustrations on the keyboard. About 70,000 words into it, my wife Carolyn gently reminded me that it was a tad long for a modern magazine article.
Editor: Where and when did you meet Jean and Scott of Quest?
FATTY GOODLANDER: In Opua, New Zealand, either in 2005 or 2006. They'd circumnavigated South island, and we were quite interested in their experiences in the Roaring 40s. And, of course, they were just setting out on their global circumnavigation—and had a few questions for us, as well.
Editor: What were they like?
FATTY GOODLANDER: They were very lit-up, turned-on sailors. Scott really loved his new boat, and was proud of its design and construction. Jean was a lovely person—brimming over with enthusiasm and love. To think that they are no longer with us because of such… high seas criminal savagery is… totally unacceptable. It took me a month or two to completely process it, to have it really sink in that… they're gone, really gone, and gone forever.
Editor: Did you also know Bob Riggle and Phyllis Macay?
FATTY GOODLANDER: No, we did not. In fact, Phyllis joined the Quest at the last minute in Sri Lanka. She'd been on a different vessel, had had a serious eye problem, and was recuperating ashore in the home of a local ship's agent in Gaul. She and Bob were already good friends—from where and how I don't know. Part of the motivation of Jean and Scott to invite her aboard might have been to… well, help a damsel in distress. She was still alive when the US navy boarded the Quest, but expired soon after.
Editor: Were Jean and Scott deeply religious and distributing bibles around the world?
FATTY GOODLANDER: Yes, they were, and, yes, they did. But in our encounters with them—they never mentioned Jesus, religion or bibles to us. It certainly played no part in their being initially pirated. And whether it played any minor role at the end—well, we'll probably never know, not for sure.
Editor: How bad is piracy in the Indian Ocean?
FATTY GOODLANDER: It is bad, real bad. The true figures, in terms of loss of life, are just now beginning to emerge. Sure, only seven Westerners have been recorded in the international media as murdered—but no one is counting the hundreds of Indonesian, Bangladeshi, Thai, Burmese, Malaysian, Maldivian, Sri Lankan, and Pakistani sailors who are being enslaved, tortured, and murdered on a daily basis. Many of the pirate mother ships are now manned almost entirely with captured crews—held in brutal bondage by a few heavily-armed, extremely cruel Somalis. Thus, we can't just 'blow the mother ships out of the water' and pat ourselves on the back—because most of the people we'd kill would be dark-skinned hostages, not pirates. The leaders of some pirate mother ships just select a captured crew member when approached by a Western naval vessel—and severely beat that innocent, terrified person in plain view until the naval vessel sickens and turns away. The situation is, literally, an international outrage. There are now around 2,000 pirates in the area. They grossed 238 million dollars last year alone. It costs the general public 12 billion dollars—that is billion with a capital B! Five years ago, the average ship ransom was $150,000 or so, Now, they average over $2 million. And the highest ransom ever paid was just a few months ago, in April 2011, when the Greek owners of the Irene SL paid $13.5 million to get their VLCC (Very Large Crude Carrier) and its crew back after 58 days. Basically, a bunch of barefoot teenagers who high on khat have stolen the Indian Ocean.
Editor: Aren't yachtsmen sailing in that area almost asking for it?
FATTY GOODLANDER: No, emphatically no. No woman asks to be raped. No taxi driver asks to be stabbed. And no innocent working man asks to be shot or car-jacked on his way home. It is HORRIBLE to blame the victim. Jean and Scott weren't attempting to do anything that I and 120+ vessels didn't do the year previous—exercise the Freedom of the Seas as they transited towards home waters via the Red and Mediterranean Seas. I mean, should we evacuate Chicago AND New York City because some punk in Philly blew away a guy in car? Of course not. Don't blame the victim, blame the perpetrators!
Editor: Why hasn't this been solved long ago? Why not just blow the pirates out of the water—like in the Good Old Days?
FATTY GOODLANDER: It isn't that easy. If it was, we'd have solved it back in 2008 when the media first focused on the Ukrainian ship MV Faina being captured with a full cargo of tanks, anti-aircraft guns, and RPGs. First off, the Indian Ocean is a big area. It is ten times bigger than the USA, and it is patrolled by 20 relatively slow-moving ships. Just imagine if, in the continental United States, two cops on bicycles were told to patrol the entire area—and stop crime. Could they do it? No, they could not. Too few cops, too large a neighborhood. The second factor is that Somalia is a failed state. The reasons for this (which I delve into in the book) are complex and many—but the bottom line is that many young Somali men are unable to feed their families on $2 a day, and are desperate. I'm not making excuses for them, just stating an obvious economic truth. Compare this to the pirate shore teams whose members are averaging $17,000 per year per person—and the average successful on-the-water pirate earning $72,000 per. There's even a $5,000 bonus paid to the first pirate 'jumper' who gains the deck. Why, there's even an informal 'pirate stock market' of sorts in Harardheere—through which the average Somali business man can invest. And there's no penalty for piracy, for all intends and purposes. Very few pirates get caught, and 90% of them are released. Many pirates have been 'captured' or detained numerous times by various Western navies—and then returned to Somalia at taxpayers expense. Many of these dreaded pirates are, in reality, just scared kids away from home for the first time. One of the pirates on the Quest was 15 years old, and returned to his parents by the US without any punishment whatsoever. There is, of course, no justification for what the pirates are doing or the violence they engage in. But the pirates are—or think they are—acting in their own self-interests. We have to understand that. And we also have to understand and acknowledge that our current anti-piracy policies are failing dismally to combat the problem.
Editor: Why did you feel compelled to write this book?
FATTY GOODLANDER: I am, and have been my entire life, a strong advocate of freedom of the seas. I've lived aboard various small sailing vessels for 51 of my 59 years. I've sailed around the world—and then some. I believe—no, I know—that no lifestyle provides as much pleasure, stimulation, and personal freedom as that of an international sea gypsy. I do not want to be among the 'last American circumnavigators.' I want to keep doing what I've been doing my entire life—sailing offshore. And I want to leave the world a safer, more peaceful place for my granddaughter, not a more violent one. (end) For more info: fattygoodlander.com
Thursday, June 09, 2011
Tuesday, June 07, 2011
Sunday, June 05, 2011
Monday, May 23, 2011
Hi guys,
We are underway from Chagos to Mauritius and still have 282 nautical miles to go. Unlike Asia and the trip to Chagos (no wind or if, then definitely on the nose), sailing here is pretty much perfect. The Indian Ocean has a bit of a bad reputation, but the only thing that we don't like around here is that constant swell which is coming in from the south. Sure, there is the occasional squall, but nowhere near as bad as near Kiribati and the Marshall Islands. Instead we have strong trades of mostly 20 to 25 knots and we are zipping along very nicely. Today is our 9th day at sea and we are basically almost there!
But now back to Chagos. When the SE trades set in, the anchorage in Ile du Coin was becoming uncomfortable. Still, we stayed on a bit as there is a well on the island and we wanted to do some more washing. When one of our friends had prepared a childrens' birthday party on Ile Fouquet, we upped anchor and moved over there as well. We dropped the hook in a little less deep water than before and enjoyed a most wonderful month near the tiny motu. Twice we were controlled by the BIOT officials, but everything was relaxed and easy.
We spent a lot of time with the other children there. Bill and Marlyse of JENAIN, definite long-timers in these parts, told us that they had never seen that many children there before. It was a veritable invasion, especially if you remember that the Peros Banhos atoll is uninhabited. While we insisted on school in the morning, we went to the beach every afternoon so that Aurora Ulani definitely got what she was after. Often there would be activities organized by one of the kiddie-boats, while the boats without kids did their own thing. Once in a while the two groups mingled.
We were "parked" between IEMANJA (Hamburg) with Arne, Kati and their two children Lennard & Emily and the French boat L'INTERDIT with doctor Yvan, Anne, their three children, one poodle, one parrot and two budgies on board. Then there was MURUNGARU with Nigel, Caroline, Anne and Rea, BYAMEE with Paul, Joyce & Darien as well as GERONIMO with Thierry, Florence and their two children. There were even more children, but these were the ones our daughter played the most with. Amazing!
The other yachties organized a little birthday party for Liping and she organized a play with all the children. There were cooking classes, walks across the reef to another island, a camp was being built, a swing was set up and so on. Unfortunately, there were some activities I could not join as my boil acted up again, so that I couldn't go into the water. So I went fishing instead. Bill had shown me a few tricks and I managed to catch fish to order from the very first day on. On top of that Graeme of LISTOWEL LADY, Bill and Paul gave us fish as well. Liping played around with a lot of recipes, so that she even managed to make the Bonito taste excellent (remember to bleed it right after you've caught it). We ate Rainbow Runners, Jobfish, Groupers, Coral Trout and so on pretty much for every meal. Fish balls, fish dumplings, fish this and fish that. (So long, and thanks for all the fish!)
Just after we left, it got even more fishy. First I caught a 73 cm Yellowfin Tuna, then hooked a Mahi Mahi (Dorado, Dolphinfish), but unfortunately our autopilot went on "Standby" and we lost that one. A while later I caught a 65 cm Bonito (also a kind of tuna) and that's when I decided that we had enough fish on board. Sharpening the knife (I got really good at that) and filleting the fish took quite a while and when we tried the first Sashimi with proper Wasabi and soy sauce, we both agreed that we had rarely had Sashimi that tasty. Just what we had for that dinner would have cost at least NT$ 1.000 as Liping told me later on. After all these days, we still haven't finished half the fish. Thanks be to our two fridges...
While the sailing and fishing were excellent, we still had plenty to do. I had to replace yet another bilge-pump when we noticed that the port forward compartment was full of water again. This time I was pretty sure that the water didn't come in through the hatch as we were not crashing into the waves. Maybe it comes in through the outlet, although there is a one-way valve in there. The through-hull should have been located a lot higher up in the hull. Even better, the whole compartment should have been filled with closed-cell foam. I thing the pumps and float-switches keep dying there because of the violent motion in the bows (they don't seem to die in the engine rooms, which are aft).
Then the port-alternator stopped producing power. I noticed the positive terminal was loose and had to add yet another bad repair in Asia to the already very long list. What was a lot more annoying, was that our wind-generator stopped working as well. Windpower had been the mainstay of our electricity-hungry boat, so that now I have to run the diesel when the sun doesn't shine. Too bad. We don't yet know what to do about that and I will call the manufacturer from Mauritius. I measured all kinds of stuff and am inclined to think that the internal thermostat has failed.
The computer-generated GRIB weather forecasts were pretty much useless. Although the isobars seem to be in the correct place, the wind is usually 10 or more knots stronger than indicated. In fact, for most of the trip we had the mainsail down, as we were making excellent speed just with the genoa. A lot more comfortable, less wear and tear and much easier to handle if the autopilot is on the blink once again and the boat turns right into the wind. (The autopilot does the same when no sails are set and we are running under engine alone.)
The nights were invariably pleasant, although for the first time since New Zealand, we had to dig out our thick shirts and my old trusty winter-jacket from Taiwan. Twice we could observe the artificial satellite Copernicus (OAO3) as it zoomed across the sky. Once, there were three planets aligned in such a way on the horizon, that Liping was absolutely sure it was a ship bearing down on us.
And so we are moving along and wonder whether we should pass south of Madagascar and sail straight to South Africa or follow the crowd, which this year seems to prefer going through the Mozambique Channel. One has the choice between the chance of extremely unpleasant weather or potentially even more unpleasant pirates, so to speak.
Another thought which is flying around in my head is this: Why not make a quick stop-over at Bequia and then sail across the Atlantic once more towards the Azores, Europe, Germany and my home-town Flensburg? We'll see. First we have to round the "Cape of Storms" which has winds of 11 Beaufort or more for about 100 days every year. A daunting thought. Not as bad as Cape Horn though, which has conditions like this for about 300 days a year....
First, we plan to check out Mauritius. If all goes well, we will spend about 3 months there before continuing our circumnavigation. We already know that we will meet old friends there and are looking forward to that.
-----
At 5/22/2011 1:18 PM (utc) our position was 18°03.07'S 059°34.74'E