We were tied up outside ‘Moonshiner’ to the pontoon which was one of those temporary structures made up of squares of plastic loosely connected to one another so that walking on it requires a substantial degree of acrobatic balance in order not to be ejected into the water. It was quite a long walk around the marina to the entrance, through a filthy area which was the unloading dock for concrete deliveries. The marina was controlled by the Sri Lankan Navy, and there was still a concern about the uprising of the Tamils and consequently the Navy closed the port each night by dragging a chain across the entrance.
This meant that we were inside a military controlled area and necessitated us getting a pass so that we could move freely in and out of the guardhouse gate. With this in mind we checked in with the Navy who managed to mix up my Sarah and Dick's Sara's passport. This meant that for the whole time we were there, their papers did not match their passports, something that was never noticed.
Whenever we left the port area, just on the outside of the guardhouse we would be met by Marlin. He was a rotund happy individual who was the local Mr Fixit. Whatever was required, he would efficiently arrange it, whether it be laundry, transport, or general advice. He was universally considered a great asset, and presumably made his living by obtaining commission from all his activities.
The nearest hotel to the guardhouse was the Closenberg, which was a short walk above the marina and had once been a P&O rest house for their passengers. It was a delightful old building that served excellent traditional Sri Lankan food, and we visited on numerous occasions, to experience their silver service.
Meanwhile, Richard Bolt’s latest bright idea was to engage Chatura, who ran the Tango Shipping Agency. It was a requirement of the port authority to engage an Agent. It turned out that Tango Shipping had under-cut the Agent that the Blue Water Rally had used successfully heretofore. Chatura obviously could see the potential of screwing as much money out of the Blue Water Yachts in the shortest space of time that they were in port. For instance, no contact was allowed directly with engineers, divers, or anybody else that might be needed unless through his office. Now unfortunately, during our transfer of fuel, ‘Moonshiner’ (Sara) had let go a line which had wrapped itself around our propeller. The Agent wanted US$100 to engage a local diver to disentangle it. However, I spotted some divers not far away from the pontoon and got them to clear the propeller for the price of a couple of beers and a yachting knife. When Chatura got to hear about this, he was apoplectic.
He was completely obstructive. When the local engineer who was a lovely guy and clearly knowledgeable and intelligent turned up on Moonbeam, he advised that he would be able to source spares for the injection pump locally. Unfortunately, even though this pump (Delphi) was used universally on the majority of Sri Lankan goods vehicles he was unable to do so but didn't advise us that this was the case for nearly two weeks, because he was prevented from coming to see us. Once I was aware that this was the case, I alerted the girls in Oyster after-sales that I needed a replacement pump and asked them to locate one and send it. As usual they did a magnificent job and dispatched it in the first days of February and in due course, I was able to track it arriving in customs in Colombo.
During this period, we got to know Paco, off ‘Nautibuoytoo’ which is a 65foot catamaran. together with his crew that consisted of John, his daughter’s father-in-law, Nina his partner and Sebastian his 11-year-old son. They had all experienced and survived the tropical revolving storm. It transpired that they had been running out of fuel and had closed down one engine on the catamaran and obtained fuel from a passing tanker. This had caused considerable damage to the guardrails of one of the hulls, and whilst the engine had been shut down sea water had flooded it. This meant that the engine had to be taken out, and the cylinder liners and pistons needed to be replaced. Paco ordered these from Yanmar in Japan for delivery to Colombo.
It was John who let it be known that Nina and Sebastian weathered the storm quite well up until Paco had suggested that they put their life jackets on. He embarrassed me by saying how it important to them all it was to hear from Moonbeam on the HF. It turned out that this was to be the start of a lasting friendship, as we would sail together for much of the next year.
Those that had gone on the blue water Rally excursion, which we had missed because of our late arrival, were universally disparaging about it. However, Sarah and I really wanted to explore this part of Sri Lanka and we set up our own tour, with Marlin’s help, to follow much of the same itinerary. We organised our own driver to take us up to The Hill Club in Nuwara Eliya, which was a long drive and as we started up the hillside, we were engulfed in torrential rain such that the driver thought that we might not be able to make it. However happily we did, and we stayed two nights at the Hill Club which was like taking a walk back in time. When we got there, it was quite cold, and we were very pleased that in drawing room a large fire had been lit so that we could enjoy an aperitif before dinner. We were joined by five lovely and bubbly young ladies in cocktail dresses, who were on a bicycle ride from Kandi to Galle in order to raise money for a charity.
We continued our tour through the tea plantations with a stop to learn how the tea was produced, and to observe the magnificent European vegetables that were grown by the workforce on small patches of land that did not have tea trees. Our trip took us back through Kandi where we toured the Temple of the Tooth and stopped for lunch before driving along the coast road all the way back to Galle.
We were amused that one of our colleague crews was bitten by one of the hundreds of stray dogs that surrounded the port. It turned out that Richard Bolt had been bitten and had gone to the local hospital where he had had an injection for rabies. When our friend turned up at the hospital, he was asked whether or not he would be able to recognise the dog to which he confirmed that he could. He was told that if the dog was still alive in three weeks’ time, then it did not have rabies. However, shortly afterwards the Navy took it upon themselves to clear the entire area of dogs, never to be seen again! Happily, our friend did not develop any symptoms.
We broke up our stay with a couple of nights at the Lighthouse hotel, which did a magnificent buffet on Thursday evenings, and subsequently in the Galle Fort hotel which was a lovely Dutch building run by a Swiss couple that provided a perfect lunch right in the middle of town. We took a trip with Dick and Sarah off ‘Moonshiner’ north along the coast which had been devastated by the tsunami in 2004. The destruction was still quite evident in places where there had been such a huge loss of life. We headed to a venue so that Sara could fulfil her life-long wish to ride an elephant. When the girls rode off into the forest Dick and I went and had a beer together, where I learned that he had been the personal pilot to John King and Colin Marshall in their early days in charge of British Airways, when they decided to take a trip together around the Caribbean. Our trip returned via a medicinal herb garden where we purchased a couple of 'guaranteed' remedies. One of which was a combination of oils that I rubbed into my leg that was still giving me some grief from the Baker’s cyst. I did this more in hope than expectation, but it worked, and I am now a believer!
We went to Colombo with Paco to collect our respective deliveries from the airport and took Marlin with us to help. This proved to be not easy, not least because customs were having a day off, even though I had previously contacted them to ensure that we could process our goods that day. This resulted in the need to stay a night in the Hilton hotel in Colombo, because the journey up and down from Galle was horrendous. The following day Paco parted with a large sum of money otherwise known as a bribe, with the help of Marlin. Marlin also helped me to minimise my expenditure in customs provided that my fuel pump was accompanied by a customs officer until it was delivered to the customs office within the port. This was duly accomplished but my refusal to pay an extortionate sum for his return journey caused somewhat of a ruckus.
The Blue Water Rally briefing took place in a nearby restaurant, where we were introduced to the idea that the groupings that had been agreed in Phuket were to be changed. When I challenged this, ultimately Mark from ‘Blue Magic’ admitted to persuading the organisers to rearrange them. After some discourse this rearrangement was overruled, and we broke up into our groups to decide who would be in charge of each and how we would operate. Once again, this nonsense of coming together to make a ‘hard target 'was put forward as a defence against piracy. Our group asked me to be the lead, to which I agreed provided that ‘Quest’ would undertake to comply with our agreed modus operandi. This was necessary because already there had been issues of them ‘doing their own thing’. However, this had nothing to do with the tragedy that was to befall them. The plan was to route to Salalah by following the west coast of India before turning west to join the routing of shipping bound for the Red Sea.
Now the discomfort that Sarah and I had developed in Phuket became nearer to alarm. This was because the incidents of piracy had become substantially greater than in previous years and were occurring much further out into the Indian Ocean, with several attacks off the Seychelles. The more we thought about it and discussed it, the more concerned we were with the risk. It may have been fortuitous that the delay in obtaining the necessary spares for both Paco and I enabled us to develop a thought process that was not influenced by groupthink. Moonbeam was further delayed because I needed additional spares from the UK, having discovered that the inner shroud had a strand that had parted. Equally Paco was delayed whilst the guardrails were replaced and welded, and the engine rebuilt.
This meant that we were observers at a meeting of the skippers of the rally yachts to discuss a missive that had been sent from one of the yachting magazines recommending us not to attempt the passage to the Red Sea because of the current situation of piracy. However, sadly they departed anyway.
Now Paco, John, Sarah and I had a meeting over lunch where I asked Paco what he was planning to do. I advised him that I had spent a quarter of a century training Captains that they must make the best decision on the facts available at the time. We had by now done our own research and discovered that Pirates were attacking boats and ships at the rate of one per day. I had decided that I was not prepared to risk our lives on this passage and was withdrawing from the rally. Paco said that he was going to do whatever I did! At that time, I thought that it would be best to return to Thailand and leave the boat there for a year before resuming our original planned route to South Africa, via the Cocos Island and missing out on the trip to the Red Sea completely. However, when we looked at the chart, we realised that we were one third of the way across the Indian Ocean already, so maybe it was more sensible to continue on, and this was what we did.
Our decision to leave the rally was vindicated in the most tragic way. Whilst we were still in Galle, we learned that ‘Quest’ had been taken by pirates and the crew were hostages. Jean and Scott Adam, who owned ‘Quest’ had accepted Phyllis McKay and Bob Riggle as crew members out of Galle. Phyllis and Bob had circumnavigated on a previous Blue Water Rally in their own yacht but were essentially hitchhiking on any boat that would have them on this rally. When the pirates had attacked and taken them, Operation Shield who were coordinating Naval protection of shipping in the area, instructed the USS Enterprise, an aircraft carrier and three other ships to close with the pirates and to free the hostages. Although the American forces were capable of neutralising the threat, sadly all of the hostages were killed.
The Blue Water Rally initially tried to distance themselves from this incident by suggesting in the media that ‘Quest’ had left the rally. However, this was not the case as an email before they were taken clearly indicated that they were en route towards a waypoint agreed and organised by the rally. Shortly afterwards the Blue Water Rally went into liquidation and ceased operations.
The trauma experienced by the other Blue Water yachts resulted in a decision to remain in Salalah until such time as a vessel could be arranged to ship the yachts through the Red Sea and into the Mediterranean. This meant that they had to wait for more than three months, before one could be arranged.