Crtd 09-04-12 Lastedit 15-09-14
Jews shipwrecked
Subject: with every end comes new begining
Some weeks ago, our Isra�li boat builders had finished the boat and sailed off.
Photos: four Israeli youngsters are building, in a local fisher village, their own dream boat to cross Lake Victoria, uninhibited by any knowledge of sailing and ship building. They had the highly original idea to buy a 11 m bamboo stem for a mast! On their request, I told them a few things which I hope, will keep them afloat a bit longer. For the rest, we could not wait seeing it launched and sailing!
They also had a spectacular marine novelty, only known to have been seen in ancient Kenya: a complete house on the bow. They were not inspired by the Kenyan ocean mtepe, but saying so would make a nice story:
Mtepe (extinct), Kenya coast, offloading wood
I had advised
them to stay in Jinja bay for some time to test the boat in different weather
conditions. They had decided for a bamboo mast which I told them I expected to
break at Bf 4. No big deal in Jinja bay. And you can replace it. I
expected this house to make the boat lee helm and drifting, but on the other
hand they had gone for a slot in the keelson to make a drop keel. Apart from my
fears of firmness of the construction, it might help alleviate both. They
asked me to make a sail plan in which I held the lateral point back to
compensate for the house. Indeed, I in making the sail plan I treated the house
as part of the sail! (surface 3 - that is, counted as 3 m2 of sail - on the picture).
They had sailed off earlier than planned. Village people,
assuming pace in attempts to milk them, started to annoy. A boy they grabbed
with stolen wood went to his school master who had the police put the poor
Israelis in prison for a ransom. Others started to grossly raise fees for
lodging and for the "shipyard". Nevertheless they gave a goodbye party to the
village - during which all their tools got stolen.
Then , they were off!
Every now and then we got an SMS with GPS coordinates. After some days point 1, after a week point 2, after another week again point 2 ("waiting with headwind"). I do not remember how many weeks later I received that SMS they were North of Damba (point 3), that is, they now were 57 km straight from Jinja and had 57 km straight to go to us on Banda (we normally do Jinja-Banda in 3 or 4 days, our worst ever was 8). Then an SMS, a few days later:
We are all ok but
the boat is under
water thank you
Dom did some phoning but did not get many details out, except some questionable GPS coordinate numbers and the reluctance to recover the boat. Finally, April 12, I got an email (with - on my request - I nice picture of the boat under sail):
|
-----Original Message----- Hello friends,
i want to share with u a small taste from a story which has
come to an end. if you enjoy it and if not, please respond, as your heart lets
you...so it was on last Saturday, while Itay and Adam were staying at Kampala
(Adam got some nice infection in his arm...) and Ben and I were on the boat
together with 2 other friends which came visit us in this very day. So it was
night time and we woke up after a short sleep to catch the good northern wind to
get us few more miles in a night sailing to Banda island (our first
destination). We sailed about 1 hour heading south, and not seeing the quite
storm that develops in the east, just near us and heading toward us. and
Neptune's will brought us to be stacked into a fisherman's net, and at the same
moment Ben was trying to cut the net that appeared to be catch the keel, the
storm from the east started showing up. It wasn't a process for the storm to
com, it was more like 5 minutes when the nice lovely night lighten by the
half-moon were become total mess when lightning from time to time appearing
showing us how frighten we r while the wind strokes so fast and the rain falling
on us from any direction. But we couldn't pay attention to all these details
because we tryed to deal this situation, when our boat is held from the keel by
a fisherman's net and the wind getting stronger. Finally we maneged to release
the net, and then we started sailing in this blackness trying to navigate from
the G.P.S, when the sail is wide open and the wind shoots us so fast, after few
seconds of this kind of rush i couldn't hold the rudder anymore and the boat
turn to be side to the wind. at the same time Ben was throwing the anchor (at
list tryied) and the boat was in a quite rough angel - almost parallel to the
water line, few seconds until the water started entering the boat, and i shout
"abandon the boat". all of us were found and we had the life-jackets with us so
it was easy to get to the rescue boat. from there all we had to do is survive
the rainy-stormy-windy night because one thing we know - by the end of the night
the morning will come with his the worm lightly sunshine. so we stayed on the
rescue boat, holding the roap connected to the canoe that connected to the
drowned boat which surprisingly were floating with 1 meter bow and 2 meters mast
above the water. even the sail was still mooving by the wind during this time. 4
people on a rescue boat having no idea were this Storm was taking us, and having
no shoes, no passports, no money (besides 50 $ found in Gil's belt) no food,
nothing. while we r trying to keep on moving, screaming and singing so the body
heat will remain, god almighty start showing his kindness. first we saw some
floating items coming out from the boat... garlic... a bucket... a bowl. take
everything, we might need it for survival. ... pack of biscuits.... a vogue-
Thermos with hot tea in it!!! right after the captain's journal, and the parrot
dummy... after an hour trying to rescue the important things (unlike the many
books were floating and had nothing to do with), we finally saw a weak green
light coming toward us - the G.P.S box with all our passports and money and the
G.P.S itself... |
This story suggests they sank by insisting to sail in a night rainstorm instead of dropping the sail and anchoring. We were anxious to know why they did not anchor, with fishnet and all (it floats), and had a nice nap to restore order next morning after drying and warming with a good breakfast. I got some email answers and it seems they first wanted to use the sail to put force on the net they caught by sailing with the storm behind. The net did go off, they gained speed, still with storm behind, and did not luff for fear of capsizing. Finally they luffed because they could not hold the rudder and capsized. Remarkably, the ship held firm all the way until the, eehhh, new beginning. To this email some pictures were attached, most notably this one:
We are really sorry their adventure had to be so short and that it was not given to us to receive them at Banda. But our next adventure is about: In two weeks we shall launch Dom's disaster canoe, and follow its ways no doubt competitive in interest!