Murder on the High Seas

I'm the first to admit that I am an emotional guy. You wouldn't want to sit next to me in the cinema when the film is sad or joyous, my blubbering would drive you nuts. I'm OK with bombs, bullets and exploding helicopters, I mean you know that's not real.
Stay with me, I'm coming to the crunch! As the host of a radio show covering world sailing news, I try to keep it positive. Sailing is a sport I love and it's rarely hard news. Occasionally, hard news comes my way and I feel obliged to report it. I am not under any pressure to do so, only that exerted by my own conscience. My last show had me fighting back tears of anger and deep sadness over the ongoing problem of people smuggling between the islands of the Caribbean. Here's my radio report:
I hate opening the show with bad news but this story made me so angry, I just had to talk about it. Eight people, two of them children, are known to have died when a boat, and I use the term boat loosely, capsized of the coast of Tortola in the BVI earlier this week. The dead were said to be Haitian nationals being smuggled into the Virgin Island by a boat that allegedly came from St. Maarten. This doesn’t surprise me as it’s been going on for years, and I have seen it with my own eyes. The scum running these boats know nothing about the sea and should, in my book, be charged with murder. The passengers who line up to board these boats are dreaming of a better life, that life has now been take from them. I can’t imagine what it was like for the children when they inhaled their first mouthful of sea water. Authorities in St. Maarten have arrested three people who they suspect are involved in human smuggling, and police and coast guard in Dutch and French St. Martin, along with their counterparts in the Virgin Islands are conducting an investigation. I hope they go after these people with the same vigor as that used three weeks ago following a number of break-ins on mega yachts in the Simpson Bay Lagoon. END.

I can't follow that really. Good news next time.

Season begins with Clouds and Clout. New Show, New Podcast.

Sitting at the computer – where else- looking out on another beautiful Caribbean autumn day. Yesterday we kicked of a new season of YachtBlast on Island 92, 91.9fm St. Maarten. Island 92 is the Caribbean’s top Rock and Blues station broadcasting to the northeast Caribbean and to the rest of the world via Internet.

This is the fourth season of YachtBlast which ranks as one of the world’s favorite sailing shows. YachtBlast is supported by a weekly podcast that to date has been downloaded over 25,000 times. The podcast is available from iTunes or by following the link.

The first show covers the sailing news from the Caribbean and around the world. Our main interview, and one I really enjoyed recording, was with Jimmy Cornell the man who created the ARC - Atlantic Rally for Cruisers. Jimmy comments about the early days and how he thought the ARC would be a one-off event. This year more than 250 boats celebrate the ARC’s 25th anniversary so Jimmy sure got that wrong.

The first boat in the Velux5Oceans race has made it to Cape Town. American Brad Van Liew arrived tired but elated to a hero’s welcome. This is one of the world’s toughest races and one that held the spotlight for many years. This year’s entry list is very disappointing, the sailors are of the best but there are only five of them and, unless the organizers can pull something out of the hat, this Velux might be the last. The rise of Class 40 is affecting the world of ocean racing in many ways and the Velux could be the first casualty.

The yachting season in St. Maarten has got off to a spectacular start with quite a number of mega yachts arriving early this year. We should be happy, however; there is a dark cloud over the Simpson Bay Lagoon. Several of the mega yachts have been boarded at night. This is a new phenomenon in St. Maarten. The authorities and the local marine industry have quickly joined forces and increased security at all marinas, ashore and on the water. Coastguard patrols have been doubled and private security firms are, for the first time, patrolling in high speed boats. CCTV cameras are playing their part and one perpetrator has been caught on film. To keep the record straight, no one has been injured, there has been no violence, and certainly no weapons of any kind were used during these unfortunate incidents. Lorraine Talmi of the St. Marine Trades Association, and IGY assistant manager Martin Plas discuss the problem and the steps that are being taken to prevent it from happening again on the YachtBlast podcast.

ST. MAARTEN WINDS OF CHANGE

The Winds of Change
St. Maarten Bridge and Mooring fees after 10-10-10


The winds of change are blowing in Dutch Sint Maarten. On October 10 St. Maarten became a country within the Dutch Kingdom. As we woke on October 11, it seemed little had changed. The new government gave themselves a day off while the rest of the population went about their normal business.

Before the change to country status it was announced that there would be a reduction in bridge and mooring fees for yachts visiting the island beginning January 1. This has been long in coming, it doesn’t go far enough, but at least it’s a start. According to the St. Maarten Marine Trades Association, high fees, introduced without prior notice two years ago, caused a devastating decline in arrivals and a major drop in business activities.
St. Maarten’s marine economy was built on the backs of the smaller cruising boats, reports say that this is where the largest decline occurred, with a sixty-five to seventy-five per cent drop over the last 24 months.

Much can be blamed on ‘mega yacht’ madness. From government and right down the food chain, the mega yacht was seen as the Golden Goose. Legislators appear to be doing something to put that right but, to be fair; many businesses are not without blame, they cranked up prices to shake as much cash out of the mega yachts as they could. “They can pay, they can pay, money’s no object,” was the cry. I heard it first hand, time and again.

Small boats were caught up in the madness and came up with their own answer. Instead of taking out a mortgage to pay for an hour of a service professionals’ time, they took their boats elsewhere and broadcast it to the world through social media.

Let’s hope that what started before country status will continue. That St. Maarten will lower all bridge and mooring fees, businesses will understand the threat posed by burgeoning competition elsewhere, and the island will regain its rightful place as the Yachting Capital of the Caribbean.

Effective January 1, 2011, fees for vessels in the categories eight to eighteen meters will change as follows: A thirty per cent reduction in bridge fee rates; and a rebate of two free weeks out of every eight consecutive weeks spent in St. Maarten.

Hurricanes drive me nuts!

Like everyone who lives in the islands, I spend part of the year with one eye to the east looking for, let’s keep it polite and call them ‘pesky’, hurricanes. This is the first year that our boat Strange Light has been stored ashore for the windy season and I’m not sure I like it. There’s something, well, perversely thrilling about bouncing around on your boat while all hell breaks loose. Of course having a steel boat, a massive mooring, and several big anchors, does help. There’s still plenty to worry about, like commercial boats run by jokers who think might is right except when it comes to anchors and seamanship. And yachtsmen who leaving their roller furling sails on their forestay where inevitably they un-furl and cause great entertainment before dragging the yacht away or tearing the mast out of the deck. Watching the apartment windows bow while waiting for the roof to blow off just doesn’t do it for me. My wife, on the other hand, thinks I’m nuts!

LION FISH ROAR IN CARIBBEAN

Gorgeous but deadly! That is how one diver described the Lion Fish he saw recently at 'The Bridge', a popular St. Maarten dive site. Having reported the sighting, the St. Maarten Nature Foundation swung into action and after a couple of attempts managed to capture the Lion Fish, which turned out to be a juvenile. A few days later, divers reported sighting a Lion Fish off the coast of Saba, so it seems they are beginning to establish themselves in local waters. If you are stung by a Lion Fish, then you are in for some serious pain and, under the right circumstances, contact with the wrong end of a Lion Fish can prove fatal. Injuries to divers and swimmers are bad enough, but the arrival of this invasive species will, if allowed to go unchecked, cause untold damage to Caribbean reefs and indigenous species. The Nature Foundation euthanized the Lion Fish and dissected it for study. But where there's one, there must be many. How did this threat arrive in the Caribbean? News sources say two Lion Fish found their way into the ocean after a tank at a Miami aquarium was damaged during a hurricane, and it's their progeny that are now working their way down the island chain. Divers and swimmers are asked to report all sightings of Lion Fish to the relevant local authorities. In the mean time, keep your fingers and toes out of the way or the lion that roars might be you!

Should the Coast Guard tow?

News that the St. Maarten Coast Guard failed to respond to a pan-pan message has caused concern. When the skipper of the yacht Silver Moon was dismasted shortly after leaving the Simpson Bay Lagoon on Monday, July 12, he reportedly broadcast a pan-pan for 30-minutes. The call went unanswered. Finally, the call was acknowledged by the regional rescue center in Guadeloupe. They rebroadcast the call and asked for any vessel in the vicinity of St. Maarten to respond. The message was picked up by the Amcon Lagoon Diving Service's tug Skutter which had just dropped off a tow. The tug had the yacht in sight and assisted the vessel back to the harbor, having first removed the mast from alongside the yacht. The owner of the yacht was so angry at the lack of response by the local coast guard, that he sent an article to the St. Maarten Daily Herald seeking an explanation. The newspaper contacted the coast guard and asked for a comment and, basically, were told shit happens. My thoughts are that either no one was monitoring the VHF or the coast guard are more interested in looking for illegal activities. Should the coast guard tow boats in distress? In St. Maarten, we have the answer.

Boat owner photographs Black Hole in inner space!

The work goes on. Bit daunted this week as work steamrollered, going from good to bad and back to okay. Taking a break at the point of giving the boat away, or hacking into the cabinets in the fore-cabin with a chainsaw, paid off, and things looked much better on third day of destruction. The photo shows the corrosion in the anchor locker, which isn't as bad as it looks. The cockpit is next!

Turtles at at the beach Bar. Will they hatch and survive?

Let's hope these turtle eggs hatch OK. The nest appeared outside one of St. Maarten's most popular beach bars. Lot's of noise, people and music. The St. Maarten Nature Foundation threw the cordon around it, and we'll keep you updated here.

My new novel Caribbean High now available! Click HERE for details ...

It’s red, it’s plump, it’s a rusty sailing lump

Shame on me! Our boat, once our pride and joy, is now a flagship for the adage ships and men rot in port. Okay, my wife says I haven’t rotted that much, God love her, but she does agree that the boat is a mess. Now, thanks to a friend with a space in his construction yard, things are about to change. You could be forgiven for thinking that living in what is dubbed The Yachting Capital of the Caribbean; it would be easy to keep a boat maintained. But times and boats have changed. Fiberglass, money, and, yes, respectability is the name of the game. The days when a St. Maarten boat yard (note: I say St. Maarten and not St. Martin) would haul your steel boat and let you cut, weld and grind, are almost gone. You can’t blame them, who wants rust marks all over the topsides of their recently sprayed boat? Still, it doesn’t change the fact that cruising, as we once knew it, has changed. Banging on the boat with a chipping hammer brought back memories of clouting my wooden boat with a mallet. Bang … whoa, what’s that? Thunk … shit, that sounds expensive. Not surprising, then, that owners of older fiberglass boats spend so much time poncing about sailing, while us diehards are character building 

A time to sail, a time to broadcast

Blame it on the Heineken Regatta! The problem with a radio station that not only has a great maritime show but a team of presenters who actually sail, is that for one week in March no one wants to be in the Island 92 studio. Usually you can’t tear a presenter away from the microphone but the Green Machine changes all that.
Before sitting down to write this I visited the yacht club to attend a press conference, and within ten minutes spoke to four of the world’s top sailors. Talk about putting St. Maarten on the map!
Talking about maps, the YachtBlast podcast goes from strength to strength and is now downloaded more than 2000 times a week worldwide. We’re lucky in St. Maarten, through the yacht club we can sail whenever we want. Technology is grand but it’s no substitute for a fair wind and a cold beer.

Hit and Run on Proselyte Reef

On Monday, I had a very angry call from the Ocean Explorers Dive Center and dive master Lucian de Lima, who told me that that over the weekend a ship had run into Proselyte reef off Philipsburg, and done a huge amount of damage to the coral. As it turns out, it wasn’t a ship but a tug probably towing a barge. Divers think the tug slowed down as it approached Great Bay, which caused the steel towing cable to sink to the bottom over the reef. When the tug accelerated, the towing cable scythed across the reef destroying three swathes of coral some thirty feet wide. No vessel should be in the vicinity of Proselyte Reef as it’s within the marine park. There is a light on the reef, it is visible in daylight, and it is marked on the chart, so you don’t even need GPS to find it. As usual, the ship failed to report the incident and legged it. It happens a lot in St. Maarten. Human nature, I guess, vessels spill oil and diesel and don’t own up. Legislation is in place to issue fines but when money is tight, there is no one to enforce it. According to the divers, the reef could be repaired, but again it takes time and money. Both are in short supply. One month from now and the coral is beyond repair and nature will have to take its course. To hear more about the damage to Proselyte Reef download the February 7th YachtBlast podcast from iTunes.

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Good deeds, bad navigation & the joys of being young

The loss of the Irish entry Cork in the Clipper around the World Race has raised some eyebrows. A few weeks back Cork T-boned another competitor at the start of the race in Cape Town. On Thursday she went one better and struck a reef in the Java Sea. Video footage released to the media showed the yacht high and dry just meters away from a small tower that marked the end of the reef. Obviously, someone is facing serious questions and clipper tells me that a full investigation is underway. Race founder Sir Robin Knox-Johnston said Cork was the first yacht they have lost in over two million miles of racing. Let’s hope it’s their last.

It’s been an amazing week for sixteen year old Australian Jessica Watson. On Wednesday, Jessica, who is attempting to become the youngest person to sail nonstop and unassisted around the world, rounded Cape Horn having covered almost ten thousand miles of her solo voyage. Lot’s of people, me include, expressed concern when Jessica announced she was setting off on her record attempt and I was even more concerned after she ran into a freighter during a training voyage in the dark. Well, you’ve got to hand it to her, as she seems to be proving us all wrong. Why the detraction? Because we wish it was us! Go Jessica …

Members and staff at the St. Maarten Yacht Club have come together to help the people of the devastated island of Haiti. Brad and Tara, who run the yacht club bar and restaurant, donated a percentage of Saturday’s bar receipts to the cause, and well know St. Maarten yachtsman Ian Hope Ross donated fifty buckets from his construction company. The buckets were washed out by volunteers, filled with goods, clothes etc., and given to the Red Cross for shipment to Haiti. The collection goes on all week and it’s nice to report that there is more to our yacht club than sailing and cold beer.

Laser me, Baby ... ouch!

I went sailing in a Laser this week and I still haven’t recovered. It was one of those snap decisions; the keelboat we usually take out on Tuesday afternoon was stuck at the far end of the lagoon. Evidently the family who had rented it had ripped the jib and found it impossible to beat back with just the main. Kathy, my sailing partner, said: “How about you join us tomorrow on a Laser instead?” and without thinking, I agreed. I last sailed a Laser 25 years ago when under the influence of strong drink. A friend and I ‘borrowed’ one from a beach in Antigua and took off on a New Year’s Eve cruise around Falmouth Harbour. Lasers, drunks and Christmas trade winds are a wonderful combination and we spent half the time trying to climb back into the boat. Great fun until I realized my once full pockets were now empty and my wallet stuffed with cash, cards and various forms of ID was now being dragged across the sea bed by a crab. Anyway, I’m now sailing a laser and if my cuts, bruises, and sore backside have healed by Wednesday, I’ll be out there again. The reason I’m telling you all this is that when it comes to sailing it’s never too late to change direction and although I’ve been hobbling around like a cripple for a few days, when the wind filled the sail and I took of down wind, I felt like I was sixteen again :)