Tales from the Mid Pacific

My cruising friend told me that his first marriage ended in Panama and it was left to him to complete the circumnavigation in the 27-ft boat. Another cruiser was in the same position. His wife had left him and it was up to him to get the 40-ft Colin Archer home. They were both headed for Hawaii and neither had sailed solo.

My friend was apprehensive but neverthless decided to sail to Hawaii solo, along a circular course to the south to avoid a wind dead zone.

His friend decided to take as crew someone that he had met at the dock (Mistake No. 1). He decided to sail the direct route to Hawaii, right through the dead zone (Mistake No. 2). He didn't check his provisions before departure (Mistake No. 3) and on the water discovered that he had been wrong in assuming that his wife had provisioned the boat.

My friend arrived in Hilo expecting to find the Colin Archer waiting for him because it was a much larger boat but there was no sign of it and nobody had seen it. Two weeks later his friend arrived alone in the Colin Archer after a passage of about 80 days. He had run out of food, was emaciated, and was in terrible condition. Oh yes, and the cat was missing too, so my friend figured that he had eaten the cat.

The fellow said that he became so frightened of his crewman that he was afraid that he might be killed while he was sleeping. So he dropped the guy off on a deserted island with a bag of rice and left him. It wasn't quite as bad as it sounds. The island was named Cocos, 300 miles of the coast of Costa Rica, where scenes of Jurassic Park were filmed. There was plenty of water and coconuts and one could rely on one annual visit from the Costa Rican navy. (See http://performersandprograms.com/program.cfm?id=2031&region=9) Hopefully the guy got off the island sooner rather than later, but then again he might still be there happy as a cochon en merde surrounded by waterfalls, lush vegetation, and plenty of fish life.

Some after thoughts:

- I wonder if his wife really had provisioned the boat then stealthily de-provisioned it just before her departure

- Anybody got a good recipe for cat stew?