On May 15, 2017, Lewis Bennett told US Coast Guard rescuers that his wife, Isabella Hellman, fell overboard while he slept in the 37-foot sailing catamaran on their honeymoon trip from St. Maarten to Key West.
His boat sank 26-miles from Cay Sal Bahamas, and he evacuated into a life raft where the USCG rescued him. They also found rolls of silver coins. Mr. Bennett was convicted of illegally transporting stolen silver and gold coins. On February 20, 2018, the former newlywed husband, Lewis Bennett faced new charges of second degree murder in the death of his wife, Isabella Hellman, the mother of their daughter, a toddler named Emilia. The FBI alleges that Mr. Bennett a UK and Australian citizen scuttled his boat, Surf into Summer. Based on its build date 1986 and the reporting by the Palm Beach Post of its make, Slow Boat Sailing believes the boat to be a Fountain Pajot Louisiane 37 sailing catamaran. One was recently on sale on Yachtworld for under $50,000. The Palm Beach Post reports that the 1986 catamaran was worth $60,000. Despite searching over 6,000 square miles for Ms. Hellman, the USCG cut off the search after three days. Mr. Bennett admitted to transporting the silver and gold coins from the sailboat Kitty R, which he worked on in St. Maarten in 2016.
Coast Guard rescues 1, searching for another approximately 30 miles west of Cay Sal
FL, UNITED STATES
05.15.2017
Public Domain Photo
U.S. Coast Guard District 7
The 37-foot catamaran, Surf into Summer, is partially sunk Monday, May 15, 2017 in the Florida Straits 30 miles west of Cay Sal, Bahamas. The Coast Guard is searching for a female who was last seen aboard the vessel at approximately 8 p.m. Sunday. U.S. Coast Guard photo courtesy of Air Station Miami.
Photo ID: 3388227
If you want to mark your charts, to avoid the derelict, ghost boat, the SV Sea Nymph, don’t expect the U.S. Coast Guard or the Volvo Ocean Race to warn you. They are keeping its location a secret. Volvo Ocean Racers discovered the boat on February 13, 2018, UTC, “360 miles east of Guam,” according to a blog written by Turn the Tide on Plastics skipper Dee Caffari. When and where is the exact time, latitude, and longitude of the citing? Nobody is willing to give that out, but Jennifer Appel in her vague, Ghost Boat position report seems to be calling Ms. Caffari a liar.
The Volvo Ocean Race content coordinator Alice Williams wrote, “We are not at liberty to disclose, the information you requested please be assured that RCC [U.S. Coast Guard Rescue Coordination Center] Guam have been informed of its position.” U.S. Coast Guard Guam falls under the 14th district Honolulu. A representative at the 14th district said over the phone that the exact location was given to the owner, Jennifer Appel, but they would not disclose it to the general public.
Appel refused to give out the exact location of her boat except to say it was at 17N and 147E on February 13, 2017. That is little improvement since depending on the rounding convention Ms. Appel is using that could be an area of more than 3,400 nautical miles of open water on a boat barely visible on radar, according to the skipper of the USS Ashland which rescued her on October 25, 2017. Moreover, it is not inconceivable that she could be telling a fib about this location which is definitely not “360 miles east of Guam.” Northeast is a better direction. Ms. Appel has been caught in a few tall tales mentioned in the video above.
Is 17N and 147E another Jennifer Appel “fish story”?
Map caption: This is 17N and 147E, which is definitely not “360 miles east of Guam.” Whose coordinates do you believe? Jennifer Appel, a woman who has wrecked one boat and abandoned the other, or Dee Caffari, a 5-time circumnavigator and world record breaking sailor leading Turn the Tide on Plastics in the Volvo Ocean Race.
Ms. Appel hopes that someone will want to risk their life and property to go after a boat full of water and a broken boom only to face Ms. Appel’s charges of stealing her home and possessions. She wrote to Slow Boat Sailing, “The items inside the boat are mine.” Before the boom broke, Ms. Appel told the USCG that the boat averaged about 1 knot downwind to the USCG from June to October 2017. She said that she has no plans to fly to Guam or charter a boat herself. Ms. Appel told Slow Boat Sailing that she lives in Texas with her dogs Zues and Valentine, but Tasha Fuiava, her crew member for their 5-months at sea, has moved on to California where the latter has family.
In yet another sad incident of lashing out against those who helped her, Ms. Appel posted on a Sailing Anarchy forum:
“TTT on Plastic says clearly – in the video – that they know who the owner is – yet they did not contact me –
I called USCG Guam to find Sea Nymph’s current location and thank the woman who initiated the rescue after she learned that the ‘collision’ which the fishing vessel called in had not yet happened and Guam hung up on me and blocked my number.”
There she goes again! Jennifer Appel is once again lashing out at several folks helping her. It sounds newest enemies are the Turn the Tide on Plastics crew, who found her boat, and the USCG, who repeatedly tried to rescue her despite her refusal to use her EPIRB. She says in the USCG survivor debrief on my video that the Taiwanese fishing vessel crew tried to “kill” her, and she criticizes the USCG C-130 pilot who flew out on May 5, 2018, after she did a “mayday” call two days out of port. How much fuel did taxpayers pay for after that first mayday in which she told the USCG she was “OK” when they flew over with a C-130? If you add that to the USS Ashland motoring out to her rescue, that seems like a lot of military hardware, supporting the cruise of the SV Sea Nymph. What does it cost to charter a Volvo 65 and crew for a couple hours to fly a drone? What does it cost to charter a 56-meter (500 gross ton) fishing vessel and crew for 24-hours? Mariners are obligated to help people in distress, but the person in distress probably should say “thank you” and refrain from criticizing their saviors publicly without some very good reasons. At the time of writing Turn the Tide on Plastics has not requested redress in leg 6 for their good Samaritan efforts to examine the ghost boat.
The USCG seems to be burned out on wasting fuel on the strange voyage of the SV Sea Nymph. The USCG 14th district representative told Slow Boat Sailing that they had no intention of intercepting the vessel in international waters. The USCG directed the owner, Jennifer Appel, to contact an international salvage company. Ms. Appel added more color to the USCG Guam incident where they blocked her number. The author spoke to her over the phone, and she said that USCG Guam believed that she would need further rescuing if she recovered the boat.
With its broken boom, open hatch, and forward tilt, the Sea Nymph might have a market value of zero. If it hits a reef, the locals will likely send its owner a clean up bill of many thousands of dollars like the crew of the Tanda Malaika and the Lagniappe faced. It is too bad Ms. Appel did not scuttle the boat when she had the chance. When Appel wrecked her first boat, the salvage company had to wait years before she paid a dime. After getting pennies on the dollar for the cleanup, Ms. Appel accused the partially-stiffed, salvage company for her first boat of not towing it to safety when it broke up on the rocks on the Sailing Anarchy Podcast episode 26. Slow Boat Sailing’s advice to any salvage boat “hired” by Ms. Appel would be to ask for a cash deposit for all expected expenses upfront.
In her conference call with reporters in the video, below she entertained thoughts of recovering it. In which case, taking off the sails, putting on sail covers, and better securing the hatch, all might have been good ideas.
The last notice to mariners on February 14, 2018, had no mention of the derelict Sea Nymph. Perhaps its coordinates will show up on the February 21, 2018, edition. If you are passing that way before that time, post a crew member at the bow. The SV Sea Nymph has no lights on. Can we blame the Ms. Appel or the USCG for not notifying boaters of the location of this hazard to navigation?
If you have the chance to scuttle or salvage the ghost boat, SV Sea Nymph. Take off the cockpit GPS. I would like to have a look at the track on the GPX file.
Volvo Ocean Racers spotted a “ghost ship”, a derelict sailboat, 360 miles east of Guam on February 13, 2018, UTC. It was none other than the SV Sea Nymph abandoned by Jennifer Appel and her crew member Tasha Fuiava nearly 3 to 4 months earlier on October 25, 2017. We discuss the latest revelations from this mysterious disaster at sea. We bring you exclusively the interview of the sailors on the doomed sailors who were criticized by the US Coast Guard for not using her EPIRB. The USCG alleges via the AP that they hailed the Sea Nymph on June 15, 2017, near Tahiti. Ms. Appel told the Today Show that they were no where near Tahiti and her handheld GPS proves that. Linus Wilson was given her handheld GPS track history and analyzed it. It only had two days of data, the last two days prior to the rescue. This tale of two women and two dogs where rescued 900 miles southeast of Japan goes on…
Linus Wilson is the host of the Slow Boat Sailing Podcast which has had Sailing Doodles, SV Delos, the Skipper of the wrecked Tanda Mailaika Dan Govatos, and Dee Caffari as some of its many guests. He has recently interviewed Nikki Walsh and Tanner Broadwell who lost their sailboat keel near Tampa Bay.
Jennifer Appel was caught in many fibs on national TV and media interviews about the size of her sailboat sailing through a force 11 storm, that she saw giant sharks. Slow Boat Sailing has both confirmed and debunked parts of her story and a selection of our best blogs about this sailing mystery are below:
Rescued Hawaii Sailor Left for Tahiti without Charts for Islands http://bit.ly/2EAAKh2
Investigation: Rescued Sailor’s Story Has Several Holes http://bit.ly/2ob7liw
US Air Force Confirms Part of Hawaii Sailor’s Story http://bit.ly/2F8vTRj
Exclusive: The Last Voyage of the SV Sea Nymph http://bit.ly/2sC39xu
Linus Wilson analyzes a false statement made by Ms. Appel made in a portion of her Today Show interview.
Two Women Who Were Lost At Sea Answer Questions About The 5-Month Ordeal | TODAY
http://bit.ly/2Ewi2Hg
500612
13 Feb 2018
VOR
Turn the Tide on Plastic, a boat competing in Leg 6 of the Volvo Ocean Race from Hong Kong to Auckland, had a close encounter with the abandoned vessel, the Sea Nymph on Tuesday morning UTC, about 360 miles east of Guam providing this drone footage and first-hand blog of what they saw.
00:00 IV E Brian Thompson (GBR), navigator
01:07 ghost boat
Turn the Tide on Plastic skipper Dee Caffari wrote a blog post which Linus Wilson reads. http://bit.ly/2HnsWwE
499329
07 Feb 2018
Hong Kong,
VOR
Interview with Turn the Tide on Plastic’s skipper Dee Caffari (GBR) ahead of leg 6 start from Hong Kong to Auckland, New Zealand http://bit.ly/2C1yMo3
Leg Zero: Rolex Fastnet Race – Fastnet_Leaving_B-roll
480848
06 Aug 2017
Isle of Wight, UK
VOR
Turn the Tide on Plastic: Dee Caffari (skipper, GBR)
01.43 wide shot of Turn the Tide on Plastic http://bit.ly/2CpBvUl
VNR Leg 6 start
499305
07 Feb 2018
Hong Kong
VOR
Leg 6
01:57 Route animation
02:18 Boats at the start line
The USS Ashland Rescued Two Women Who Were Lost at Sea
10.30.2017
Video by Lance Cpl. Jonathan Pearson
AFN Okinawa
The USS Ashland rescued two American women after they were lost at sea for five months. Lance Corporal Jonathan Pearson
Appel said they sent an unanswered distress signal for 98 days before the Ashland rescued them.
They told the USCG in the October 27, 2017, survivor debrief that they made 120 days of distress calls.
AT SEA
10.27.2017
U.S. Navy
A telephone conference call with Lt. Adam Cole.
171029-N-UX013-001
UNITED STATES
10.29.2017
Video by Jonathan R Clay
Commander, Amphibious Force 7th Fleet
171029-N- UX013-001- PACIFIC OCEAN (Oct. 29, 2017) Sailors aboard the amphibious dock landing ship USS Ashland (LSD 48) help to bathe Zeus and Valentine, the two dogs rescued with Jennifer Appel and Tasha Fuiava at sea after spending months adrift.
Nichole Gorofalo
All Hands Update: USS Ashland Rescue
11.01.2017
Kevin Dawson
For a limited time get $5 off your next purchase with SailTimer at the link below:
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The SailTimer Wind Instrument™ is a wireless, solar-powered masthead anemometer. It works with lots of navigation and charting apps. You can raise it from deck level if your boat is in the water, and it has lots of other cool innovations too. Check out the web site to see how it works — and get a discount while supporting our sponsor.
Nikki Walsh and Tanner Broadwell bought at $5,000 1969 Columbia 28-foot sailboat to sail around the world. Their trip lasted 2 days. In the end the boat sunk to the bottom of the ocean. They departed Tarpon Springs, Florida. By 9PM on Wednesday, February 7, 2018, their boat was at the bottom of the sea. They were able to save their dog, a dinghy, and their IDs before abandoning ship to a SeaTow.
The boat lost its keel when they were motoring 2 miles per hour in the John’s channel off Tampa Bay, Florida. The boat filled with water within 10 minutes as water seeped up from the bottom of the boat and rested on the sea floor in 3-feet of water. The next day the boat turned on its side. Tanner said that someone is offering to give them a new boat, but they have started a $10,000 GoFundMe campaign to pay their salvage expenses and buy a new floating home. They estimate the salvage costs at $6,700 and they have no insurance. The 24-year old woman and 26-year old man lost their life savings. The link to that campaign is below: https://www.gofundme.com/new-sailing-life
The 49-year old boat had plenty of electronic and paper charts for the area. It only had a 6-horse power outboard for power, which worked until the boat sunk. It is somewhat common for old sailboats to have keel bolts give way and for the keel to fall off if they are not inspected regularly.
Nikki and Tanner learned to sail from Tanner’s dad and by sailing on friends’ boats. They bought SV Lagniappe in Fairhope, Alabama near mobile. Tanner and his Dad sailed the boat to Destin, Florida where Nikki sailed the boat to Panama City, Florida. From Panama City, Florida the three people and one dog sailed the 49-year old boat for 3 and a half days offshore to Tarpon Springs, Florida in June 2017. Nikki and Tanner spent $5,000 fixing up the boat until they departed for Key West, Florida in February. They spent one night at anchor before disaster struck and their beloved sailboat sunk, wrecked, and was a total loss. They used to live in Colorado before living aboard their sailboat in Tarpon Springs.
One lesson from this disaster and the wreck of the Tanda Malaika, whose captain Dan Govatos was a guest of the Slow Boat Sailing Podcast, is that entering an unfamiliar harbor at night is a bad idea. More cruisers should heed that rule of thumb. MAYDAY!!!
Tanner says she idolizes the crew of the YouTube channels Sailing La Vagabonde and Slow Boat Sailing Podcast guests Sailing SV Delos. Tanner was wearing a Sailing La Vagabonde t-shirt when their boat sunk near Tampa Bay.
Photos from Nikki Walsh’s GoFundMe campaign and Facebook profile were reproduced with her permission.
Subscribe to get season 2 in the crossing the Pacific and sail the Marquesas, Fakarava, and Tahiti.
For a limited time get $5 off your next purchase with SailTimer at the link below:
SailTimer Wind Instrument™: Advanced features, low price. http://www.SailTimerWind.com/SlowBoatSailing
The SailTimer Wind Instrument™ is a wireless, solar-powered masthead anemometer. It works with lots of navigation and charting apps. You can raise it from deck level if your boat is in the water, and it has lots of other cool innovations too. Check out the web site to see how it works — and get a discount while supporting our sponsor.
have been #1 sailing bestseller on Amazon.
Associate Producer, Anders Colbenson
Sign up for our free newsletter for access to free books and other promotions at http://www.slowboatsailing.com
music by http://www.BenSound.com
Copyright Linus Wilson, Vermilion Advisory Services, 2018
The story of the sailing around the world record attempt of the dreamer and schemer Donald Crowhurst is brought to the big screen with Oscar winners COLIN FIRTH & Rachel Weisz in THE MERCY movie coming out on February 9, 2018, in the UK. Linus Wilson the host of the Slow Boat Sailing Podcast breaks down the “Donald’s Motivation” full clip and the “Ambition” TV spot.
Linus says the full clip paints Crowhurst in a less positive (but more true-to-life) light than the early inspirational trailers did, which he reviewed in:
THE MERCY trailer REACTION | Colin Firth & Rachel Weisz | Sailing Movie Review 2018
Donald Crowhurst is a complex man, and Oscar winner Colin Firth captures the small-as-life weasley salesman that was Crowhurst before he set to sea. Would he rise to the occasion on the water? Watch the amazing movie in theaters in the UK on February 9, 2018, to find out.
We look at StudioCanalUK’s
“THE MERCY – ‘Donald’s Motivation’ Clip – Starring Colin Firth and Rachel Weisz”
&
THE MERCY – ‘Ambition’ TV Spot – Starring Colin Firth and Rachel Weisz
From the StudioCanal UK Production Notes for THE MERCY
“Short Synopsis
Following his Academy Award® winning film The Theory of Everything, James Marsh directs the incredible true story of Donald Crowhurst (COLIN FIRTH, The King’s Speech, Kingsman: The Secret Service, The Railway Man), an amateur sailor who competed in the 1968 Sunday Times Golden Globe Race in the hope of becoming the first person in history to single-handedly circumnavigate the globe without stopping. With an unfinished boat and his business and house on the line, Donald leaves his wife, Clare (RACHEL WEISZ, The Light Between Oceans, The Lobster) and their children behind, hesitantly embarking on an adventure on his boat the Teignmouth Electron. Co-starring DAVID THEWLIS (Anomalisa, The Theory of Everything) and KEN STOTT (‘War & Peace’, The Hobbit), and produced by Blueprint Pictures (The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, In Bruges), the story of Crowhurst’s dangerous solo voyage and the struggles he confronted on the epic journey while his family awaited his return is one of the most enduring mysteries of recent times.”
Check out our other video about this movie and the Crowhurst story featuring director Simon Rumley:
Subscribe to get season 2 in the crossing the Pacific and sail the Marquesas, Fakarava, and Tahiti.
For a limited time get $5 off your next purchase with SailTimer at the link below:
SailTimer Wind Instrument™: Advanced features, low price. http://www.SailTimerWind.com/SlowBoatSailing
The SailTimer Wind Instrument™ is a wireless, solar-powered masthead anemometer. It works with lots of navigation and charting apps. You can raise it from deck level if your boat is in the water, and it has lots of other cool innovations too. Check out the web site to see how it works — and get a discount while supporting our sponsor.
have been #1 sailing bestseller on Amazon.
Associate Producer, Anders Colbenson
Sign up for our free newsletter for access to free books and other promotions at http://www.slowboatsailing.com
music by http://www.BenSound.com
Copyright Linus Wilson, Vermilion Advisory Services, 2018
Huricanes Maria and Irma wrecked the charter market in the BVIs and St. Martin where a large percentage of the Catamarans are based. That supply disruption boosted selling prices of ready-to-go catamarans for charter in the British and US Virgin Islands by about 15 percent in November 2017, according to yacht broker Gary Fretz. Gary also gives tips on avoiding sales taxes in this must watch video for anyone contemplating buying a catamaran for long-term sailing and liveaboard cruising.
Many top vloggers such as Sailing La Vagabonde and Sailing Zatara are selling their monohulls to buy a catamar Gary Fretz has been a yacht broker for 30 years. He helped Jessica and Ryan Adventures buy their sailing catamaran and he can help you too. Once you live aboard space becomes so important and cats have more space! Seasonal and Regional Factors are crucial in price you pay for a cat. Gary Fretz gives a way all his secrets if you e-mail him at
BigYachts {at} gmail [dot] com
Gary Fretz is the
Yachts International, Founder and CEO
Licensed and Bonded Yacht and Ship Broker (since 1989)
Member: International Yacht Brokers Association
LargeCatamaransForSale.com
Castle Harbor Boating School, Inc. (Owner)
America’s Oldest Sailing School (since 1949)
Yacht Charters/Boating School/Club/Rentals
CastleHarbor.com and Castle Harbor Boating School.com
Subscribe to get season 2 in the crossing the Pacific and sail the Marquesas, Fakarava, and Tahiti.
For a limited time get $5 off your next purchase with SailTimer at the link below:
SailTimer Wind Instrument™: Advanced features, low price. http://www.SailTimerWind.com/SlowBoatSailing
The SailTimer Wind Instrument™ is a wireless, solar-powered masthead anemometer. It works with lots of navigation and charting apps. You can raise it from deck level if your boat is in the water, and it has lots of other cool innovations too. Check out the web site to see how it works — and get a discount while supporting our sponsor.
have been #1 sailing bestseller on Amazon.
Associate Producer, Anders Colbenson
Sign up for our free newsletter for access to free books and other promotions at http://www.slowboatsailing.com
music by http://www.BenSound.com
Copyright Linus Wilson, Vermilion Advisory Services, 2018
Slow Boat Sailing has just begun to release its extensive cruise of all six of the permanently inhabited islands of the Marquesas. We are aware of no other sailing vlog that has filmed all six islands. Comment below and tell us what other vlogs have come close or already done it. Season 2 has only released one of its episodes exploring the Marquesas (S2E5 below), but eight more episodes ranging in length between 10 and 30 minutes are planned.
Most sailors crossing the Pacific skip most of the islands of the Marquesas due to their rush to cross the Pacific in one season or the limitations of immigration restrictions limiting most non-EU citizens to just 90 days in the vast island nation of French Polynesia. Also many cruisers prefer to spend more time in prime diving locations of the Tuamotos and thus speed through the rugged and remote islands of the Marquesas that largely are free of reefs and often have muddy anchorages due to water run off.
The first “Marqesas” episode explores Hiva Oa and the main village of Atuona as well as ends with an attempt to climb the wild Mount Temetiu.
After two episodes in Tahiti, Linus returns to the boat with Daly (our toy poodle) and solo sails the boat to Tahuata, Fatu Hiva, Ua Huka, and Nuka Hiva. In Nuka Hiva, Linus takes on the new crew member Anna and they visit Ua Pou before sailing offshore to Fakarava in the Tuamotos on their way to Tahiti. Janna and Sophie will join the boat in Tahiti and Moorea. The season finishes with Linus solo sailing the boat in Tahiti and Moorea. Daly (the dog) and Linus fly back to Louisiana in their last episode. Linus is sailing around the world part-time as outlined in his book. Several thousand video clips will go into making the eight remaining videos planned in the Marquesas.
You can get early access to these Marquesas episodes by pledging to be a patron. We release monthly vlogs on the first Thursday of the month, but they are typically completed months ahead because of the difficulty of uploading videos in the South Pacific. In addition, we strive for a regular monthly vlog release schedule. That means patrons of Slow Boat Sailing can see the vlog episodes many months ahead. Patrons have access to free audiobooks and bonus episodes and many other cool rewards such as associate producer credits, depending on the level of the pledge.
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Simon Rumley directed the Crowhurst movie about Donald Crowhurst, who pretended to sail around the world in the 1968 Sunday Times Golden Globe Race. In that race, nearly a dozen men competed for two prizes to be the first man to circumnavigate the globe solo and non-stop and the fastest man to sail solo non-stop around the world. He discusses the strange story of Donald Crowhurst who filed false position reports after he believed his boat was not seaworthy enough to sail around the world solo, non-stop in the Southern Ocean and around Cape Horn.
Photo of Crowhurst film director Simon Rumley reproduced with his permission.
The Crowhurst movie is distributed by StudioCanal UK which is also distributing The Mercy (2018) starring Rachel Weisz and Colin Firth premiering in the UK on February 9, 2018. The Crowhurst Movie is likely to become available in March 2018 in the UK and later worldwide.
Photos reproduced with the permission of Crowhurst film director Simon Rumley. Crowhurst family home filmed in Crowhurst and Justin Salinger playing Donald Crowhurst.
StudioCanal UK’s production notes for The Mercy (2018) describe the story of Donald Crowhurst below:
Donald Crowhurst was born near Delhi in British colonial India in 1932 to John and Alice Crowhurst. At the age of eight he was sent to an Indian boarding school where he would spend nine months of the year. Two years later, his parents moved to Western Pakistan. After the Second World War, aged fourteen, Donald was sent back to England to board at Loughborough College. His parents returned to England in 1947 when India gained Independence from Britain and the Partition took place. His father ploughed all of his retirement savings into an ill-fated business deal in the new territory of Pakistan. The Crowhurst’s life in post-war England was a far cry from colonial life. The lack of funds forced Donald to leave Loughborough College at the age of sixteen once he passed his School Certificate, and sadly John Crowhurst died in March 1948.
After starting as an apprentice in electronic engineering at the Royal Aircraft Establishment Technical College in Farnborough, Donald went on to join the RAF in 1953; he learned to fly and was commissioned. He enjoyed the life of a young officer and was described by many as charming, warm, wild, brave and a compulsive risk-taker who defied authority and possessed a madcap sense of humour. After he was asked to leave the RAF, he promptly enlisted in the army, was commissioned and took a course in electronic control equipment. He resigned from the army in 1956 and went on to carry out research work at Reading University aged twenty-four.
Crowhurst is remembered as being quite dashing and he caught the attention of his future wife Clare at a party in Reading in 1957. Clare was from Ireland and had been in England for 3 years. Apparently he told her that she would “marry an impossible man”. He said he would never leave her side and took her out the very next evening. Theirs was a romantic, whirlwind courtship that took place over the spring and summer of 1957. They married on 5th October and their first son, James was born the following year. It was at this time that Crowhurst began sailing seriously.
He secured a job with an electronics firm called Mullards but left after a year and aged twenty-six, he became Chief Design Engineer with another electronics company in Bridgwater, Somerset. His real dream was to invent his own electronic devices and he would spend hours of his spare time tinkering with wires and transistors creating gadgets. He also found solace in sailing his small, blue, 20-foot boat, Pot of Gold.
Crowhurst designed the Navicator, a radio direction-finding device for yachting and set up his company Electron Utilisation to manufacture and market the gadget. Donald and Clare’s family expanded with the arrival of Simon in 1960, Roger in 1961 and Rachel in 1962 and they lived happily in the Somerset countryside.
When Electron Utilisation hit financial difficulty, Crowhurst was introduced to Taunton businessman, Stanley Best, who agreed to back the company and Best eventually sponsored Crowhurst’s attempt to circumnavigate the world in the trimaran Teignmouth Electron.
With the Empire gone, in 1960s Britain there developed a phenomenon where men sought adventure, recognition and heroism. Sending men to the moon was something Britain couldn’t afford, so instead, heroes came in the form of people like Francis Chichester who was the first person to tackle a single-handed circumnavigation of the world, starting and finishing in England with one stop in Sydney. Upon his return in 1967, Chichester was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II and instantly became a national hero.
Capitalising on this wave of interest in individual round the world voyages, The Sunday Times sponsored the Golden Globe race, a non-stop, single-handed round the world yacht race. No qualifications were required for entrants but the rule was that they had to depart between 1st June and 31st October 1968 in order to pass through the Southern Ocean in summer. The trophy would be awarded to the first person to complete the race unassisted via the old clipper route, of the great Capes: Good Hope, Leeuwin and Horn. The newspaper also offered a cash prize of £5000 for the fastest single-handed navigation.
Nine sailors started the race, four retired before leaving the Atlantic Ocean. Chay Blyth who had no previous sailing experience, retired after passing the Cape of Good Hope. Nigel Tetley was leading the race but sank with 1,100 nautical miles to go. Frenchman Bernard Moitessier rejected the commercial nature of the race, so abandoned it but continued sailing, completing the circumnavigation and carried on half way around the globe again.
Donald Crowhurst’s Teignmouth Electron was discovered mid-Atlantic, 1,800 miles from England at 7.50am on 10th July 1969 by the Royal Mail vessel, Picardy that was en route from London to the Caribbean. On inspection, the trimaran was deserted and a subsequent US Air Force search for Crowhurst followed to no avail.
British sailor Robin Knox-Johnston was the only entrant to complete the race. He was awarded both prizes and subsequently donated his £5000 prize money to Clare Crowhurst and the Crowhurst children.
Director James Marsh carried out painstaking research and delved deep into the heart and soul of what made Donald Crowhurst tick: “If I can speculate on Crowhurst’s background and his experience, he seemed to have a series of failures, if you like, and he escaped the failure by rolling the dice bigger on the next adventure. He was a man of enormous energy and charm and that energy and charm led him into decisions like the ones he made in joining the race, for example. He had enormous self-belief as well, and people around him substantiated that. He managed to fund and build that boat, so there’s a danger of overlooking what he achieved in this story as well as what he didn’t achieve. He achieved enormous amounts”.
“He was a fairly inexperienced sailor but he wasn’t as inexperienced as some people think he was. He hadn’t sailed the ocean properly, yet he built this very fast trimaran, but the boat wasn’t fully tested and finished. He made a pretty good go at sailing round the world – he stayed out in the ocean for the best part of seven months so all in all, he achieved much more than people ever thought he could, he just didn’t achieve what his objective was. It was a case of over-reach, it was hubris and that is what caused the tragedy of his demise”, concludes Marsh.
The research materials available on Crowhurst were “endless” says James Marsh, “there are quite a few books out there and great raw materials that he left behind, his logbooks, his diaries and letters he wrote to his wife”.
In the course of the research, Marsh also read a lot about psychology and about isolation, “You can read about what happens to prisoners who are on their own for six months and what that does to their minds. I made a documentary about a chimpanzee and he went mad within three days. There’s something about us as animals that are entirely social”.
Marsh found Crowhurst’s logbooks to be one of the most fascinating elements of research “because they’re the real thing when they’re not the real thing, he’s disguising the real thing. You can perceive the real story through the disguise”.
“I would drive around the country looking at locations listening to Crowhurst’s tapes” recalls Marsh, “He sings on the tapes, mostly sea shanties and he speculates about the state of the world, about politics, about his own life. It’s extraordinary really, some of that is a persona but some of it also is the truth. That’s the great joy of this kind of film – you get a chance to research and the more you know the more you want to know”.
The public persona Donald Crowhurst created through his tape recordings and the way he talks to his family and people on dry land were, according to James Marsh, “increasingly divorced from what he was feeling and experiencing. In our portrayal, he becomes primitive essentially. He’s stripped of civilisation and becomes much more elemental and that’s shown in his physicality, he loses weight, doesn’t wear as many clothes and starts to look like a vagabond on the boat. The mental journey is much more interesting than the physicality and we just had to bring that to the character”.
“There are entries in the logbooks and in the tape recordings that he became aware of the cosmic reality of where he was.” comments Marsh. “No-one behaved rationally after a certain point in that race. Moitessier lost his mind a bit too – he went round again! Robin Knox-Johnston was perhaps the exception but his boat was in a very strange state when he came back to the British coastline. All in all, no-one was spared by this journey”.
“The sea is like a desert. It’s also mercurial, it has moods, it changes, and it threatens you. But, all you’re seeing is a horizon and a sky. The sea changes colour, it can be stormy and it has this sort of personality that can destroy you,” muses Marsh. “The isolation is a huge part of what goes wrong in Crowhurst’s mind. Your brain chemistry changes when you don’t speak to people”.
When a real-life character is portrayed on screen, there comes a certain responsibility to the memory of the person and to the feelings of loved ones. James Marsh doesn’t think there is any ‘definitive’ version of any true story, “that’s the great virtue of true stories, you can interpret them this way or that way, endlessly”. He says The Mercy is “a version of a story that we think has some truth to it. There’s no definitive version apart from the reality of what actually happened. You capture and distil it somehow into a dramatic form or a documentary form. There is a duty to respect that character and to be sympathetic. Colin and I both respect that – we both really liked Crowhurst, we felt we knew enough about him to go on with this story and get to the truth of it. Colin plays him with such sympathy and such careful precise emotional progression, which is totally profound”.
“A lot of artists became quite obsessed with Donald Crowhurst” notes Rachel Weisz who plays his wife Clare in The Mercy, “I actually think this story is a very loving portrait of him and his ambitions. There’s a kind of Donald Crowhurst in all of us, we all dream of some kind of glory. I think in the culture we live in now, we’re encouraged to reach beyond our lot or our station. Crowhurst could have made it and it would be a very different story. At the time, there was perhaps this notion that he’d cheated and lied, but I don’t really feel the story’s about that. It’s about somebody who is a dreamer and he gets caught up in a kind of white lie. Everybody exaggerates a little bit now and then to suit his or her story but obviously, this is a very extreme version of it, therefore it makes good drama. I think Donald Crowhurst is immensely human and relatable. He’s not a strange, un-understandable being. I think he’s very understandable. I think the essence of the film is celebrating him as a kind of romantic hero. I hope his family might feel that too, because that’s my feeling about the film” concludes Weisz.
Here are some blogs that Linus Wilson has written about the strange last voyage of the SV Sea Nymph, a 45-foot sailboat owned by Jennifer Appel, which were mentioned in the podcast:
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On the Slow Boat Sailing Podcast Linus Wilson has interviewed the crew of Sailing SV Delos, WhiteSpotPirates (Untie the Lines), Chase the Story Sailing, Sailing Doodles, SV Prism, Sailing Miss Lone Star, and many others.
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Copyright Linus Wilson, 2018We use a Mantus Anchor and swivel on our boat. Get all your Mantus gear at http://www.mantusanchors.com/?affiliates=15
Mantus Anchors is a corporate sponsor of this episode.
We will be running contest where our most loyal Patreon supporters can become part of our crew literally as we explore the paradise islands of the South Pacific. http://www.Patreon.com/slowboatsailing
Our one Star or Executive Producer patron can join the crew without winning the drawing.
Patrons of the round the world vlog and podcast get bonus podcast episodes and free audiobooks of How to Sail Around the World Part-Time and Slow Boat to Cuba. They get never before released audiobook chapters of Slow Boat to the Bahamas. You can also get access to many podcasts and videos early as a patron.
Slow Boat to the Bahamas
On the Slow Boat Sailing Podcast Linus Wilson has interviewed the crew of Sailing SV Delos, WhiteSpotPirates (Untie the Lines), Chase the Story Sailing, Sailing Doodles, SV Prism, Sailing Miss Lone Star, and many others.
Sign up for our free newsletter for access to free books and other promotions at http://www.slowboatsailing.com
Copyright Linus Wilson, 2018
You might think from the trailers for The Mercy (2018) biopic to be released in theaters in the UK on Friday, February 9, 2018, that Donald Crowhurst played by Colin Firth was an innocent dreamer who got in over his head. The film clip released today paints a more complex picture of the man. He comes across in the full clip as a fast-talking salesman. He seems just a little bit slimy promoting his scheme to his wife played by Oscar winner Rachel Weisz as Clare Crowhurst and their friends.
Academy Award winner Colin Firth as Crowhurst comes across as a much smaller man than the iconic characters Mr. Firth has played in many other films. That is a good thing, because in the case of Donald Crowhurst it is true. Donald Crowhurst was no ordinary bloke, but he was not a hero either.
Check out the full trailers #1 and #2 and my reaction to them below:
Dr. Linus Wilson is the author of How to Sail Around the World Part-Time and the creator of the Slow Boat Sailing Podcast and YouTube Channel. His Island Packet 31′ sailboat is currently in Tahiti and he sails out of New Orleans. He holds a six-pack captain’s license issued by the US Coast Guard.
For the sailing season in French Polynesia, we flew in the dog. Visiting Tahiti with a dog is tough! This video will show you how. We fly into LAX early to get our vet visits and USDA APHIS forms filled out after getting a preliminary import permit after 9 months of work including a rabies shot, titer test, two APHIS forms, and much more. After all that they fly into the Papeete airport (PPT).
Linus can’t get back to the Slow Boat in Hiva Oa because of a firefighter strike that closed down most of the airports in French Polynesia. He stays at the Tahiti Airport Motel and Pension de la Plage while he waits. He visits the beach and Le Meridien Tahiti. They try to catch the Aranui 5 cruise ship, but no dogs are allowed. This is a much watch for anyone travelling to the French Polynesia with a dog. It is very hard to fly your dog into a rabies free country.
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Copyright Linus Wilson, Vermilion Advisory Services, LLC, 2018
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