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It's going to be a close one! | «« back |
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The way things are looking now, it seems Ralph will be coming so close to the Fiji islands in the course of Sunday evening (Monday morning for him) that it's going to be very tense. The reef just out from the islands poses a huge problem. We're busy looking for a suitable boat to tow Ralph through the reef to a safe port, either by going through the coast guard, a tugboat company or just a local fisherman. It won't be easy either; the coast guard seems quite reluctant to commit itself (as it's not an emergency, after all), and two of the tugboat companies we've approached aren't answering the phone, while the third is always engaged. We've had no reply to our e-mails either. |
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There are a few Dutch people on the island, whom we've been able to get in contact with thanks to the assistance of a Mr Peter Knight. One of the Dutchmen he put us in touch with is Roderic Evers, the owner of a hotel in Suva, who made a spur-of-the-moment offer to put Ralph, Winnie and Isis up in his establishment. Very generous! Some of our Dutch contacts have boats, but of those, some wouldn't be able to tow the 700kg weight of the Zeeman Challenger and the rest wouldn't be able to get far enough out to sea to reach Ralph (the Fiji islands cover a very large area). It wouldn't be possible for Ralph to row to meet them either, as his steering is very limited at the moment due to the currents and winds around his current position. So now the big question is: can we find someone, one of our contacts on the island or otherwise, who's prepared to set sail on Sunday night local time to take Ralph in tow before his boat runs aground on the reef? We're beginning to get pretty nervous over here in Holland.
The map above shows the Fiji islands. The line with the red (Ralph's positions on 22nd November at 10am, 22nd November at 10pm and 23rd November at 9am) and black dots indicates his most likely course, which is currently heading straight for the reef. He's about 150 miles away from it now, and is trying to keep as far to the west as possible to avoid the first reef belt and reach the largest island, Viti Levu. But even if he succeeds in this and ends up close to Viti Levu, he'll need help there as well as the reef borders the whole island. We're assuming the worst for now, i.e. the course with the black dots, so as to be ready for that eventuality if it comes.
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