Bosunlocker
Active Member
A sad loss, but a very Happy Christmas to all the salvagers on the Island of Utopua.
G’day Tom,Sheila
Sorry to be the bearer of bad news about your yacht.
Just to give you a little background. Your yacht ran aground on a reef that surrounds the small island of Utupua. Its about 50 NM S/E over open ocean from the island I’m on called Nendo in the Temotu Province, also known as the Santa Cruz island group. Getting there is not easy in a 17 foot RHIB (Rigid Hulled Inflatable boat) with a couple of 60s on the back in seas normally around the 3 metre swell mark. Weather is a very big factor and it’s the cyclone season at the moment. Unfortunately as I explained the island is inhabited by about 2000 people that have an extremely primitive lifestyle. There are no basic services like we are used to and they live in leaf dwellings, within village communities and have very few possessions. Your yacht was probably the find of the century to them and they were not happy about handing over the items we were able to recover. Communication is also difficult but I was lucky to have one of the local officers with me that can speak their language. Through him I spoke with one of the paramount chiefs (each village has a chief and he’s like a chief of the chiefs) and he has assured me that he would do all he could to get the jewellery and the valuable/sentimental items back. To be perfectly honest though, I don’t like our chances. That yacht was stripped to the bone and each item represents the opportunity for each individual involved in the looting to improve their lifestyle either buy selling the goods to purchase something as simple as a new fishing net or a useful item within the village.
What I was able to recover is listed below. Could you please let me know what, if not all of the list below, you want forwarded by mail and the address to mail it to.
The list is as follows
1 X Sony notebook computer model PCG-8G1P with a grey Belkin carry case. It doesn’t appear to have any water damage but there are no power cables and I’d say the battery is flat.
1 X ZyAIR B-120 Wireless LAN PC Card
1 X “Standard” hand held VHF radio model HX230S. Again the battery is flat and there is no charger with it
1 X Garman GPS 60 hand held GPS unit. Unfortunately this has suffered water damage. I have dried it out and put 2 new batteries in it but unfortunately it won’t turn on.
1 X Canon Prima AS-1, 36 mm film camera (this has also sustained water damage and I would suggest beyond repair) with a red Canon carry case and 1 roll of film.
1 X Real taste zero sugar black carry bag
10 X water damaged photographs (1 of which is the yacht in an unknown bay)
1 X red signal flare gun with 8 rounds (unfortunately returning this is going to be very difficult)
1 X Icom model IC-M8O, serial number 40884, VHF Marine Radio Telephone. This has suffered a bit of corrosion, but once again I don’t have any power supply for it to check if it works
And finally a large quantity of assorted documents. The good news with this is that there are receipts re repairs you had done. This might help with your insurance mungrels.
Let me know what you want to do ASAP
Cheers
We are sad the yacht went on a reef,but I am pleased that the Islanders
got a Christmas present,and we hope they will use the huge inventory that was on the Ketch to make there lives better
G’day Tom,Sheila
Sorry to be the bearer of bad news about your yacht.
Just to give you a little background. Your yacht ran aground on a reef that surrounds the small island of Utupua. Its about 50 NM S/E over open ocean from the island I’m on called Nendo in the Temotu Province, also known as the Santa Cruz island group. Getting there is not easy in a 17 foot RHIB (Rigid Hulled Inflatable boat) with a couple of 60s on the back in seas normally around the 3 metre swell mark. Weather is a very big factor and it’s the cyclone season at the moment. Unfortunately as I explained the island is inhabited by about 2000 people that have an extremely primitive lifestyle. There are no basic services like we are used to and they live in leaf dwellings, within village communities and have very few possessions. Your yacht was probably the find of the century to them and they were not happy about handing over the items we were able to recover. Communication is also difficult but I was lucky to have one of the local officers with me that can speak their language. Through him I spoke with one of the paramount chiefs (each village has a chief and he’s like a chief of the chiefs) and he has assured me that he would do all he could to get the jewellery and the valuable/sentimental items back. To be perfectly honest though, I don’t like our chances. That yacht was stripped to the bone and each item represents the opportunity for each individual involved in the looting to improve their lifestyle either buy selling the goods to purchase something as simple as a new fishing net or a useful item within the village.
What I was able to recover is listed below. Could you please let me know what, if not all of the list below, you want forwarded by mail and the address to mail it to.
The list is as follows
1 X Sony notebook computer model PCG-8G1P with a grey Belkin carry case. It doesn’t appear to have any water damage but there are no power cables and I’d say the battery is flat.
1 X ZyAIR B-120 Wireless LAN PC Card
1 X “Standard” hand held VHF radio model HX230S. Again the battery is flat and there is no charger with it
1 X Garman GPS 60 hand held GPS unit. Unfortunately this has suffered water damage. I have dried it out and put 2 new batteries in it but unfortunately it won’t turn on.
1 X Canon Prima AS-1, 36 mm film camera (this has also sustained water damage and I would suggest beyond repair) with a red Canon carry case and 1 roll of film.
1 X Real taste zero sugar black carry bag
10 X water damaged photographs (1 of which is the yacht in an unknown bay)
1 X red signal flare gun with 8 rounds (unfortunately returning this is going to be very difficult)
1 X Icom model IC-M8O, serial number 40884, VHF Marine Radio Telephone. This has suffered a bit of corrosion, but once again I don’t have any power supply for it to check if it works
And finally a large quantity of assorted documents. The good news with this is that there are receipts re repairs you had done. This might help with your insurance mungrels.
Let me know what you want to do ASAP
Cheers
We are sad the yacht went on a reef,but I am pleased that the Islanders
got a Christmas present,and we hope they will use the huge inventory that was on the Ketch to make there lives better
