October 21, 2024 • 43 mins
Today on the podcast, the fellas are joined by the great New Zealander, Andrew Fagan!
Two new podcasts out daily!!!
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
My Jerry Off Instagram. Mate, I'm looking at it, I'm
reading about everything. Oh, seem to get a bit of
defensive here.
Speaker 2 (00:14):
Does your Instagram just know what a massive like I'm
talking about myself, what a massive perv you are because
it just just throws up so much pervy shit.
Speaker 1 (00:24):
Or Instagram's very aware. It knows more about you than yeah,
your friends generally.
Speaker 2 (00:28):
So usually been.
Speaker 3 (00:30):
I know you're a long time listener to this podcast,
but I'll start the recording a little bit earlier and
just try and catch a little bit of banter between.
Speaker 2 (00:37):
Yeah, so are you quite happy for that to stay
in you? Yeah? That we're both massive pervs? Sweet? Okay, No,
that's good. Just wanted to double check that. If we
just start that up, I would say though I'm not
as big a perv as Instagram thinks, I am like
a bullshet on that.
Speaker 1 (00:57):
Love Mine to the Unnamed Podcast. It's Tuesday, the twenty
second of October twenty twenty four. Ben Hereley joins us
this morning, Oh, there, massive perv.
Speaker 2 (01:07):
Don't you find that the algorithm on Instagram it's just
because you're hover Yeah, you just hover over certain images
and then it goes, oh, this is all you're interested in.
Speaker 1 (01:15):
Well, it knows when you zoom in on something. And
if you zoom in on something particularly, I know what
you zoom in on being herey, then it really knows that.
But you only need to spend a little bit more
time on something, only one or two seconds, and it
works it out.
Speaker 2 (01:30):
I usually zoom in on how much a ball has
turned on those Instagram posts that are amazing deliveries. Okay, yeah,
so I get a lot of those as well. A
should we play a game really quickly?
Speaker 1 (01:41):
Yep?
Speaker 2 (01:42):
Yeah, you guys get Instagram.
Speaker 3 (01:44):
And then if you go down the bottom and click
the search tool, it's going to give you a whole
bunch of kind of videos and stuff.
Speaker 2 (01:52):
Yes, that's what I mean.
Speaker 3 (01:53):
So everything's looking pretty clean. This was all right.
Speaker 1 (01:56):
It looks like mine ben yeh look sports.
Speaker 3 (02:00):
Hotties kind of thing.
Speaker 2 (02:00):
Yeah. Bit of comedy, a mess of eel. I hope
that's what it is.
Speaker 1 (02:06):
Mine's comedy, yes, with a bit of beetles stuff, and
with animals, funny animal things as well. I like funny
animal things. I send them to my kids, a lot
of funny animal things. Was a really good one the
other day. It was really really funny pigs pigs listening
to this weird song.
Speaker 3 (02:25):
I'm lacking actually in the female department on my you.
Speaker 1 (02:29):
I've mainly got Matthew Ridge. What's wrong with me? I
haven't got a single female.
Speaker 3 (02:34):
There was a time in my life where I had
a lot of female golf going on on my feed.
There was a moment I think that was late twenty
twenty three, But right now it's just a lot of
football AFL highlights. Oh no, what's comedy as well?
Speaker 2 (02:47):
Okay, I'm just going to read out a string of
names of people that are just in my instagram. Jeff Bridges,
James A. Kester, Jerry Seinfeld, David Bowie, Sydney Sweeney, some
big names here, these people? Dming you or what? Jennifer Lawrence?
Speaker 3 (03:05):
So I hang on?
Speaker 2 (03:05):
Why have we Rachel from Countdown Yep? Is that her name?
Is it? There? I don't know? I remember last thing?
Ricky Ponting al Pacino? Can we go back to Sydney Sweeney? Yes?
So what what answered? Way too fast? What kind of what?
Speaker 3 (03:25):
What kind of continu you're getting there from Sydney?
Speaker 2 (03:29):
Look, yeah, Sydney Sweeney's dad and grandpa had to walk
out after watching her an X rated role Sexy.
Speaker 3 (03:39):
Yeah, I went to that. I can see why that's
popped up on your feet. Yep, Jerry, anything exciting over
your side of that.
Speaker 1 (03:43):
No, mine's mainly matthew Ridge focused.
Speaker 2 (03:46):
Why are you so Reggie focused?
Speaker 1 (03:47):
I don't know you asked the algorithm. I'm not. I
don't know why it's done.
Speaker 2 (03:51):
There?
Speaker 3 (03:51):
Are you still riding your bike in a serpentine fashion
down Ponton by Road, shirtless with your white skull candies
on big.
Speaker 2 (03:57):
White skull candies? No, al Pacino you opportunit. He's just
got a book out.
Speaker 1 (04:02):
Michael Cainek, I've got slip Knight, Michael Jackson. Harry Styles
is in there. That's interesting. You know what he's in there?
Here's some Elvis, some Elvis, Ricky Gervais, Reynolds, but a
tiger would.
Speaker 2 (04:18):
Okay, right, I think this game's gone on a bit
too long.
Speaker 1 (04:21):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (04:22):
I just wanted to see what Instagram do you know what?
This is a lot cleaner my feed now than it's
ever been good for you guys.
Speaker 1 (04:29):
Yeah, I think that we were talking at New could
hear us? That's the thing?
Speaker 2 (04:34):
What do you think?
Speaker 3 (04:34):
Hang on? You think Instagram kind of threw you a
branch and said, look, I'm going to look after my
boy here. Yeah, I think so we're going to protect
them and go. We know people about to kind of examiners.
Speaker 2 (04:42):
Thanks Zuckerberg explore for We've got Andrew Fagan on the
podcast today.
Speaker 1 (04:46):
That's right, former Mockers front man and round the World sailor,
well and attempted round the world circumnavigation. That is what
round the world is circumnavigation and a five point one
meter boat. Sail boat five point one meters, that's as
because this as long as the studio.
Speaker 3 (05:04):
You don't want to round down on that sounds more impressive.
Speaker 1 (05:06):
Five point one if you just went five. I reckon
five sounds bigger than five point one.
Speaker 2 (05:12):
Actually, I think he might be right.
Speaker 1 (05:13):
So one of those weird numbers. It's one of those
weird numbers. But yeah, he he attempted to circumnavigate the globe.
That would be a world record, That would be a
world record.
Speaker 3 (05:23):
A lot of woods and tried and attempted.
Speaker 2 (05:29):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (05:29):
Wow, spoiler alert because he's written a book called Swirly
World Lost at Sea because he fucking did? Is he
no mash? He's not. He's coming in on the podcast.
Speaker 2 (05:40):
Can I ask when he or if he failed, which
sounds like he had, did he need to get rescued
and it did it cost the text pay a lot
of money?
Speaker 1 (05:49):
Ah? These are all good questions that he will answer.
Speaker 2 (05:52):
Because remember there was that wounded who tried to pedal
across the Tesman Sea and he tried a few times
and he failed, end up going backwards, going backwards and
he was out the coast of Tattanaki for about a month.
Speaker 3 (06:04):
Was that judou currents or was he just unaware of
what direction the kayak had?
Speaker 2 (06:08):
He was going two days forward and three days backwards.
Speaker 1 (06:10):
Scott Donaldson he going backwards trans Sessmon kayaker. Scott Donaldson.
He was in New Zealand of the New Zealand of
the Week Early Early Doors Matt and Jerry show. He
came up against a howling easterly. So that's what you
don't want. You don't want to howling easterly when you're
trying to get from you know, Brizzy Ross too across
(06:33):
to New Zealand.
Speaker 2 (06:34):
Not a common wind in New Zealand.
Speaker 1 (06:36):
Andrew Fagan will tell you that true. Fagan will tell
you that's not a common wind.
Speaker 2 (06:40):
I hope we get some wind. He knows.
Speaker 1 (06:42):
Andrew Fagan knows more about the wind than pretty much
any other person in New Zealand. He knows. Here's Andrew Fagan.
Here's Andrew Fagan. Do you know Ben Andrew. I'm Jeremy Jo.
Speaker 2 (06:59):
This is mash An.
Speaker 1 (07:02):
And Andrew Mesh at home pleasure. We do. We do
a rolling kind of straight into it sort of vibe,
which will be you'll be all over that kind of style.
That's your type of vibe.
Speaker 4 (07:14):
Yeah, you're rolling, rolling, Andrew.
Speaker 1 (07:18):
You spent a lot of time and radio studios over
the years, of course, talk back on radio live, breakfast
on KIWI f M Breakfast for quite a long time.
How many years was that.
Speaker 2 (07:34):
A couple of years?
Speaker 4 (07:35):
And then drive, of course graduated to drive.
Speaker 1 (07:38):
Do you graduate to drive? I would have thought so
the other way around, isn't it?
Speaker 4 (07:41):
I don't know. But the breakfast, you know, the one
that the downer is that you've got to get up
so early, isn't it?
Speaker 1 (07:47):
You would know what time do you get up there?
Speaker 2 (07:51):
How often do you that question?
Speaker 1 (07:52):
Hereman? Five?
Speaker 4 (07:53):
Five five?
Speaker 1 (07:55):
I reckon if you get up in the five it's
the morning.
Speaker 2 (07:59):
Yeah, I agree. Anything pre five feels way too early. Yeah.
Speaker 4 (08:03):
Well, I wake up at five naturally anyway, I used.
I usually wake up when the suns comes up because
I leave my curtains open, you know.
Speaker 2 (08:10):
Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (08:11):
And what time are you going to bed?
Speaker 4 (08:13):
Oh about five?
Speaker 1 (08:14):
Five to five.
Speaker 2 (08:17):
I feel like you're missing a lot of longer.
Speaker 4 (08:20):
Oh yeah, varies depending on what's on. Sometimes early, depending
on you know, how what you've been doing during the day,
how fatigued you might be.
Speaker 1 (08:28):
Okay, you don't. You don't do that weird like diurnal Oh.
Speaker 4 (08:34):
You probably do.
Speaker 1 (08:35):
Actually all that weird, like diurnal sleeping where you just
sleep like like for three hours or something, and then
you wake up and do some things and then write
some songs and some poetry I do.
Speaker 4 (08:47):
On my boat when I'm sailing. Like that's just completely
broken sleep because you're solo, you know, so you're always
having to sort of pay attention to make sure no
one runs you over if you're if you're close in
to the coast, things like that. Yeah, but now not
not during the normal terrestrial activities days. I don't do that. Okay,
I could try it, though, if you recommend No.
Speaker 1 (09:05):
No, I'm not gonna. I don't recommend it. I used
to work with Matt heat who sat over where benn
Is and he did this. He is, he's really weird
and he would do always with a new obsession. So
he's always got these new things that he's trying in
his life. Currently, he's trying to be addicted to nicotine.
He thought trying to be Yeah, he read somewhere that
(09:28):
it improves brain function really, and so he started vaping.
He's fifty two and he started vaping and chewing gum
and now he's so addicted to vaping it's not funny.
And he had to vape in the studio and stuff
like that. It's a complete disaster.
Speaker 4 (09:42):
I don't think that should be recommended on air really, surely.
Speaker 1 (09:45):
It's a tertal idea. But he also did a thing
where he decided to eliminate all of the luxuries out
of his life because he heard that that by removing
the luxuries you were, you'd actually lower your happiness threshold
live and therefore you would be happier because if you
take all of the nice things out of your life,
your body, your equilibrium comes back higher. If you know
(10:08):
what I mean. I'm not ready very well.
Speaker 4 (10:09):
Kind of makes sense, I guess, but you must take
a lot of self discipline.
Speaker 1 (10:13):
Well, he just started sleeping on his deck outside, and
so he was he slept on hard services. Yeah, well
this is he's a very extreme person.
Speaker 2 (10:24):
But it takes you back to your chromagnum man sort
of thing. You know, we're sort of we evolved to
be happy because we had an apple.
Speaker 4 (10:31):
Yeah, bear essentials.
Speaker 1 (10:33):
Yeah, well that's kind of where Andrew brilliantly brought around
being early, because that's exactly kind of where Andrew is
in a sense, because you're out by yourself. Well, first
of all, we probably needed to explain who you are
and what.
Speaker 4 (10:51):
You do you get into the street. I don't know
what you so I came through the wrong door.
Speaker 1 (10:57):
Andrew. You've written a book called Swelly Lost at Sea,
and there it is, and you attempted to circumnavigate the
globe on a five point one meter sailing boat called
Swirly World by yourself.
Speaker 4 (11:12):
That's correct. Yeah, so that's for imperial speak. It's it's
about just under seventeen feet long.
Speaker 1 (11:20):
How would you want to do that?
Speaker 4 (11:21):
Well, because I like sailing, Jeremy, and I'd had the
boat for thirty seven years. I got it in nineteen
eighty five when the mockers were peaking and I started.
You know, I'd always aspired to the solo offshore sailing.
I read all the book when I was a teenager.
I did all the racing. You know, Russell Coots was
came through that generation and always aspired to, you know,
(11:43):
sailing offshore by yourself. Lots of lots of great books.
I've got got all of the solo sailing books and yeah,
that was the plan, and I you know, I've started
to a ninety ninety four I sailed to Australia and
back and a race they called the Solo Trans Tasmin
Race that goes every four years from New Plum to Malulabar,
just just north of Brisbane. And you know, that was
(12:05):
seventeen days there. I came last in the race, of course, smallest.
And then in two thousand and seven I circ navigated
New Zealand. I went down to the sub Antarctic Auktan Islands,
which are one hundred and eighty miles south of Stuart Island,
and then I came up the West coast non stop
from the Orkland Islands. That took me seventeen days and
(12:25):
nights NonStop around North Cape back to Auckland. So, you know,
I'd done a lot of sailing in the boat, and
I felt confident that I could do it, I could
organize my life. That was the hardest part to put aside. Basically,
fourteen months was how long I think it was going
to take me. And there was a precedent, right, So
there was a guy, a Polish guy in twenty seventeen.
(12:47):
He went around the world in a twenty foot boat
what's about six six point five meters, And also a
French guy did it in twenty eleven in a twenty
one foot boat and they both left from Europe and
went NonStop. I'm talking about two hundred and seventy days each.
Speaker 2 (13:02):
You know.
Speaker 4 (13:02):
So so I thought I could shave three feet, you know,
a meter off that record, So off I went in
twenty twenty two. But it didn't quite work out the
way I plan.
Speaker 1 (13:12):
No, And that's what the book's about. Do you not
like people or something? Is that what's going on here?
Because you want to spend fourteen months by yourself.
Speaker 4 (13:19):
Let's run sick of humans, Jeremy. They're everywhere having a notice.
Speaker 3 (13:23):
But This is interesting, Andrew, because you said you're very
good with humans, and then you're obviously it's something that
you don't particularly love or do you love it?
Speaker 2 (13:32):
Do you love just doing both?
Speaker 4 (13:33):
I do like doing both, you know. I like being
out there because it's it's timeless. Once you get out there,
you know, out of sight of land, and there's nothing
on the horizon anywhere around you. The only thing that
changes is the seascape depending on the wind strength, you know,
waves that kind of thing, and also the clouds, you know,
and there's out in the southern Ocean, you're out in
classics sort of albatrosses, and they're quite bizarre. They actually
(13:56):
are company. They come and look at you. They actually
eyebore you. They come up really and they know you
can't sort of get them, but they really have a
good look at you, and I guess they wonder what
you're doing out there and their domain. You know. But
after kind of like seven days, time means nothing. It
could be seven days, or it could be twenty three
days or thirty six days. Because when you're by yourself,
(14:18):
you're you're just keeping that boat sailing as fast as possible,
which in my case is only like five knots. I
mean when I sailed to Australia, I think I averaged
two point nine knots. But that was because of being becalmed.
Speaker 2 (14:28):
You know.
Speaker 4 (14:29):
Sometimes like for five days you might just be going
nowhere because there's no wind, you know, so that knocks
your average down pretty bad.
Speaker 1 (14:36):
I want to go back to the albatrosses. So you're
cruising along, you're cruising along, you haven't seen land, probably
at the stage because I read the book, fantastic book
for probably well thirty days or so before you saw
the albatrosses. Twenty something days.
Speaker 4 (14:53):
Yeah, well no, actually they visit. They came along pretty
early on today. Yeah. They stay down, they stay down south,
you know, pretty much. And my plan was, you know,
I had to go to Cape Horn, which you know,
South America, which is five thousand miles across. So I
got forty days out before it all went wrong. But
early on, like once I got down to about the
latitude of christ Church to Maru which and Chatham Islands,
(15:16):
you're talking about sort of forty two degrees south something
like that, I think, then those big birds start turning out.
Speaker 1 (15:22):
Okay, and when they do, eyeball, you so they fly
down because obviously they need the wind, don't they get
the big wings plan.
Speaker 4 (15:28):
Yeah, they can't take off without the wind. They have
to sort of look like a runway almost. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (15:33):
And so they are actually down there, you're sitting at
the back in the in the cockpit.
Speaker 4 (15:38):
Only about half a meter above the sea.
Speaker 2 (15:40):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (15:40):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (15:41):
And then they how far down were they far away
from you?
Speaker 2 (15:44):
With that?
Speaker 4 (15:44):
Well, they come really close. They come, you know that
they sort of came in often about three meters away.
They've come right up and the massive birds and the
wingspans are phenomenal, and they just they literally look at you,
you know, the eye, and you.
Speaker 2 (15:58):
Can still concerned that they're looking at you, going, this
guy might be food in a couple of days.
Speaker 4 (16:03):
Yeah, quite possibly. I'm sure they sort of think, you
know that, they're very curious, and I suppose in their
seascape out there where really there's nothing, you know's there's
very few ships in the Southern Ocean. And yeah, they're
just inquisitive. You know.
Speaker 2 (16:20):
Can I ask you a question when you say NonStop
genuinely you don't set foot on land?
Speaker 4 (16:25):
That was a plan?
Speaker 2 (16:26):
Yeah? Wow. Yeah, And so those other guys you talked
about that's what they did.
Speaker 4 (16:28):
Yeah, they did. Yeah, they just kept going. And so
I had I had like fourteen months of everything. I
had fourteen months of freeze dried food because the boat's
so small. Weight is a real issue, you know, so
you can't take canned food, and also water is a
real issue. I had two hundred liters, you know, like
the ones you buy from the supermarket, one letter bottles
to let a bottle or stuffed in different corners to
(16:50):
keep the boat sort of trim balanced. But I had
a water maker as well, like an overgrown grease gun
and you pump it, you know, you know, with your manually,
with your hand, and I could make three liters and
forty minutes and it's quite as it's quite a wonderful thing.
It's called reverse osmosis. So you've got a couple of
(17:11):
plastic tubes that go into the sea and you start pumping,
and then at the salt water gets pushed through this
membrane which makes it come out, drip literally drip out
into your water bottle and that's your fresh water. So
it really makes you appreciate fresh water when you see
it dripping out. It's so slow.
Speaker 1 (17:32):
Were you putting a line over the side and ever
thinking about catching any fish.
Speaker 4 (17:36):
No, No, like I took fishing gear just in case,
you know, I got stuck, really stuck and just drifting
around for survival. But I'm not that keen on fishing really, Jeremy, Like,
I don't mind catching them, but it's what you've got
to do to them after you've caught them. Yeah. And
also out there in the ocean where it's four thousand
meters deep, you've only really got pilarge what we call
(17:58):
pelagic fish, which a big tuna, kingfish, real big fish,
you know, and like getting and my cockpit in Surarly
World was so small, like basically a meta by a meter,
you know, you get one of those on board, and
it might as well as being messy, it might actually
be quite tricky, you know, to subdue it.
Speaker 1 (18:15):
And was there ever a time because the title of
the box Swilly World Lost at Sea indicates that something happened.
But was there ever a time before the before the
journey finished, where you were sailing along, where things were
okay and everything was going right, that you that you
(18:35):
wish that maybe you weren't where you were, or were
you always happy where you were.
Speaker 4 (18:41):
I was really happy where I was. That was the plan,
you know. I was doing about ninety miles a day
sort of averaging, which was pretty good for a boat
that size, and I was on course. Everything was going
according to plan. I was making my water. I felt
really really, it was really together, you know, until the
skig the skeg cracked and then it came off. What's
(19:04):
so ski Okay, So underneath a boat, you've got the keel,
right that goes down, and the keel's got a heavy
weight in it, so if the boat leans right over,
it'll always come back up right, or even if it
caps size completely, it will always come back up right.
But then you've got the rudder at the back of
the boat, and then you have not all boats do,
but my boat did. You have it what we call
it skeg, which which which is a little bit in
(19:25):
front of the rudder that provides what they call is
directional stability. So and then I've got a wind vein
self steering, so like seventy percent of the time I'm
just inside all closed up, reading mkindle or whatever, you know,
and the boat steering itself. And that because this wind
vein points that you lock it in and it points
(19:46):
at the at the whea the wind's coming from. And
if the boat goes off and it's attached to the rudder,
and if the boat goes off course, the wind vein
keeps pointing at the wind and brings the boat back
on course. So it's all relative to the wind direction.
And this skeg and this ski was crucial to give
that directional stability to keep, you know, so the wind
van would work. So the we got beaten up real bad,
(20:08):
like lots of when I say beaten up by the weather.
You know what we call, you know, deep lows depressions,
you know, for those who are into the met it's
sort of like nine sixty five lows nine seventies, which
are quite deep and incredibly violent to you know, big seas,
you know, eight meters I think ten meters and breaking
on the top would have been the worst that I got.
Speaker 1 (20:30):
But that's not.
Speaker 4 (20:31):
Always, you know, that's that's the exception.
Speaker 2 (20:34):
So do you not sleep? We talked about sleep just before.
Do not sleep when it's in those big seas, you can't.
Speaker 4 (20:39):
And that's good. I was sleeping all the time because
I was I was those big seas down in the
Southern Ocean usually are coming from the west and going
to the east.
Speaker 2 (20:49):
So you're surfing yeah, yeh yeah.
Speaker 4 (20:51):
You're pretty yeah yeah, you know, you're you're getting up
to six seven knots and so and you're running down
when so the wind's always behind you. So even though
the motion's quite violent and you're going up and down
a lot, when you're inside, I sleep in a thing
called a it's just a bunk, like you know anything,
but it's got what I call it, it's a lee cloth,
which is like a sort of a hammock sort of thing,
(21:13):
like a big piece of fabric that comes up and
sort of locks you in place, so so you don't
fall out of bed essentially, so you're just sort of
strapped and it's actually quite secure and comfortable. And then
you know, you're just there and you can hear the
water rushing past all the you know, the boats rushing
through the water, and there's a lot of motion. But
we got we got slammed, like big sideways hits.
Speaker 2 (21:34):
You know.
Speaker 4 (21:34):
When the wind shifts, it leaves what we call cross
leftover cross swells from the last wind direction, and it
always goes from the northwest to the west to the southwest,
basically in the Southern Ocean, and so i'd get you know,
the boat was getting these big you could hear these
breakers coming and just filling up the cockpit. The boat
was all sealed up, so the water can't go inside.
That's that's crucial. But you know, the cockpit would be
(21:57):
completely fought up, so if you're sitting out there hands
it's like sitting in a spar pool. Basically, Suddenly you'd
get this big white water that would just fill up
the coppit up to your waist. But then it all
drains away outside, you know, out into the sea, and
then off you go again. You know. But those big
hits that the boat took cracked the glue line on
the skeg, and it had three bolts you know, through it.
(22:17):
And eventually, after a few weeks it completely came off,
and then the boat was leaking. You know, it was
taking in like ten twenty liters a day, but I
was just sponging out with a bucket, you know. But
once that skeg came off and there was no directional
stability like before, then the wind vein stopped working. So
then I had to you know, I couldn't carry on
(22:38):
going around the world just hand steering, you know. I
had to have that wind vein.
Speaker 1 (22:43):
Because you have to sleep at sometimes.
Speaker 4 (22:44):
Yeah, exactly. Yeah, so I was the nearest land. Then
was the thousand miles North, which was bit Kern Island.
You know, Mutiny on the Bounty, all that stuff.
Speaker 1 (22:52):
And you spent a bit of time there before because
you've been doing a bit of a run working on
a boat. That was that was furying goods there, back
and forth from New Zealand.
Speaker 4 (23:01):
Yeah, that was after I left RadioLIVE. That was my job.
I got into the marine industry. Industrial boating, we call it.
It's one step up from recreational boating. Every everything wants
to kill you. Everything's rusty and noisy and has the
potential to kill you. People live on yeah, they do.
Fifty two people, you know, not many.
Speaker 1 (23:22):
All the sentence of the mutinies from yeah, Christian, all
that stuff.
Speaker 4 (23:27):
Crazy, quite an amazing, absolutely wonderful little island. You know,
it's only it's tiny. It's like little barrier, you know,
one and a half miles by two miles. It's nothing,
and it ousn't it. It's British. It's British yeah, the
British have got it. Yeah, it's a British territory. Yeah,
so what currency they use, they use, They use everything right,
(23:47):
you know. And it's also quite cheap when you go
to the general store, you know.
Speaker 1 (23:51):
Six six.
Speaker 2 (23:52):
They don't want to go there to scoot around. It's
the only thing I know about six is the main currents.
So if you draw a.
Speaker 3 (24:01):
Line between Auckland and Ecuador, is it about.
Speaker 2 (24:05):
Is it kind of South America?
Speaker 4 (24:06):
It's northeast. Yeah, yeah, it's so. Pitt Kern is about
three thousand nautical miles northeast.
Speaker 1 (24:15):
It's not big in the middle of it doesn't have
any harbor or anything.
Speaker 4 (24:21):
It's like little Barrier Island which haven't got a harbor.
It's just cliffs and they've got a little landing platform
and it tucked in behind the rocks. But my plan
was to get there. It was a thousand miles north,
so after the ski had broken, I thought I'll get
up there. I was talking to them on the satellite
text machine and going to use their crane. I knew
they had a little crane because, like like you said,
I've been there.
Speaker 1 (24:42):
You could peddle your sex steady steady, my you could
sell you sell yourself. You're a good looking man in
command on that island. Andrew, Yeah, you've gone too far.
Speaker 2 (24:57):
Not a lot of visiting musicians to pick. Yes, just
that's how you pay for the repairs on your boat.
Speaker 4 (25:06):
Well, I was trying to get there, and they were
going to be They were being really accommodating, and they
were quite prepared to lift my boat out with the crane,
and I thought, great, I'm going to be there for
a few months. I brought a new skeag and then
I'll carry on. But just after the first day of
trying to sail north, I managed to do forty five
miles and eleven hours, which was pretty good going. That
(25:27):
was handstreing, just sitting there by yourself. And then the
rudder snapped off. And once the rudder snapped off, then
I was stuffed. You know, that was it. You know,
you're totally incapacitated. Couldn't couldn't go anywhere. I tried to
make a couple of what we call jurry rudders, you know, replacements,
but I didn't. It just didn't work for me. You know,
I could have I could have sailed, you know, if
(25:47):
I was that great Barrier Island and had to sail
fifty miles back to Auckland with the jury raudder. I
could have done it, you know, very slowly, clumsily, but
not not a thousand miles.
Speaker 2 (25:56):
You're not.
Speaker 1 (25:57):
You're in the middle. You're in the middle of the
South Pacific, like the middle.
Speaker 4 (26:03):
I was quite close to a place called Point Nemo,
which is which is the most remote place on planet
Earth from land.
Speaker 1 (26:10):
Yes, yeah, I mean looking at a map because one
thousand is it miles or case miles miles north pi
Cam which is also in the middle of nowhere, and
that's you're miles away from that.
Speaker 4 (26:22):
Yeah, it was.
Speaker 1 (26:22):
Yeah, I mean sixteen hundred k's is a is a
long way.
Speaker 4 (26:26):
It was well converted JOm.
Speaker 2 (26:27):
Yeah, I think you could have popped a hungold or
is that in Rappa, I don't know. It's to the
east of piccn that that's it's in the park, you know,
that's east as Easter Island.
Speaker 4 (26:42):
I think, yeah, that was another thousand miles further further, further.
Speaker 1 (26:47):
In talking about some massive distances there, Yeah it is.
Speaker 4 (26:50):
And so I've been out like forty in the end,
it was forty five days. But like I say, time
means nothing once, you know, once you get into that
rhythm of just you know, day and you're always just
paying attention. You know, you do your sleep in a
couple of hours, wake up, you know, make sure the
boat's still going fast, as fast as possible. Make sure
no one's going to run you over, you know, but
there's no one doubt, you know, the chances have been
(27:11):
run over out there. It's pretty slim.
Speaker 1 (27:13):
No, So then I we can talk about what happened
to because it's like, of course, yeah, okay, So then
you put out the call and you were speaking to
people back in New Zealand and you put out the call,
Well they were concerned about you. You really were fine,
you were you were safe. Yeah, you were floating around, Okay,
you couldn't go where you wanted to go, but you
(27:33):
were not freaked out or anything like that. You had
lots of food on board. You were not worried that
something was going to happen to your boat. The keel
is still going, so you're going to stay upright, that's correct.
Lose you kill, you're in some city, you're.
Speaker 4 (27:44):
In trouble, whole other level.
Speaker 1 (27:45):
Yeah, that's different. But Rada just means you can't really see,
so you're basically floating around at the worm of the
wind and currents. That's true, and then you end up
speaking to everyone back home and in the end you're deciding,
really what you're doing is you wait, you want to
be helped to pick ken. You want to kind of
choose the boat that saves you almost don't need to
(28:06):
be saved, that helps you out. Unfortunately, it doesn't really
work like that with land and Rearch rescue. They just
get the nearest boat that's wherever it is, and that
comes and picks you up.
Speaker 4 (28:18):
Yeah, which was really unfortunate because I had, like I
had an A B C plan and A I was
wishing that there was maybe some British naval vessel around
doing drills and they would have come down and just
because the boat's so small, just winched it up up
and thrown it on the deck on a couple of
tires and loads, strapped it down and off we go
to fight another day.
Speaker 2 (28:38):
You know.
Speaker 4 (28:39):
That didn't happen. Then Plan B was I was hoping
that some vessel would turn up with it like a
rib you know, rigid inflatable bottomed boat that would come
across from their ship, and I could throw my thirty
k's worth of everything that I'd been working for and
saving up for for the last five years. Life raft,
you know, fourteen months of freeze drive food which isn't cheap.
(29:01):
You know, my water maker also, you know, solar panels
solve everything like lots of electronics and stuff, you know,
GPS is. I was hoping that someone would come across,
throw my bags on, take me and you know, unfortunately
you wave goodbye to the boat. That didn't happen. And
in the end it was just uh, you know, a.
Speaker 1 (29:19):
Three hundred meter container ship, that's correct, which I answered
the call.
Speaker 4 (29:23):
What the biggest three hundred meters It can't even get
into into Auckland, it's too big, It only goes into
Napier and too wrong.
Speaker 2 (29:31):
Wow, how far away was this ship?
Speaker 4 (29:33):
He was about four hundred miles away. So what happened
was they Search and Rescue and Wellington, I mean they
put you know, once they knew I was in trouble
via put Ken Island and the New Zealand International Police
and stuff, then they sort of started putting the pressure
on me as far as they're concerned. You're you're a problem.
You know, if you're just if you're incapacitated, just floating
out there, you're a red flag to them, you know.
(29:54):
But like Jeremy said, you know, I didn't feel it
wasn't in a life raft. You know, the the boat hadn't.
So I was still sitting on the boat just bailing
it out every day, you know. So so I said
to them, I said, oh, you know, can I pick it?
Because I didn't want to inconvenience any big ships. And
I knew that, you know, I was talking to a
friend on a souper yacht who there's this app called
Marine Traffic and you can actually see where ships are
(30:17):
out all over the world. So he reckoned there was
going to be a boat come and pass me in
a couple of days time. That would be quite you know,
trapped past me in about fifty miles away, and I thought,
and it was going to Napier and it had cranes
on it, and I thought, this is this is my boat,
you know, So I said to search and rescue, you know,
I said, well, can I pick and choose you know,
which which which boat? They turned a home and they
(30:40):
said absolutely not, that's not the way such rescue works.
Speaker 2 (30:43):
I'll tell you what, you wouldn't have picked the New
Zealand Navy, because that's true.
Speaker 3 (30:49):
So it was the parorty for you Andrew to make
sure that you could get your boat back.
Speaker 4 (30:53):
That was the that was the first priority.
Speaker 2 (30:55):
Yeah, and this priority was survival.
Speaker 1 (30:58):
Nobody, you know, So he wasn't worried about that.
Speaker 4 (31:01):
And in the old days, right, if you hadn't got
the colms like you got now, you know, via satellite
talking to everyone all the time. I just and you know,
when I went to our Island in ninety eighty six
for my first trip, you just sail over the curve
of the Earth and you're gone. You know, you're not
talking to it. No one knows where you are until
you get there. That's the way it used to be,
you know. So I you know, you know, in the
old days, I would have just drifted for three months,
(31:23):
probably until I hit Patagonia, you know, the coast of
South America all came across a ship, you know whatever.
But in this case, you know, I had to I
had to get off the boat.
Speaker 5 (31:33):
Basically, he attempted to lie like well, you attempted to
just to go old school and and just say that
you're sailing along and everything's fine and all that sort
of stuff.
Speaker 4 (31:43):
Well, the trouble was that I was I was in
contact with a METS, a guy who was doing my
weather forecasting, wonderful Bob mcdavitt, total professional. So every day
he was texting me and telling me where I was,
and when I responded to him, it gives your latitude
and longitude. So everyone knew what's sort of roughly what
speed I was going. So I suddenly stopped. You know,
(32:05):
they all would have.
Speaker 1 (32:05):
Been Andrew's gone crazy.
Speaker 4 (32:12):
Going really well, just a little bit slow today, run
out of wind.
Speaker 1 (32:16):
It's like, no, that seems to be blowing forty knots
little micro climate.
Speaker 4 (32:23):
That's right. Yeah, so they turn up, you know, and
then I had to get onto the ship and without
a rudder, and they said to me, you know it
was when it turned up, it was just getting dark
and it was just like an apartment block, that's what
it looked like on the on the horizon. It was
absolutely massive, and and you just never want to get
in normal circumstances, you just never want to get close
to something like that. You know, it's just the biggest no, no,
(32:45):
and they ended up coming up and stopping one hundred
meters away from me.
Speaker 1 (32:49):
You know, and you're talking four meter seize here.
Speaker 4 (32:51):
Yeah, it's still a good four running. And it was
blowing and it got dark, you know. So they were
talking to me and they were all up on the
you know, all the crew, twenty six people that English
is the second language. The communication was pretty bad, and
they were all there with their phones, taking self and waving,
and I was just we were just waving, Oh, this
is already normal. Just yes, what we do?
Speaker 2 (33:12):
We just know where?
Speaker 1 (33:16):
Yeah, because that's so far. Interestingly, the I don't want
to call it a risk you because it's not really. Yeah,
it was actually the most dangerous part of your voice
so far.
Speaker 4 (33:29):
It totally was, you know. And it was like, okay,
I said to the guy, can you put it? No? Yeah,
I said. He said to me, can you row to us?
And I couldn't because I did have oars, but I'd
used one. I'd chopped one up trying to make a
jury rader, which didn't work, you know, so I couldn't
row to them. And then I said, can you put
a boat in the water, and he said no, no,
too dangerous, you know.
Speaker 2 (33:48):
And he thought made off here.
Speaker 1 (33:52):
Yeah, right, towering above you.
Speaker 4 (33:56):
It's like before you get to the main deck, it's
three stories hard and it's got a propeller. Yeah, and
it's got a propeller and a bow thruster, and then
it's got like containers that were like stacked eight eight high.
You know, it was just absolutely massive. Yeah. Well, these
guys were like way up on the bridge, you know,
looking down, and I was talking to them on a
VHF handheld and so so they weren't going to come
(34:17):
and get me. So it was up to me. This
that was it was almost humorous, you know. I did
actually some hot sometimes because I thought, okay, that's all
up to me. I've got an audience here of all
these guys watching, but it's up to me to get
alongside that that boat. And as it was got dark,
you know, so so I pulled up my sails and
I tried to sail to them. But without the rudder,
they must have thought I was a real shit sailor,
(34:38):
you know, because I was just doing circles, you know,
I'd get the boat sailing and it would just round up,
and I just it was just a shocker. So I
ended up and he was trying to hold position. But
because it was quite windy and because they had so
much what we call windage, he was drifting about the
same speed as me sideways. So it just wasn't getting
a cat and mouse just wasn't getting there. So and
he was trying to turn, you know, turn around, and
(35:01):
I ended up going around them twice, you know, about
sort of one hundred meters off the boat, trying to
get to them, but I just couldn't and in the
end I almost got squished underneath. We used like the
weather rudder and the propellers are it's what we call
the counter. It's at the back of the boat, and
that was going up and down the swells like a
good ten meters and just smashing down. And I got
really close to the to the counter, and I thought, oh,
(35:24):
here we go. This is going to take the mast off,
you know. But in the end, somehow they got close
enough and they threw a heaving line down, you know,
a rope, and then together with the crew who were
like three stories up and me, we started pulling the
boat down the side of the ship to They hadn't
(35:44):
even discussed it. I still thought maybe they wanted me
to just wrap the rope around me and just they're
going to pull me up like that. But there was
a boarding There was what we call the pilot boarding ladder,
which is about halfway down. It's still about sort of
eight meters up up the side, and they had a little,
a little rope ladder hanging down and that's where I
had to get to. That became pretty obvious, you know,
(36:05):
and it had a little bright light, and I saw
a few heads, you know, with helmets on, poking out
and they dragged me really slowly down the side of
the boat. But but we're you know, we're on the
windward side, so you know, these four meter swells were
just picking my boat up plywood, you know, glassed over,
but ply would essentially just picking the boat up like
a tennis ball and just throwing it against the steel wall.
Speaker 2 (36:25):
You know.
Speaker 4 (36:26):
It was that was bad, I really thought. And big hits,
taking some really big hits. And I just kept on
looking inside, wait, waiting to see the water coming out,
because I thought it was it was taking you know,
hits that could split the side of the boat real easy.
Speaker 2 (36:39):
You know.
Speaker 4 (36:40):
And I knew then too that if it sank, they
just have take They've just been taking selfies of me
in the water and that.
Speaker 1 (36:47):
Do you have a life jacking on?
Speaker 4 (36:48):
Yeah? Yeah, I got one of those.
Speaker 1 (36:50):
Do you think it would have saved your love?
Speaker 4 (36:51):
I had a no, I had a survival suit, you know,
and I had and all I had on me was
my passport, couple of go pros and VHF handheld radio
and that was it. But I had my bags and
the cockpit that I was obsessed with, you know, full
of thirty k's worth of gear that I was obsessed
with trying to get on board as well.
Speaker 1 (37:10):
But they don't want to They just want to save you. Yeah,
they don't cure it, you get.
Speaker 4 (37:14):
They didn't want to know.
Speaker 1 (37:15):
They just want to get actually back on their way
to go and delivering their cargo.
Speaker 4 (37:18):
Absolutely, yeah, you know, because there was a real inconvenience
for them. But it's the sort of the lore of
the sea, you know, to save a distressed mariner. And
so in the end, you know, the rope ladder was there,
and when the boat was getting smashed up real bad
against the side of the ship, and I just had
to leap for the rope ladder, you know, and then
I realized I was really fatigued, and even holding onto
the rope ladder was a major because their ship was
(37:39):
rolling out, and so the rope ladder was coming out
from the scale and then about four meters and then
then throwing back in.
Speaker 2 (37:46):
It's like a movie. Stuff like this never happens real long.
Speaker 1 (37:50):
I don't worry. There's a movie coming, a movie I
don't know.
Speaker 4 (37:54):
And then and then it then I just had it
was a cliffhanger. Then I had to really hold on tight,
and it was actually, you know, normally I could do
it right now, just like that, but I was so
fatigued I didn't realize how tired I was, and I
just had to hang on and climb up, you know,
one rung at a time, and I took the rope
that was attached to my bags and the cockpit with
me because I still wanted to save those bags. But
(38:15):
as I got halfway up this ladder that the mark
I got high enough for the mast of my boat
to just be randomly smashing and right beside me, and
if that had hit me, that just would have picked
me off the ladder. And then I realized that my
rope was trying to pull me off because I looked
down in the cockpit of a boat and it was
all tangled up, so you know, I had to open
my palm and let the rope go, and there was
(38:36):
thirty k gone and then I got there and they
pulled me on into the boat and into the ship,
and it was like just entering this whole bizarre you know,
Neon lit steel other world, you know, with all these
guys who were so pleased, you know, saved me. But
that was definitely the most dangerous. You're batman, but I was, man,
(39:00):
I just would have flown.
Speaker 2 (39:01):
Up, you know, you're saying line yeah, oh man, and
then and then of course, you know, there's a whole
lot of other detail.
Speaker 1 (39:13):
But the I'm reading the book, it's a great book.
It's a great book. Of course, they think you're a
drug drug smuggler because it's like, what the hell is
this dude doing out there, So there's a lot of
interrogation that goes on, and because there's English is the
second language, it's it's it's a fascinating story.
Speaker 2 (39:34):
That was really what was in the bag.
Speaker 4 (39:37):
Gear exactly well, I mean, look at that the bales
of freeze dried food I wrapped them all. I've shrink
wrapped them all, you know, in black plastic, so they're
about the size of below cases, so that they looked
so much like that, you know big. But but the
thing was, I didn't have my ship's papers, all my
official documents with me. I left all those in the
(39:59):
bags that I'll trying to get on board. So they
put me in this hospital, you know, set me in
this you know, put on an orange boiler suit under prisoners.
Speaker 2 (40:07):
They put me in.
Speaker 4 (40:08):
One of those and to sit there and testing on
my vital signs and stuff. But they and then they
put a guard on me because also they couldn't verify
who I was because the ship was rolling and they
lost their internet, you know that they couldn't sort of
work out, and they just looked at the boat. And
also I, you know, because it was English as a
second language, I didn't want to say, okay, well, I
didn't want to say, well, I'm trying to set the
(40:29):
record for the smallest boat to circumnavigate via the Great Capes.
So I just said I was going to South America.
So the captain came and sat down with me, and
he just looked at me and said, where are your
ship's papers, and I explained, but he did I don't
think he believed me. I mean, they seriously thought that
I was dodgy, as you know, until they got verification
(40:50):
when they got internet here.
Speaker 2 (40:51):
So where did they take you.
Speaker 5 (40:55):
To?
Speaker 2 (40:55):
New Zealand?
Speaker 4 (40:56):
So I was lucky, yeah, because there are other ships
around that were going to Columbia and Peru and China,
and it was still you know, the COVID thing was
still restrictions were still on and I really didn't want
to get caught in South America, you know, with no
money and trying to get back to New Zealand. So
I was very fortunate that this ship was going to
New Zealand.
Speaker 1 (41:15):
It really would have been peddling.
Speaker 4 (41:19):
So there was only seven days at twenty knights to
get back, you know, and back to New Zealand. And
then you know, I walked down the gang plank and
too wronger and with nothing basically just what I was wearing,
you know, and.
Speaker 1 (41:31):
Then saying goodbye to your saying goodbye to your faithful steed.
Speaker 4 (41:36):
Yeah, and the you know lost at see the title
of the book. What would have happened to the boat
if it had stayed floating? But it was sinking. The
water was coming in, but it with the positive buoyancy
from all that freeze dried food, may have kept it
floating like sort of water logged log, you know. So
it might have just just kept floating. And my met
(41:58):
guy Bob worked out that it probably would have got
taken about one hundred days to just drift to South
America with the currents or it sank. I think it
would have sunk.
Speaker 1 (42:08):
You know, did you do you want it to?
Speaker 2 (42:09):
So?
Speaker 1 (42:11):
What do you want it to do?
Speaker 3 (42:12):
Well?
Speaker 4 (42:12):
I'm still I was still quite positive. I made up
a sign, put my name in there with the latitude
and longitude and my phone number of my email address.
Have found please.
Speaker 3 (42:22):
The most remote part of the globe, and we.
Speaker 1 (42:25):
Just put a couple of That is the most hopeful
sign I've ever anyone ever made.
Speaker 4 (42:31):
There's a picture of it in the book.
Speaker 1 (42:33):
That is amazing.
Speaker 2 (42:34):
Put some posters up on in Argentina like a lost dog.
Speaker 4 (42:37):
Yeah, yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 1 (42:39):
Andrew Fagan, thank you so much for coming into the podcast.
Swilly World Lost at Sea is the book. It's fantastic.
It's one of three books about Swilly Wild that you've written.
Speaker 4 (42:50):
Of course, it's right the final of the trilogy and
there won't be anymore.
Speaker 1 (42:53):
Yeah, no, that's right. Always so good to see you.
And it's such a great story and I look forward
to I know that there will be another journey there.
Speaker 4 (43:03):
Well, I've just got to regroup and you put it together.
Speaker 2 (43:06):
But then sounds like another book one day.
Speaker 1 (43:08):
Perhaps it's a fantastic book.
Speaker 4 (43:11):
I have a positive ending.
Speaker 1 (43:13):
I read it in three days, and that says something
about the book because I'm not a not a fast reader,
and I was wanting to know what was happening more
and more. So it's a it's a great read. Thank
you so much for coming into the podcast.
Speaker 4 (43:25):
Thanks guys, I appreciate it.
Speaker 3 (43:26):
You're great man mate, nice to me.
Speaker 2 (43:27):
Amazing
My Jerry Off Instagram. Mate, I'm looking at it, I'm
reading about everything. Oh, seem to get a bit of
defensive here.
Speaker 2 (00:14):
Does your Instagram just know what a massive like I'm
talking about myself, what a massive perv you are because
it just just throws up so much pervy shit.
Speaker 1 (00:24):
Or Instagram's very aware. It knows more about you than yeah,
your friends generally.
Speaker 2 (00:28):
So usually been.
Speaker 3 (00:30):
I know you're a long time listener to this podcast,
but I'll start the recording a little bit earlier and
just try and catch a little bit of banter between.
Speaker 2 (00:37):
Yeah, so are you quite happy for that to stay
in you? Yeah? That we're both massive pervs? Sweet? Okay, No,
that's good. Just wanted to double check that. If we
just start that up, I would say though I'm not
as big a perv as Instagram thinks, I am like
a bullshet on that.
Speaker 1 (00:57):
Love Mine to the Unnamed Podcast. It's Tuesday, the twenty
second of October twenty twenty four. Ben Hereley joins us
this morning, Oh, there, massive perv.
Speaker 2 (01:07):
Don't you find that the algorithm on Instagram it's just
because you're hover Yeah, you just hover over certain images
and then it goes, oh, this is all you're interested in.
Speaker 1 (01:15):
Well, it knows when you zoom in on something. And
if you zoom in on something particularly, I know what
you zoom in on being herey, then it really knows that.
But you only need to spend a little bit more
time on something, only one or two seconds, and it
works it out.
Speaker 2 (01:30):
I usually zoom in on how much a ball has
turned on those Instagram posts that are amazing deliveries. Okay, yeah,
so I get a lot of those as well. A
should we play a game really quickly?
Speaker 1 (01:41):
Yep?
Speaker 2 (01:42):
Yeah, you guys get Instagram.
Speaker 3 (01:44):
And then if you go down the bottom and click
the search tool, it's going to give you a whole
bunch of kind of videos and stuff.
Speaker 2 (01:52):
Yes, that's what I mean.
Speaker 3 (01:53):
So everything's looking pretty clean. This was all right.
Speaker 1 (01:56):
It looks like mine ben yeh look sports.
Speaker 3 (02:00):
Hotties kind of thing.
Speaker 2 (02:00):
Yeah. Bit of comedy, a mess of eel. I hope
that's what it is.
Speaker 1 (02:06):
Mine's comedy, yes, with a bit of beetles stuff, and
with animals, funny animal things as well. I like funny
animal things. I send them to my kids, a lot
of funny animal things. Was a really good one the
other day. It was really really funny pigs pigs listening
to this weird song.
Speaker 3 (02:25):
I'm lacking actually in the female department on my you.
Speaker 1 (02:29):
I've mainly got Matthew Ridge. What's wrong with me? I
haven't got a single female.
Speaker 3 (02:34):
There was a time in my life where I had
a lot of female golf going on on my feed.
There was a moment I think that was late twenty
twenty three, But right now it's just a lot of
football AFL highlights. Oh no, what's comedy as well?
Speaker 2 (02:47):
Okay, I'm just going to read out a string of
names of people that are just in my instagram. Jeff Bridges,
James A. Kester, Jerry Seinfeld, David Bowie, Sydney Sweeney, some
big names here, these people? Dming you or what? Jennifer Lawrence?
Speaker 3 (03:05):
So I hang on?
Speaker 2 (03:05):
Why have we Rachel from Countdown Yep? Is that her name?
Is it? There? I don't know? I remember last thing?
Ricky Ponting al Pacino? Can we go back to Sydney Sweeney? Yes?
So what what answered? Way too fast? What kind of what?
Speaker 3 (03:25):
What kind of continu you're getting there from Sydney?
Speaker 2 (03:29):
Look, yeah, Sydney Sweeney's dad and grandpa had to walk
out after watching her an X rated role Sexy.
Speaker 3 (03:39):
Yeah, I went to that. I can see why that's
popped up on your feet. Yep, Jerry, anything exciting over
your side of that.
Speaker 1 (03:43):
No, mine's mainly matthew Ridge focused.
Speaker 2 (03:46):
Why are you so Reggie focused?
Speaker 1 (03:47):
I don't know you asked the algorithm. I'm not. I
don't know why it's done.
Speaker 2 (03:51):
There?
Speaker 3 (03:51):
Are you still riding your bike in a serpentine fashion
down Ponton by Road, shirtless with your white skull candies
on big.
Speaker 2 (03:57):
White skull candies? No, al Pacino you opportunit. He's just
got a book out.
Speaker 1 (04:02):
Michael Cainek, I've got slip Knight, Michael Jackson. Harry Styles
is in there. That's interesting. You know what he's in there?
Here's some Elvis, some Elvis, Ricky Gervais, Reynolds, but a
tiger would.
Speaker 2 (04:18):
Okay, right, I think this game's gone on a bit
too long.
Speaker 1 (04:21):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (04:22):
I just wanted to see what Instagram do you know what?
This is a lot cleaner my feed now than it's
ever been good for you guys.
Speaker 1 (04:29):
Yeah, I think that we were talking at New could
hear us? That's the thing?
Speaker 2 (04:34):
What do you think?
Speaker 3 (04:34):
Hang on? You think Instagram kind of threw you a
branch and said, look, I'm going to look after my
boy here. Yeah, I think so we're going to protect
them and go. We know people about to kind of examiners.
Speaker 2 (04:42):
Thanks Zuckerberg explore for We've got Andrew Fagan on the
podcast today.
Speaker 1 (04:46):
That's right, former Mockers front man and round the World sailor,
well and attempted round the world circumnavigation. That is what
round the world is circumnavigation and a five point one
meter boat. Sail boat five point one meters, that's as
because this as long as the studio.
Speaker 3 (05:04):
You don't want to round down on that sounds more impressive.
Speaker 1 (05:06):
Five point one if you just went five. I reckon
five sounds bigger than five point one.
Speaker 2 (05:12):
Actually, I think he might be right.
Speaker 1 (05:13):
So one of those weird numbers. It's one of those
weird numbers. But yeah, he he attempted to circumnavigate the globe.
That would be a world record, That would be a
world record.
Speaker 3 (05:23):
A lot of woods and tried and attempted.
Speaker 2 (05:29):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (05:29):
Wow, spoiler alert because he's written a book called Swirly
World Lost at Sea because he fucking did? Is he
no mash? He's not. He's coming in on the podcast.
Speaker 2 (05:40):
Can I ask when he or if he failed, which
sounds like he had, did he need to get rescued
and it did it cost the text pay a lot
of money?
Speaker 1 (05:49):
Ah? These are all good questions that he will answer.
Speaker 2 (05:52):
Because remember there was that wounded who tried to pedal
across the Tesman Sea and he tried a few times
and he failed, end up going backwards, going backwards and
he was out the coast of Tattanaki for about a month.
Speaker 3 (06:04):
Was that judou currents or was he just unaware of
what direction the kayak had?
Speaker 2 (06:08):
He was going two days forward and three days backwards.
Speaker 1 (06:10):
Scott Donaldson he going backwards trans Sessmon kayaker. Scott Donaldson.
He was in New Zealand of the New Zealand of
the Week Early Early Doors Matt and Jerry show. He
came up against a howling easterly. So that's what you
don't want. You don't want to howling easterly when you're
trying to get from you know, Brizzy Ross too across
(06:33):
to New Zealand.
Speaker 2 (06:34):
Not a common wind in New Zealand.
Speaker 1 (06:36):
Andrew Fagan will tell you that true. Fagan will tell
you that's not a common wind.
Speaker 2 (06:40):
I hope we get some wind. He knows.
Speaker 1 (06:42):
Andrew Fagan knows more about the wind than pretty much
any other person in New Zealand. He knows. Here's Andrew Fagan.
Here's Andrew Fagan. Do you know Ben Andrew. I'm Jeremy Jo.
Speaker 2 (06:59):
This is mash An.
Speaker 1 (07:02):
And Andrew Mesh at home pleasure. We do. We do
a rolling kind of straight into it sort of vibe,
which will be you'll be all over that kind of style.
That's your type of vibe.
Speaker 4 (07:14):
Yeah, you're rolling, rolling, Andrew.
Speaker 1 (07:18):
You spent a lot of time and radio studios over
the years, of course, talk back on radio live, breakfast
on KIWI f M Breakfast for quite a long time.
How many years was that.
Speaker 2 (07:34):
A couple of years?
Speaker 4 (07:35):
And then drive, of course graduated to drive.
Speaker 1 (07:38):
Do you graduate to drive? I would have thought so
the other way around, isn't it?
Speaker 4 (07:41):
I don't know. But the breakfast, you know, the one
that the downer is that you've got to get up
so early, isn't it?
Speaker 1 (07:47):
You would know what time do you get up there?
Speaker 2 (07:51):
How often do you that question?
Speaker 1 (07:52):
Hereman? Five?
Speaker 4 (07:53):
Five five?
Speaker 1 (07:55):
I reckon if you get up in the five it's
the morning.
Speaker 2 (07:59):
Yeah, I agree. Anything pre five feels way too early. Yeah.
Speaker 4 (08:03):
Well, I wake up at five naturally anyway, I used.
I usually wake up when the suns comes up because
I leave my curtains open, you know.
Speaker 2 (08:10):
Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (08:11):
And what time are you going to bed?
Speaker 4 (08:13):
Oh about five?
Speaker 1 (08:14):
Five to five.
Speaker 2 (08:17):
I feel like you're missing a lot of longer.
Speaker 4 (08:20):
Oh yeah, varies depending on what's on. Sometimes early, depending
on you know, how what you've been doing during the day,
how fatigued you might be.
Speaker 1 (08:28):
Okay, you don't. You don't do that weird like diurnal Oh.
Speaker 4 (08:34):
You probably do.
Speaker 1 (08:35):
Actually all that weird, like diurnal sleeping where you just
sleep like like for three hours or something, and then
you wake up and do some things and then write
some songs and some poetry I do.
Speaker 4 (08:47):
On my boat when I'm sailing. Like that's just completely
broken sleep because you're solo, you know, so you're always
having to sort of pay attention to make sure no
one runs you over if you're if you're close in
to the coast, things like that. Yeah, but now not
not during the normal terrestrial activities days. I don't do that. Okay,
I could try it, though, if you recommend No.
Speaker 1 (09:05):
No, I'm not gonna. I don't recommend it. I used
to work with Matt heat who sat over where benn
Is and he did this. He is, he's really weird
and he would do always with a new obsession. So
he's always got these new things that he's trying in
his life. Currently, he's trying to be addicted to nicotine.
He thought trying to be Yeah, he read somewhere that
(09:28):
it improves brain function really, and so he started vaping.
He's fifty two and he started vaping and chewing gum
and now he's so addicted to vaping it's not funny.
And he had to vape in the studio and stuff
like that. It's a complete disaster.
Speaker 4 (09:42):
I don't think that should be recommended on air really, surely.
Speaker 1 (09:45):
It's a tertal idea. But he also did a thing
where he decided to eliminate all of the luxuries out
of his life because he heard that that by removing
the luxuries you were, you'd actually lower your happiness threshold
live and therefore you would be happier because if you
take all of the nice things out of your life,
your body, your equilibrium comes back higher. If you know
(10:08):
what I mean. I'm not ready very well.
Speaker 4 (10:09):
Kind of makes sense, I guess, but you must take
a lot of self discipline.
Speaker 1 (10:13):
Well, he just started sleeping on his deck outside, and
so he was he slept on hard services. Yeah, well
this is he's a very extreme person.
Speaker 2 (10:24):
But it takes you back to your chromagnum man sort
of thing. You know, we're sort of we evolved to
be happy because we had an apple.
Speaker 4 (10:31):
Yeah, bear essentials.
Speaker 1 (10:33):
Yeah, well that's kind of where Andrew brilliantly brought around
being early, because that's exactly kind of where Andrew is
in a sense, because you're out by yourself. Well, first
of all, we probably needed to explain who you are
and what.
Speaker 4 (10:51):
You do you get into the street. I don't know
what you so I came through the wrong door.
Speaker 1 (10:57):
Andrew. You've written a book called Swelly Lost at Sea,
and there it is, and you attempted to circumnavigate the
globe on a five point one meter sailing boat called
Swirly World by yourself.
Speaker 4 (11:12):
That's correct. Yeah, so that's for imperial speak. It's it's
about just under seventeen feet long.
Speaker 1 (11:20):
How would you want to do that?
Speaker 4 (11:21):
Well, because I like sailing, Jeremy, and I'd had the
boat for thirty seven years. I got it in nineteen
eighty five when the mockers were peaking and I started.
You know, I'd always aspired to the solo offshore sailing.
I read all the book when I was a teenager.
I did all the racing. You know, Russell Coots was
came through that generation and always aspired to, you know,
(11:43):
sailing offshore by yourself. Lots of lots of great books.
I've got got all of the solo sailing books and yeah,
that was the plan, and I you know, I've started
to a ninety ninety four I sailed to Australia and
back and a race they called the Solo Trans Tasmin
Race that goes every four years from New Plum to Malulabar,
just just north of Brisbane. And you know, that was
(12:05):
seventeen days there. I came last in the race, of course, smallest.
And then in two thousand and seven I circ navigated
New Zealand. I went down to the sub Antarctic Auktan Islands,
which are one hundred and eighty miles south of Stuart Island,
and then I came up the West coast non stop
from the Orkland Islands. That took me seventeen days and
(12:25):
nights NonStop around North Cape back to Auckland. So, you know,
I'd done a lot of sailing in the boat, and
I felt confident that I could do it, I could
organize my life. That was the hardest part to put aside. Basically,
fourteen months was how long I think it was going
to take me. And there was a precedent, right, So
there was a guy, a Polish guy in twenty seventeen.
(12:47):
He went around the world in a twenty foot boat
what's about six six point five meters, And also a
French guy did it in twenty eleven in a twenty
one foot boat and they both left from Europe and
went NonStop. I'm talking about two hundred and seventy days each.
Speaker 2 (13:02):
You know.
Speaker 4 (13:02):
So so I thought I could shave three feet, you know,
a meter off that record, So off I went in
twenty twenty two. But it didn't quite work out the
way I plan.
Speaker 1 (13:12):
No, And that's what the book's about. Do you not
like people or something? Is that what's going on here?
Because you want to spend fourteen months by yourself.
Speaker 4 (13:19):
Let's run sick of humans, Jeremy. They're everywhere having a notice.
Speaker 3 (13:23):
But This is interesting, Andrew, because you said you're very
good with humans, and then you're obviously it's something that
you don't particularly love or do you love it?
Speaker 2 (13:32):
Do you love just doing both?
Speaker 4 (13:33):
I do like doing both, you know. I like being
out there because it's it's timeless. Once you get out there,
you know, out of sight of land, and there's nothing
on the horizon anywhere around you. The only thing that
changes is the seascape depending on the wind strength, you know,
waves that kind of thing, and also the clouds, you know,
and there's out in the southern Ocean, you're out in
classics sort of albatrosses, and they're quite bizarre. They actually
(13:56):
are company. They come and look at you. They actually
eyebore you. They come up really and they know you
can't sort of get them, but they really have a
good look at you, and I guess they wonder what
you're doing out there and their domain. You know. But
after kind of like seven days, time means nothing. It
could be seven days, or it could be twenty three
days or thirty six days. Because when you're by yourself,
(14:18):
you're you're just keeping that boat sailing as fast as possible,
which in my case is only like five knots. I
mean when I sailed to Australia, I think I averaged
two point nine knots. But that was because of being becalmed.
Speaker 2 (14:28):
You know.
Speaker 4 (14:29):
Sometimes like for five days you might just be going
nowhere because there's no wind, you know, so that knocks
your average down pretty bad.
Speaker 1 (14:36):
I want to go back to the albatrosses. So you're
cruising along, you're cruising along, you haven't seen land, probably
at the stage because I read the book, fantastic book
for probably well thirty days or so before you saw
the albatrosses. Twenty something days.
Speaker 4 (14:53):
Yeah, well no, actually they visit. They came along pretty
early on today. Yeah. They stay down, they stay down south,
you know, pretty much. And my plan was, you know,
I had to go to Cape Horn, which you know,
South America, which is five thousand miles across. So I
got forty days out before it all went wrong. But
early on, like once I got down to about the
latitude of christ Church to Maru which and Chatham Islands,
(15:16):
you're talking about sort of forty two degrees south something
like that, I think, then those big birds start turning out.
Speaker 1 (15:22):
Okay, and when they do, eyeball, you so they fly
down because obviously they need the wind, don't they get
the big wings plan.
Speaker 4 (15:28):
Yeah, they can't take off without the wind. They have
to sort of look like a runway almost. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (15:33):
And so they are actually down there, you're sitting at
the back in the in the cockpit.
Speaker 4 (15:38):
Only about half a meter above the sea.
Speaker 2 (15:40):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (15:40):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (15:41):
And then they how far down were they far away
from you?
Speaker 2 (15:44):
With that?
Speaker 4 (15:44):
Well, they come really close. They come, you know that
they sort of came in often about three meters away.
They've come right up and the massive birds and the
wingspans are phenomenal, and they just they literally look at you,
you know, the eye, and you.
Speaker 2 (15:58):
Can still concerned that they're looking at you, going, this
guy might be food in a couple of days.
Speaker 4 (16:03):
Yeah, quite possibly. I'm sure they sort of think, you
know that, they're very curious, and I suppose in their
seascape out there where really there's nothing, you know's there's
very few ships in the Southern Ocean. And yeah, they're
just inquisitive. You know.
Speaker 2 (16:20):
Can I ask you a question when you say NonStop
genuinely you don't set foot on land?
Speaker 4 (16:25):
That was a plan?
Speaker 2 (16:26):
Yeah? Wow. Yeah, And so those other guys you talked
about that's what they did.
Speaker 4 (16:28):
Yeah, they did. Yeah, they just kept going. And so
I had I had like fourteen months of everything. I
had fourteen months of freeze dried food because the boat's
so small. Weight is a real issue, you know, so
you can't take canned food, and also water is a
real issue. I had two hundred liters, you know, like
the ones you buy from the supermarket, one letter bottles
to let a bottle or stuffed in different corners to
(16:50):
keep the boat sort of trim balanced. But I had
a water maker as well, like an overgrown grease gun
and you pump it, you know, you know, with your manually,
with your hand, and I could make three liters and
forty minutes and it's quite as it's quite a wonderful thing.
It's called reverse osmosis. So you've got a couple of
(17:11):
plastic tubes that go into the sea and you start pumping,
and then at the salt water gets pushed through this
membrane which makes it come out, drip literally drip out
into your water bottle and that's your fresh water. So
it really makes you appreciate fresh water when you see
it dripping out. It's so slow.
Speaker 1 (17:32):
Were you putting a line over the side and ever
thinking about catching any fish.
Speaker 4 (17:36):
No, No, like I took fishing gear just in case,
you know, I got stuck, really stuck and just drifting
around for survival. But I'm not that keen on fishing really, Jeremy, Like,
I don't mind catching them, but it's what you've got
to do to them after you've caught them. Yeah. And
also out there in the ocean where it's four thousand
meters deep, you've only really got pilarge what we call
(17:58):
pelagic fish, which a big tuna, kingfish, real big fish,
you know, and like getting and my cockpit in Surarly
World was so small, like basically a meta by a meter,
you know, you get one of those on board, and
it might as well as being messy, it might actually
be quite tricky, you know, to subdue it.
Speaker 1 (18:15):
And was there ever a time because the title of
the box Swilly World Lost at Sea indicates that something happened.
But was there ever a time before the before the
journey finished, where you were sailing along, where things were
okay and everything was going right, that you that you
(18:35):
wish that maybe you weren't where you were, or were
you always happy where you were.
Speaker 4 (18:41):
I was really happy where I was. That was the plan,
you know. I was doing about ninety miles a day
sort of averaging, which was pretty good for a boat
that size, and I was on course. Everything was going
according to plan. I was making my water. I felt
really really, it was really together, you know, until the
skig the skeg cracked and then it came off. What's
(19:04):
so ski Okay, So underneath a boat, you've got the keel,
right that goes down, and the keel's got a heavy
weight in it, so if the boat leans right over,
it'll always come back up right, or even if it
caps size completely, it will always come back up right.
But then you've got the rudder at the back of
the boat, and then you have not all boats do,
but my boat did. You have it what we call
it skeg, which which which is a little bit in
(19:25):
front of the rudder that provides what they call is
directional stability. So and then I've got a wind vein
self steering, so like seventy percent of the time I'm
just inside all closed up, reading mkindle or whatever, you know,
and the boat steering itself. And that because this wind
vein points that you lock it in and it points
(19:46):
at the at the whea the wind's coming from. And
if the boat goes off and it's attached to the rudder,
and if the boat goes off course, the wind vein
keeps pointing at the wind and brings the boat back
on course. So it's all relative to the wind direction.
And this skeg and this ski was crucial to give
that directional stability to keep, you know, so the wind
van would work. So the we got beaten up real bad,
(20:08):
like lots of when I say beaten up by the weather.
You know what we call, you know, deep lows depressions,
you know, for those who are into the met it's
sort of like nine sixty five lows nine seventies, which
are quite deep and incredibly violent to you know, big seas,
you know, eight meters I think ten meters and breaking
on the top would have been the worst that I got.
Speaker 1 (20:30):
But that's not.
Speaker 4 (20:31):
Always, you know, that's that's the exception.
Speaker 2 (20:34):
So do you not sleep? We talked about sleep just before.
Do not sleep when it's in those big seas, you can't.
Speaker 4 (20:39):
And that's good. I was sleeping all the time because
I was I was those big seas down in the
Southern Ocean usually are coming from the west and going
to the east.
Speaker 2 (20:49):
So you're surfing yeah, yeh yeah.
Speaker 4 (20:51):
You're pretty yeah yeah, you know, you're you're getting up
to six seven knots and so and you're running down
when so the wind's always behind you. So even though
the motion's quite violent and you're going up and down
a lot, when you're inside, I sleep in a thing
called a it's just a bunk, like you know anything,
but it's got what I call it, it's a lee cloth,
which is like a sort of a hammock sort of thing,
(21:13):
like a big piece of fabric that comes up and
sort of locks you in place, so so you don't
fall out of bed essentially, so you're just sort of
strapped and it's actually quite secure and comfortable. And then
you know, you're just there and you can hear the
water rushing past all the you know, the boats rushing
through the water, and there's a lot of motion. But
we got we got slammed, like big sideways hits.
Speaker 2 (21:34):
You know.
Speaker 4 (21:34):
When the wind shifts, it leaves what we call cross
leftover cross swells from the last wind direction, and it
always goes from the northwest to the west to the southwest,
basically in the Southern Ocean, and so i'd get you know,
the boat was getting these big you could hear these
breakers coming and just filling up the cockpit. The boat
was all sealed up, so the water can't go inside.
That's that's crucial. But you know, the cockpit would be
(21:57):
completely fought up, so if you're sitting out there hands
it's like sitting in a spar pool. Basically, Suddenly you'd
get this big white water that would just fill up
the coppit up to your waist. But then it all
drains away outside, you know, out into the sea, and
then off you go again. You know. But those big
hits that the boat took cracked the glue line on
the skeg, and it had three bolts you know, through it.
(22:17):
And eventually, after a few weeks it completely came off,
and then the boat was leaking. You know, it was
taking in like ten twenty liters a day, but I
was just sponging out with a bucket, you know. But
once that skeg came off and there was no directional
stability like before, then the wind vein stopped working. So
then I had to you know, I couldn't carry on
(22:38):
going around the world just hand steering, you know. I
had to have that wind vein.
Speaker 1 (22:43):
Because you have to sleep at sometimes.
Speaker 4 (22:44):
Yeah, exactly. Yeah, so I was the nearest land. Then
was the thousand miles North, which was bit Kern Island.
You know, Mutiny on the Bounty, all that stuff.
Speaker 1 (22:52):
And you spent a bit of time there before because
you've been doing a bit of a run working on
a boat. That was that was furying goods there, back
and forth from New Zealand.
Speaker 4 (23:01):
Yeah, that was after I left RadioLIVE. That was my job.
I got into the marine industry. Industrial boating, we call it.
It's one step up from recreational boating. Every everything wants
to kill you. Everything's rusty and noisy and has the
potential to kill you. People live on yeah, they do.
Fifty two people, you know, not many.
Speaker 1 (23:22):
All the sentence of the mutinies from yeah, Christian, all
that stuff.
Speaker 4 (23:27):
Crazy, quite an amazing, absolutely wonderful little island. You know,
it's only it's tiny. It's like little barrier, you know,
one and a half miles by two miles. It's nothing,
and it ousn't it. It's British. It's British yeah, the
British have got it. Yeah, it's a British territory. Yeah,
so what currency they use, they use, They use everything right,
(23:47):
you know. And it's also quite cheap when you go
to the general store, you know.
Speaker 1 (23:51):
Six six.
Speaker 2 (23:52):
They don't want to go there to scoot around. It's
the only thing I know about six is the main currents.
So if you draw a.
Speaker 3 (24:01):
Line between Auckland and Ecuador, is it about.
Speaker 2 (24:05):
Is it kind of South America?
Speaker 4 (24:06):
It's northeast. Yeah, yeah, it's so. Pitt Kern is about
three thousand nautical miles northeast.
Speaker 1 (24:15):
It's not big in the middle of it doesn't have
any harbor or anything.
Speaker 4 (24:21):
It's like little Barrier Island which haven't got a harbor.
It's just cliffs and they've got a little landing platform
and it tucked in behind the rocks. But my plan
was to get there. It was a thousand miles north,
so after the ski had broken, I thought I'll get
up there. I was talking to them on the satellite
text machine and going to use their crane. I knew
they had a little crane because, like like you said,
I've been there.
Speaker 1 (24:42):
You could peddle your sex steady steady, my you could
sell you sell yourself. You're a good looking man in
command on that island. Andrew, Yeah, you've gone too far.
Speaker 2 (24:57):
Not a lot of visiting musicians to pick. Yes, just
that's how you pay for the repairs on your boat.
Speaker 4 (25:06):
Well, I was trying to get there, and they were
going to be They were being really accommodating, and they
were quite prepared to lift my boat out with the crane,
and I thought, great, I'm going to be there for
a few months. I brought a new skeag and then
I'll carry on. But just after the first day of
trying to sail north, I managed to do forty five
miles and eleven hours, which was pretty good going. That
(25:27):
was handstreing, just sitting there by yourself. And then the
rudder snapped off. And once the rudder snapped off, then
I was stuffed. You know, that was it. You know,
you're totally incapacitated. Couldn't couldn't go anywhere. I tried to
make a couple of what we call jurry rudders, you know, replacements,
but I didn't. It just didn't work for me. You know,
I could have I could have sailed, you know, if
(25:47):
I was that great Barrier Island and had to sail
fifty miles back to Auckland with the jury raudder. I
could have done it, you know, very slowly, clumsily, but
not not a thousand miles.
Speaker 2 (25:56):
You're not.
Speaker 1 (25:57):
You're in the middle. You're in the middle of the
South Pacific, like the middle.
Speaker 4 (26:03):
I was quite close to a place called Point Nemo,
which is which is the most remote place on planet
Earth from land.
Speaker 1 (26:10):
Yes, yeah, I mean looking at a map because one
thousand is it miles or case miles miles north pi
Cam which is also in the middle of nowhere, and
that's you're miles away from that.
Speaker 4 (26:22):
Yeah, it was.
Speaker 1 (26:22):
Yeah, I mean sixteen hundred k's is a is a
long way.
Speaker 4 (26:26):
It was well converted JOm.
Speaker 2 (26:27):
Yeah, I think you could have popped a hungold or
is that in Rappa, I don't know. It's to the
east of piccn that that's it's in the park, you know,
that's east as Easter Island.
Speaker 4 (26:42):
I think, yeah, that was another thousand miles further further, further.
Speaker 1 (26:47):
In talking about some massive distances there, Yeah it is.
Speaker 4 (26:50):
And so I've been out like forty in the end,
it was forty five days. But like I say, time
means nothing once, you know, once you get into that
rhythm of just you know, day and you're always just
paying attention. You know, you do your sleep in a
couple of hours, wake up, you know, make sure the
boat's still going fast, as fast as possible. Make sure
no one's going to run you over, you know, but
there's no one doubt, you know, the chances have been
(27:11):
run over out there. It's pretty slim.
Speaker 1 (27:13):
No, So then I we can talk about what happened
to because it's like, of course, yeah, okay, So then
you put out the call and you were speaking to
people back in New Zealand and you put out the call,
Well they were concerned about you. You really were fine,
you were you were safe. Yeah, you were floating around, Okay,
you couldn't go where you wanted to go, but you
(27:33):
were not freaked out or anything like that. You had
lots of food on board. You were not worried that
something was going to happen to your boat. The keel
is still going, so you're going to stay upright, that's correct.
Lose you kill, you're in some city, you're.
Speaker 4 (27:44):
In trouble, whole other level.
Speaker 1 (27:45):
Yeah, that's different. But Rada just means you can't really see,
so you're basically floating around at the worm of the
wind and currents. That's true, and then you end up
speaking to everyone back home and in the end you're deciding,
really what you're doing is you wait, you want to
be helped to pick ken. You want to kind of
choose the boat that saves you almost don't need to
(28:06):
be saved, that helps you out. Unfortunately, it doesn't really
work like that with land and Rearch rescue. They just
get the nearest boat that's wherever it is, and that
comes and picks you up.
Speaker 4 (28:18):
Yeah, which was really unfortunate because I had, like I
had an A B C plan and A I was
wishing that there was maybe some British naval vessel around
doing drills and they would have come down and just
because the boat's so small, just winched it up up
and thrown it on the deck on a couple of
tires and loads, strapped it down and off we go
to fight another day.
Speaker 2 (28:38):
You know.
Speaker 4 (28:39):
That didn't happen. Then Plan B was I was hoping
that some vessel would turn up with it like a
rib you know, rigid inflatable bottomed boat that would come
across from their ship, and I could throw my thirty
k's worth of everything that I'd been working for and
saving up for for the last five years. Life raft,
you know, fourteen months of freeze drive food which isn't cheap.
(29:01):
You know, my water maker also, you know, solar panels
solve everything like lots of electronics and stuff, you know,
GPS is. I was hoping that someone would come across,
throw my bags on, take me and you know, unfortunately
you wave goodbye to the boat. That didn't happen. And
in the end it was just uh, you know, a.
Speaker 1 (29:19):
Three hundred meter container ship, that's correct, which I answered
the call.
Speaker 4 (29:23):
What the biggest three hundred meters It can't even get
into into Auckland, it's too big, It only goes into
Napier and too wrong.
Speaker 2 (29:31):
Wow, how far away was this ship?
Speaker 4 (29:33):
He was about four hundred miles away. So what happened
was they Search and Rescue and Wellington, I mean they
put you know, once they knew I was in trouble
via put Ken Island and the New Zealand International Police
and stuff, then they sort of started putting the pressure
on me as far as they're concerned. You're you're a problem.
You know, if you're just if you're incapacitated, just floating
out there, you're a red flag to them, you know.
(29:54):
But like Jeremy said, you know, I didn't feel it
wasn't in a life raft. You know, the the boat hadn't.
So I was still sitting on the boat just bailing
it out every day, you know. So so I said
to them, I said, oh, you know, can I pick it?
Because I didn't want to inconvenience any big ships. And
I knew that, you know, I was talking to a
friend on a souper yacht who there's this app called
Marine Traffic and you can actually see where ships are
(30:17):
out all over the world. So he reckoned there was
going to be a boat come and pass me in
a couple of days time. That would be quite you know,
trapped past me in about fifty miles away, and I thought,
and it was going to Napier and it had cranes
on it, and I thought, this is this is my boat,
you know, So I said to search and rescue, you know,
I said, well, can I pick and choose you know,
which which which boat? They turned a home and they
(30:40):
said absolutely not, that's not the way such rescue works.
Speaker 2 (30:43):
I'll tell you what, you wouldn't have picked the New
Zealand Navy, because that's true.
Speaker 3 (30:49):
So it was the parorty for you Andrew to make
sure that you could get your boat back.
Speaker 4 (30:53):
That was the that was the first priority.
Speaker 2 (30:55):
Yeah, and this priority was survival.
Speaker 1 (30:58):
Nobody, you know, So he wasn't worried about that.
Speaker 4 (31:01):
And in the old days, right, if you hadn't got
the colms like you got now, you know, via satellite
talking to everyone all the time. I just and you know,
when I went to our Island in ninety eighty six
for my first trip, you just sail over the curve
of the Earth and you're gone. You know, you're not
talking to it. No one knows where you are until
you get there. That's the way it used to be,
you know. So I you know, you know, in the
old days, I would have just drifted for three months,
(31:23):
probably until I hit Patagonia, you know, the coast of
South America all came across a ship, you know whatever.
But in this case, you know, I had to I
had to get off the boat.
Speaker 5 (31:33):
Basically, he attempted to lie like well, you attempted to
just to go old school and and just say that
you're sailing along and everything's fine and all that sort
of stuff.
Speaker 4 (31:43):
Well, the trouble was that I was I was in
contact with a METS, a guy who was doing my
weather forecasting, wonderful Bob mcdavitt, total professional. So every day
he was texting me and telling me where I was,
and when I responded to him, it gives your latitude
and longitude. So everyone knew what's sort of roughly what
speed I was going. So I suddenly stopped. You know,
(32:05):
they all would have.
Speaker 1 (32:05):
Been Andrew's gone crazy.
Speaker 4 (32:12):
Going really well, just a little bit slow today, run
out of wind.
Speaker 1 (32:16):
It's like, no, that seems to be blowing forty knots
little micro climate.
Speaker 4 (32:23):
That's right. Yeah, so they turn up, you know, and
then I had to get onto the ship and without
a rudder, and they said to me, you know it
was when it turned up, it was just getting dark
and it was just like an apartment block, that's what
it looked like on the on the horizon. It was
absolutely massive, and and you just never want to get
in normal circumstances, you just never want to get close
to something like that. You know, it's just the biggest no, no,
(32:45):
and they ended up coming up and stopping one hundred
meters away from me.
Speaker 1 (32:49):
You know, and you're talking four meter seize here.
Speaker 4 (32:51):
Yeah, it's still a good four running. And it was
blowing and it got dark, you know. So they were
talking to me and they were all up on the
you know, all the crew, twenty six people that English
is the second language. The communication was pretty bad, and
they were all there with their phones, taking self and waving,
and I was just we were just waving, Oh, this
is already normal. Just yes, what we do?
Speaker 2 (33:12):
We just know where?
Speaker 1 (33:16):
Yeah, because that's so far. Interestingly, the I don't want
to call it a risk you because it's not really. Yeah,
it was actually the most dangerous part of your voice
so far.
Speaker 4 (33:29):
It totally was, you know. And it was like, okay,
I said to the guy, can you put it? No? Yeah,
I said. He said to me, can you row to us?
And I couldn't because I did have oars, but I'd
used one. I'd chopped one up trying to make a
jury rader, which didn't work, you know, so I couldn't
row to them. And then I said, can you put
a boat in the water, and he said no, no,
too dangerous, you know.
Speaker 2 (33:48):
And he thought made off here.
Speaker 1 (33:52):
Yeah, right, towering above you.
Speaker 4 (33:56):
It's like before you get to the main deck, it's
three stories hard and it's got a propeller. Yeah, and
it's got a propeller and a bow thruster, and then
it's got like containers that were like stacked eight eight high.
You know, it was just absolutely massive. Yeah. Well, these
guys were like way up on the bridge, you know,
looking down, and I was talking to them on a
VHF handheld and so so they weren't going to come
(34:17):
and get me. So it was up to me. This
that was it was almost humorous, you know. I did
actually some hot sometimes because I thought, okay, that's all
up to me. I've got an audience here of all
these guys watching, but it's up to me to get
alongside that that boat. And as it was got dark,
you know, so so I pulled up my sails and
I tried to sail to them. But without the rudder,
they must have thought I was a real shit sailor,
(34:38):
you know, because I was just doing circles, you know,
I'd get the boat sailing and it would just round up,
and I just it was just a shocker. So I
ended up and he was trying to hold position. But
because it was quite windy and because they had so
much what we call windage, he was drifting about the
same speed as me sideways. So it just wasn't getting
a cat and mouse just wasn't getting there. So and
he was trying to turn, you know, turn around, and
(35:01):
I ended up going around them twice, you know, about
sort of one hundred meters off the boat, trying to
get to them, but I just couldn't and in the
end I almost got squished underneath. We used like the
weather rudder and the propellers are it's what we call
the counter. It's at the back of the boat, and
that was going up and down the swells like a
good ten meters and just smashing down. And I got
really close to the to the counter, and I thought, oh,
(35:24):
here we go. This is going to take the mast off,
you know. But in the end, somehow they got close
enough and they threw a heaving line down, you know,
a rope, and then together with the crew who were
like three stories up and me, we started pulling the
boat down the side of the ship to They hadn't
(35:44):
even discussed it. I still thought maybe they wanted me
to just wrap the rope around me and just they're
going to pull me up like that. But there was
a boarding There was what we call the pilot boarding ladder,
which is about halfway down. It's still about sort of
eight meters up up the side, and they had a little,
a little rope ladder hanging down and that's where I
had to get to. That became pretty obvious, you know,
(36:05):
and it had a little bright light, and I saw
a few heads, you know, with helmets on, poking out
and they dragged me really slowly down the side of
the boat. But but we're you know, we're on the
windward side, so you know, these four meter swells were
just picking my boat up plywood, you know, glassed over,
but ply would essentially just picking the boat up like
a tennis ball and just throwing it against the steel wall.
Speaker 2 (36:25):
You know.
Speaker 4 (36:26):
It was that was bad, I really thought. And big hits,
taking some really big hits. And I just kept on
looking inside, wait, waiting to see the water coming out,
because I thought it was it was taking you know,
hits that could split the side of the boat real easy.
Speaker 2 (36:39):
You know.
Speaker 4 (36:40):
And I knew then too that if it sank, they
just have take They've just been taking selfies of me
in the water and that.
Speaker 1 (36:47):
Do you have a life jacking on?
Speaker 4 (36:48):
Yeah? Yeah, I got one of those.
Speaker 1 (36:50):
Do you think it would have saved your love?
Speaker 4 (36:51):
I had a no, I had a survival suit, you know,
and I had and all I had on me was
my passport, couple of go pros and VHF handheld radio
and that was it. But I had my bags and
the cockpit that I was obsessed with, you know, full
of thirty k's worth of gear that I was obsessed
with trying to get on board as well.
Speaker 1 (37:10):
But they don't want to They just want to save you. Yeah,
they don't cure it, you get.
Speaker 4 (37:14):
They didn't want to know.
Speaker 1 (37:15):
They just want to get actually back on their way
to go and delivering their cargo.
Speaker 4 (37:18):
Absolutely, yeah, you know, because there was a real inconvenience
for them. But it's the sort of the lore of
the sea, you know, to save a distressed mariner. And
so in the end, you know, the rope ladder was there,
and when the boat was getting smashed up real bad
against the side of the ship, and I just had
to leap for the rope ladder, you know, and then
I realized I was really fatigued, and even holding onto
the rope ladder was a major because their ship was
(37:39):
rolling out, and so the rope ladder was coming out
from the scale and then about four meters and then
then throwing back in.
Speaker 2 (37:46):
It's like a movie. Stuff like this never happens real long.
Speaker 1 (37:50):
I don't worry. There's a movie coming, a movie I
don't know.
Speaker 4 (37:54):
And then and then it then I just had it
was a cliffhanger. Then I had to really hold on tight,
and it was actually, you know, normally I could do
it right now, just like that, but I was so
fatigued I didn't realize how tired I was, and I
just had to hang on and climb up, you know,
one rung at a time, and I took the rope
that was attached to my bags and the cockpit with
me because I still wanted to save those bags. But
(38:15):
as I got halfway up this ladder that the mark
I got high enough for the mast of my boat
to just be randomly smashing and right beside me, and
if that had hit me, that just would have picked
me off the ladder. And then I realized that my
rope was trying to pull me off because I looked
down in the cockpit of a boat and it was
all tangled up, so you know, I had to open
my palm and let the rope go, and there was
(38:36):
thirty k gone and then I got there and they
pulled me on into the boat and into the ship,
and it was like just entering this whole bizarre you know,
Neon lit steel other world, you know, with all these
guys who were so pleased, you know, saved me. But
that was definitely the most dangerous. You're batman, but I was, man,
(39:00):
I just would have flown.
Speaker 2 (39:01):
Up, you know, you're saying line yeah, oh man, and
then and then of course, you know, there's a whole
lot of other detail.
Speaker 1 (39:13):
But the I'm reading the book, it's a great book.
It's a great book. Of course, they think you're a
drug drug smuggler because it's like, what the hell is
this dude doing out there, So there's a lot of
interrogation that goes on, and because there's English is the
second language, it's it's it's a fascinating story.
Speaker 2 (39:34):
That was really what was in the bag.
Speaker 4 (39:37):
Gear exactly well, I mean, look at that the bales
of freeze dried food I wrapped them all. I've shrink
wrapped them all, you know, in black plastic, so they're
about the size of below cases, so that they looked
so much like that, you know big. But but the
thing was, I didn't have my ship's papers, all my
official documents with me. I left all those in the
(39:59):
bags that I'll trying to get on board. So they
put me in this hospital, you know, set me in
this you know, put on an orange boiler suit under prisoners.
Speaker 2 (40:07):
They put me in.
Speaker 4 (40:08):
One of those and to sit there and testing on
my vital signs and stuff. But they and then they
put a guard on me because also they couldn't verify
who I was because the ship was rolling and they
lost their internet, you know that they couldn't sort of
work out, and they just looked at the boat. And
also I, you know, because it was English as a
second language, I didn't want to say, okay, well, I
didn't want to say, well, I'm trying to set the
(40:29):
record for the smallest boat to circumnavigate via the Great Capes.
So I just said I was going to South America.
So the captain came and sat down with me, and
he just looked at me and said, where are your
ship's papers, and I explained, but he did I don't
think he believed me. I mean, they seriously thought that
I was dodgy, as you know, until they got verification
(40:50):
when they got internet here.
Speaker 2 (40:51):
So where did they take you.
Speaker 5 (40:55):
To?
Speaker 2 (40:55):
New Zealand?
Speaker 4 (40:56):
So I was lucky, yeah, because there are other ships
around that were going to Columbia and Peru and China,
and it was still you know, the COVID thing was
still restrictions were still on and I really didn't want
to get caught in South America, you know, with no
money and trying to get back to New Zealand. So
I was very fortunate that this ship was going to
New Zealand.
Speaker 1 (41:15):
It really would have been peddling.
Speaker 4 (41:19):
So there was only seven days at twenty knights to
get back, you know, and back to New Zealand. And
then you know, I walked down the gang plank and
too wronger and with nothing basically just what I was wearing,
you know, and.
Speaker 1 (41:31):
Then saying goodbye to your saying goodbye to your faithful steed.
Speaker 4 (41:36):
Yeah, and the you know lost at see the title
of the book. What would have happened to the boat
if it had stayed floating? But it was sinking. The
water was coming in, but it with the positive buoyancy
from all that freeze dried food, may have kept it
floating like sort of water logged log, you know. So
it might have just just kept floating. And my met
(41:58):
guy Bob worked out that it probably would have got
taken about one hundred days to just drift to South
America with the currents or it sank. I think it
would have sunk.
Speaker 1 (42:08):
You know, did you do you want it to?
Speaker 2 (42:09):
So?
Speaker 1 (42:11):
What do you want it to do?
Speaker 3 (42:12):
Well?
Speaker 4 (42:12):
I'm still I was still quite positive. I made up
a sign, put my name in there with the latitude
and longitude and my phone number of my email address.
Have found please.
Speaker 3 (42:22):
The most remote part of the globe, and we.
Speaker 1 (42:25):
Just put a couple of That is the most hopeful
sign I've ever anyone ever made.
Speaker 4 (42:31):
There's a picture of it in the book.
Speaker 1 (42:33):
That is amazing.
Speaker 2 (42:34):
Put some posters up on in Argentina like a lost dog.
Speaker 4 (42:37):
Yeah, yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 1 (42:39):
Andrew Fagan, thank you so much for coming into the podcast.
Swilly World Lost at Sea is the book. It's fantastic.
It's one of three books about Swilly Wild that you've written.
Speaker 4 (42:50):
Of course, it's right the final of the trilogy and
there won't be anymore.
Speaker 1 (42:53):
Yeah, no, that's right. Always so good to see you.
And it's such a great story and I look forward
to I know that there will be another journey there.
Speaker 4 (43:03):
Well, I've just got to regroup and you put it together.
Speaker 2 (43:06):
But then sounds like another book one day.
Speaker 1 (43:08):
Perhaps it's a fantastic book.
Speaker 4 (43:11):
I have a positive ending.
Speaker 1 (43:13):
I read it in three days, and that says something
about the book because I'm not a not a fast reader,
and I was wanting to know what was happening more
and more. So it's a it's a great read. Thank
you so much for coming into the podcast.
Speaker 4 (43:25):
Thanks guys, I appreciate it.
Speaker 3 (43:26):
You're great man mate, nice to me.
Speaker 2 (43:27):
Amazing
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