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Life Onboard |
LAST UPDATE
January 13, 2008
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| site design imagesparkle.com |
| December 28, 2007 |
The Man Who Lives on the Sea – Adventurer and Activist Bernard Rhodes |
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| Bernard Rhodes demonstrates to participants how to use a sextant, a navigation device. Photo: Roger Bymolt |
Peace Boat warmly welcomed onboard adventurer and activist Bernard Rhodes in Tahiti. Mr Rhodes, who stayed onboard until his adopted home of Aotearoa (New Zealand), spoke about many things close to heart, including his adventures on the high seas, his extensive knowledge of traditional navigation methods, and protesting against French nuclear testing in the South Pacific. Mr Rhodes grew up by Lake Windermere, England, and as he began to loathe his 5 year apprenticeship working in a shipyard as a ‘nobody among nobodies,’ he dared to dream of a life of adventure. After completing his apprenticeship in the late 1960s, Mr Rhodes boldly set sail on a trimaran he built called The Klis to the exotic Caribbean. ‘My desire was to break out and meet the world,’ he told participants. |
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Mr Rhodes as a young lad in The Klis, before heading into the Atlantic. Mr Rhodes broke the singlehanded transatlantic record at age 23 in this yacht. |
The first leg of his voyage, from the Irish Sea to Spain, was a lesson in respecting the ocean after he was caught in a ferocious storm that tossed his trimaran like a cork and very nearly capsized it. ‘It was a life altering moment,’ he revealed. In the Canary Islands, he used his ingenuity to build a rudimentary self-steering device to keep the boat straight and allow him a few hours sleep in the nights. He flew across the reliable trade winds making incredible time and crossed the Atlantic in under 20 days, smashing the singlehanded transatlantic record by four days. Eventually, he arrived in the Caribbean broke and lived on USD1 a day but thrived on beautiful sunsets, colourful festivals and local customs. |
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| The Klis peacefully at anchor |
His quest also took him through the Panama Canal to the Galapagos Islands and across the great Southern Pacific. He island-hopped through the Marquises, Tahiti, Bora Bora, the Cook Islands and Fiji to Aotearoa, which was to become his home. Mr Rhodes found temporary work on other boats and had plenty of time to savour the beauty of the islands, both alone and in the company of crew. Despite his many idyllic moments, he also came close to danger. One day, dolphins woke him to alert him that he was about to hit land in the Galapagos, and in the Cook Islands he ran his trimaran onto a reef but was fortunate to be able to refloat and repair it. His 3 years exploring the world had been a character building experience. ‘I had become a world citizen. I saw many ways of living and lived close to nature. I learned loneliness is in the mind, not a physical thing,’ he said. |
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| Mr Rhodes in action with his sextant |
Navigating the Seas
Mr Rhodes traversed the oceans on his first voyage with sea charts and used a sextant to chart his course. With this instrument, he demonstrated how to measure the angle of the sun relative to your present position. Knowing this angle allows you to calculate your distance to the geographic position (the point directly under the sun). By taking multiple readings and recording the exact time of day you can chart your position with accuracy to within 10 miles. In his lectures, Mr Rhodes also explained how early Polynesian explorers took a less scientific approach, memorising the positions of stars and using them to navigate. They learned about weather patterns, wave refraction, sea currents and prayers to guarantee them safe passage. Sadly, now much of this knowledge is lost as Global Positioning System (GPS) technology has taken over. |
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| Mr Rhodes and his wife Yachiyo discuss their activism against French nuclear testing in the Pacific |
Peace Activism in the Pacific
In the early 1970’s Mr Rhodes began hearing about the dangerous effects of French nuclear testing in Moruroa and other Pacific islands. Using donated money, he joined a protest fleet of yachts to sail to Moruroa. Mr Rhodes’ protest boat, The Fri, pressed into the danger zone and dared the French to test their nuclear bomb. They didn’t. After 75 days at sea, The Fri retreated to Rarotonga to get more supplies. |
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After restocking, The Fri headed back to Moruroa but was illegally arrested on the high seas by the French. They made life difficult for the French and went on hunger strike in protest. These events made international headlines, which was exactly what Mr Rhodes and the protesters wanted. Their actions even spurred the New Zealand government to send a warship, The Canterbury, into the protest zone. The result of collective protest efforts was that the French stopped their testing for that year. They also stopped testing in the air and instead began testing underground.
Mr Rhodes has made other sailing trips around the South Pacific, often with his Japanese wife and two sons in tow, and has continued to find new challenges and adventures in his unusual yet exhilarating life. What is his advice to young people considering sailing the world today? ‘Go for it!’ |
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