BRAZIL (7 Dec 2001) -- Sir Peter Blake, KBE, one of the great sailors of his generation and a man who brought great thoughtfulness and heart to all his endeavors, was killed by marauders last night aboard the 108-foot exploration vessel Seamaster on the waters of the Amazon. Seamaster was under way, as explained by the official literature of Blake Expeditions, "To help protect the waters of the world and, so, life in, on and around those waters." In July, the 53-year-old Blake had been appointed a good will ambassador for the United Nations Environmental Program. He was acting in that capacity and filing daily reports on his explorations from Seamaster until his death. Seamaster had recently left the Antarctic for the Brazilian Amazon. A statement from Blake's agent said, "A group of seven or eight armed and hooded intruders boarded Seamaster at approximately 10:15pm local time on Wednesday. Sir Peter was fatally shot, and two other members of Seamaster's crew were injured, one with a gunshot wound across the back, the other with a blow to the face." Blake won the 1988/89 Whitbread Round the World Race in spectacular fashion. Later he headed the 1995 New Zealand team that won the America's Cup from the San Diego YC. For those feats, he was knighted by the queen. The Auckland-born Blake also led the overwhelmingly-successful New Zealand America's Cup defense in 2000. He is survived by his wife Pippa and two children. Seamaster is French-designed and specially-built for extreme adventuring. Her reinforced aluminum hull and rounded shape keep her from being crushed by pack-ice pressure in extreme north or south latitudes. She is powerful enough to cut her way though relatively dense ice fields. With shallow draft, retractable centerboards and rudder, and tunnel-mounted propellers, she can penetrate river shallows. Blake's Web site (http://www.blakeexpeditions.com) carries in-depth information about Seamaster's discoveries. It also carries Peter Blake's log. Here is an excerpt from his final entry, as Seamaster made its way back downriver: Dusk has turned the surface of the river into a greasy grey, with the sky quickly darkening after the sun's orange and golds have gone. We always hope for a clear night, and tonight the moon will be up soon after 9pm, but this means two and a half hours of real blackness before then. There are flashes of lightning up ahead, with the radar showing a band of rain stretching out either side of our course. There are lights of ships, barge traffic, ferries and small towns; and the flaming floating pots marking the extremities of the fishing nets to avoid. A cool breeze blows out of the lightning cloud and the as-yet unfelt rain. The river tonight is flat calm, then turns choppy briefly in puffs of wind from the clouds, then calm once more. At times the swirls and small waves are caused by the current flowing over the very uneven river bed, 40 metres at times with sheer cliffs to 20 metres, then deep again; and sand waves up to 12 metres high beneath us show on the depth sounder, regular as a geometric design, the sand slowing marching to the Atlantic on a journey that began thousands of mile away, driven onward by this vast amount of moving fresh water. | | Peter Blake There is a crew member on the bow of Seamaster, on lookout duty, mainly for large logs, patches of floating weed, or fishing boats without lights. He has the big searchlight with which to check from time to time. It can be quite cold up in front, the temperature down to 26 degrees C or so, and thermals are occasionally needed and worn. How strange to be in the Amazon with polar fleece jacket and trousers on. The lookout is in contact with the pilot house, the crew there monitoring engine gauges, making hourly checks of the engine room, pumping fuel, marking our progress on the chart, and keeping an eye on the radar and depth sounder, our two most useful instruments for this river travel. Hardly more than a few minutes goes by without a change of course to keep in the deepest section, or avoid a sandbar, or pass an island, so there is not much time to relax. Tonight there are bands of smoke - thick smoke - pouring out of some of the inlets and out of the forest, making walls right across the river. The smell of the burning forest fills the air and also our cabins. Daytime:The high land around Almeirim is over to port. There is a large cloud overhead at the moment, causing a breeze to blow along the river, but it also provides welcome shade for a few minutes. The green frame of the Amazon rain forest is ever present, contrasting with the red-earth scars on higher ground, and the yellow clay by the waters edge. We could have come here by commercial plane, stayed a few weeks, and left. But that wouldn't have given us the essence of the Amazon. We haven't hoisted sails for more than 2 months now--but this will soon be corrected when we turn left out of the mouth of the river and enter the trade winds; early next week, fingers crossed!
|
