| Audio Clip-I (Interview by Derek O'brian: Bournvita
Quiz Contest) (1.6 MB)|
As I transcripted it:
Derek O'brian:
"Why?
Why? Why did you take up this incredible journey for the last 30 years?"
Cap'n Fatty Goodlander:
"I am a worshiper of the concept of being as free and as International as
possible..I think to myself as a citizen of the world. I am looking for the way so that I
can be the most free..the way that I can have the highest quality of life...the way that I
live like to my own will and be the master of my own universe. My small sailboat gives me
that freedom
with the goodwill of my own fate.."
| Audio Clip-II (As recorded at VU2NCT)
(1.1 MB)|
|Audio Clip-III (As recorded at VU2NCT) (100 KB)|
I also discovered that Captain is a popular columnist of many sailing journals and
the author of many popular books, which are available at http://www.amazon.com . All his books are autobiographical. Immediately
after finding the information, I sent e-mails to [email protected] and [email protected] (moderator: Sunil, VU2UKR)
requesting anybody in Kochi to provide assistance to these sailor couple in trouble. They
were strangers to me and I never knew at that time that Captain Fatty was a ham radio
operator also! I got a prompt reply from Sri (VU2SBJ), Mukundan (VU2DRL) and Prof. Mani,
VU2ITI (January 13, 2003), volunteering to repair the marine rig of the sailor in trouble.
Balsun (VU2UYC, Kuwait) being one of my old friends from Kerala also personally sent this
information to his friend Prof. Mani, VU2ITI. Prof. Mani (VU2ITI) promptly went to search
for the sailboat but his first attempt failed. Then I collected Prof. Mani's mobile number
from Sunil (VU2UKR) and made an e-mail to Carolyn with Prof. Mani's mobile telephone
number and at the same time gave Carolyn's e-mail ID to Prof. Mani. After getting
connected , Prof Mani promptly went to the sailboat again, picked up the rig (an IC 710) to his house and voluntarily repaired
it (read Cap'n Fatty Goodlander's article at: http://www.eham.net/articles/4883
). The rig was re-installed by Prof. Mani after making the necessary repair(read
Prof. Mani's feedback at: http://www.eham.net/articles/5539
). As Carolyn remarked-"The rig now works better! Prof. Mani and his
friends noticed that our antenna coaxial cable was connected to the antenna in a wrong
way. They corrected this too and now we can pump out more power!" Thanks to Prof.
Mani and his friends for all the care they have taken during their stay in Kochi. Prof.
Mani also invited Cap'n Fatty to his university (Cochin University of Science &
Technology) to deliver a talk on 'Boat & Electronics'. Cap'n Fatty lectured almost for
two hours surrounded by his new fans. They had traditional Kerala style lunch at Prof.
Mani's house and in turn invited Prof Mani to their small sailboat for a sailboat lunch!
This is an event worth remembering for me...a very small episode though, but it has
it's own glory in it and that the hobby of ham radio would surely be glowing with glory
with many wonderful people adoring it. I have been chasing Cap'n Fatty's voice on the
radio day after day (an expression of the wonderment!) and some time I make very good
radio contact with him. It also helps me overcoming the frustration that comes very often
due to the remarks of many an enlightened people that ham radio is an obsolete technology
in the days Internet & mobile telephone (This is a very common remark to be heard
whenever I go to
schools for demonstrations representing VU2NCT Club Station of National Council for Science & Technology
Communication & Vigyan Prasar)!
It gives me immense satisfaction at the same time to look back when I find myself as a
short wave listener (during 1983-84) enthralled listening to the mariners on an ordinary short wave
radio (it was a National Panasonic two-in-one with only two short wave bands as
documented by me in the 'Electronics For You' magazine in 1986!). Earlier I documented it like
this: "As a young radio enthusiast I found it a thrilling experience to explore the
short wave bands in search of voices from such exotic places and in fact the image of a
lonely man traveling on the high sea and talking to a person in a distant land made me so
obsessive that, that might be one of the reasons I became a ham radio
operator"…..(Scanning
the World with Amateur Radio, 1992)
Today I can communicate with a brave sailor like Cap'n Fatty only because I am a ham
radio operator. Also I am proud to regularly convey their messages to their family in the
USA through e-mail. Who says ham radio is outdated? I receive messages from
Carolyn's 78 year old mother Angelline Alleruzzo through e-mail and read it out to them
through my ham radio system. I update Cap'n Fatty's daughter Roma Goodlander (who studies
in Boston) about their voyage from time to time through e-mail. It was another happiest
moment for me once when I could pass on a message from Roma Goodlander that there is a
'700 Dollar Check' waiting for Cap'n Fatty for his articles published in the Cruising
World Magazine! In fact Captain Fatty Goodlander gave me his call-sign (VP5GGX)
just before they started sailing from Kochi towards Maldives and then
only I came to know that he is a ham radio operator too! Till then I revered him as a
die-hard sailor. Now that I have another reason to revere him from being our own
fraternity and also as an author of a book which I liked very much! When
I told him that I shall purchase one of his books from amazon.com, he promptly gifted me a
copy of his book "Chasing
the Horizon: The life and times of a modern sea gypsy". It was
beautifully autographed
by both Cap'n Fatty & Carolyn. I liked the book for various reasons.
It describes how deeply Fatty was influenced by his uncompromising father (who was a
commercial artist without an artist's licence!) and his gypsy
life onboard his father's sailboat in the Mississippi River when they sailed down from one
place to another for their livelihood. They sailed and sailed until they reached the sea
and that Fatty (Tim-as his mother-in-law fondly calls him) is now circumnavigating the
Earth! It also tells how he could attend a school when he was 10 years of age! And then
left it for good probably studying for only 5 years....He found that the school was full
of religious & dogmatically patriotic people-a very good reason for him to develop a
hatred towards it and then leaving it for good (According to Cap'n Fatty, it was just one
of his misguided endeavours which he hopes would never see the light of the day!) All
these are just amazing.
Hats off to Captain Fatty Goodlander & Carolyn (onboard Yacht Wild Card) and our
best wishes to them always. Fatty calls himself a 'salt stained modern sea gypsy', a born
sailor.
He puts it like this at the very beginning of his book 'Chasing the Horizon "The
Life and Times of a Modern Sea Gypsy"'
-"In many ways, I was brought up, trained, and conditioned
to be against everything for which American society stood…Our collective perspective
as a family was that we were outlaws, outcasts, misfits, rebels, non-conformists, and
revolutionaries. We felt we were, above all else, adventurers…In many ways we were
like tribe of sea-going gypsies. We were always in constant journey just beyond the jagged
rim of the fringes of civilization."
The incredible circumnavigation adventure of Cap'n Fatty began in the month of March, 2000.
Captain Fatty Goodlander & Carolyn are presently (as on May 26, 2003) anchored at the
lagoon of a small deserted island of the Chagos. They have lots of coconuts all around all
grown naturally! They have been diving, swimming and fishing all alone in this island of
'zero' population. "We are quite happy far away from the
civilisation"-once Cap'n Fatty told me on the radio. "You
know sometimes humans are the greatest 'sharks'. We have been swimming with the friendly
sharks here while the humans are fighting with horrible weapons out there in the land!!"-Once
Carolyn remarked. When the wind would become favourable (In fact when I talked to him on
the radio today May 26, 2003 he told me that the Southeast Trade Wind
has started blowing creating a favourable 'weather window' for them to sail towards the
Madagascar), and probably they would sail down to another island 20 miles away. They are
sailing just like the ancient mariners-most of the time without engine power! The next leg
of their voyage would be to South Africa. Being civilians, they would not be allowed an
entry into military Diego Garcia (US)! Diego Garcia has a civilian population of 1,500
(mostly contractors) but that is 'off limit' to these sailor couple on a 38 foot sailboat.
I was very curious to know about their long voyages when they have to sail onboard
their tiny sailboat without seeing any land or any big ship (I mean the big luxury
cruising ships!)!
Then I turn to his books and articles. Here is
a quote from one of his stories ('Your Watch, Carolyn'-In Praise of a Watery
Relationship) in praise of Carolyn, which also won awards at the
2003 Boating Writer's International Competition
(Thanks to OM Balsun, VU2UYC, Kuwait for forwarding it to me):
"I love the night watches, especially thousands of miles
offshore in the middle of the Pacific. The air is so pure, the stars so impossibly close.
Everything seems in perfect harmonic balance: the chuckling bow wave, the creaking
mainsheet, the dove-wing flutter of the genoa leech. I achieve an almost mystical state of
grace during such salt stained moments of intense introspection---my heart feels heavy and
pregnant with universal love, my arteries pulse like a cosmic metronome,
I can almost hear the earth spinning on its axis.
Sometimes I have to be careful to take small breathes so I don't hyperventilate: I am one
with Mother Ocean, I am sailing through God's own cathedral. I am so incredibly lucky, so
amazingly blessed.
But eventually my eyelids droop. I stumble below, check the red-glow of my nav
instruments, make a faint tick-line on the tattered chart. Then I crouch beside her.
"Your watch, Carolyn."
She stirs, faintly at first, then surfaces. "Hi," she says as she smiles away
her drowsiness. "Any ships?"
She always asks this---even though there has not been a single ship for the last twenty
days we've been pointing towards French Polynesia. Unquote.
Still I keep on wondering how they sail all alone the long ocean passages! Captain Fatty
puts it to me on the radio like-"We usually sail for a week or
two on ocean passages. Though we occasionally go for as long as month without seeing land.
Yes, provision is a problem. Thank God Carolyn is a genius at it. Right now we have enough
provisions for 3 to 4 months and could make it six if we really had to. That's literally a
ton of food aboard right now! (Which sets us two inches lower in the water!) Our average
day runs is 138 nautical miles, though we often only go 70 or 80. Three times we've went
over 180 miles..probably with a favorable current. Once we went 100 miles in 12 hours...
our fastest run ever... and I'll probably never press her (Wild Card) that hard again... "
Click
here to download an MP3 file (Right Click>Save Target As), and listen to Cap'n
Fatty's voice (recorded at VU2NCT) when Cap'n Fatty was at Latitude 03 degrees 13 minutes North and
Longitude 72 degrees 28 minutes East in the middle of the Maldives.
Some portions of the audio clip are noisy but not the entire.
"Cap'n Fatty Goodlander has lived over 44 of his 50 years
aboard various sailing vessels. Just after his first birthday, his family moved aboard
(1953) a 52 foot Alden schooner named the Elizabeth. They sailed and cruised aboard her
until Fatty was 12 years of age, when he purchased his own vessel (a 22 foot Atkins 'Eric
Jr.' double-ended sloop) at the ripe old age of 15. He lived aboard her for thousands of
sea miles before beginning construction of his 36 foot, 10 ton ketch named Carlotta at 19
years of age. Carlotta was launched three years later, and he sailed her 18,000 ocean
miles in 15 years before losing her in Hurricane Hugo. His current vessel, a 38 foot
S&S sloop named Wild Card was purchased sunk (also by Hugo) for $3,000. Twenty-one
days after raising her, Fatty steered her to a second place finish in the 1989 Coral Bay
Thanksgiving Regatta. He has attended a total of five years of school, and currently makes
his living as a writer, editor and radio journalist"
(-reproduced as appeared at the URL: http://www.cruisingguides.com/fattygoodlander/default.htm
).
On April 15 midnight, this year (2003), my YL Nandita suddenly overheard 'Captain Fatty' on our TV and immediately she drew my attention
"Hey! It's your 'Cap'n Fatty' man!!". We were lucky to watch Captain Fatty
Goodlander (Tim) & Carolyn on the 'Sony channel' interviewed by Derek
O'brian from Bournvita Quiz (this was recorded during the Kerala episode of
Bournvita Quiz contest on Sony Channel) immediately I recorded his voice. (The audio clip is available here
to download-Right click and choose 'Save Target As' to save and replay). This is the
first time that my YL could hear the real voice of Cap'n Fatty Goodlander!..Because when I
contact him from my house, even I can barely retrieve the audio amidst the high noise due
to my poor antenna. As if I am talking to an imaginary voice! But from VU2NCT club the contacts are good. It was a very thrilling experience for
me to see him on the TV. "It is amazing!!"-as
remarked Derek O'brian. Derek's question to Cap'n Fatty was-"Why?
Why have you been sailing all these 30 years?". I was enlightened to hear
Cap'n Fatty's answer; He told-"I want to be a person as free as
possible...My small sailboat gives me that freedom. I want to be a citizen of this
universe..I want to live a free life of my own..The whole world is my house and all the
oceans are my swimming pool...!.."
|Click here for the photos sent to me by Carolyn
Goodlander from Yacht Wild Card also you would find links to many Fatty Goodlander related
stories|
|Click
here for information on general sailing related books!|
|An informative web site on
small boat cruising (CruiseWeb)|
|Link to St. John Online
newspaper|
24032003/0600
Zulu/14.345 MHz/ssb/vp5ggx-mm/43/ 75� 22' East/09�53'North
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
25032003/0600 Z/21.250 MHz/ssb/vp5ggx-mm/58/ 75�12' East/08�38'North
Calm sea,Overcast sky, 163 miles to go to Maldives
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
26032003/0600 Z/21.250 MHz/ssb/vp5ggx-mm/56/ 73�35' East/07�36' North
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
27032003/0610 Z/21.250 MHz/ssb/vp5ggx-mm/58/ Anchored at Maldives
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
04042003/0605 Z/21.250 MHz/ssb/vp5ggx (Would be sailing to Chagos Island
at 0430 Z on 05032003)
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
10042003/0600 Z/21.250 & 28.465 MHz/vp5ggx-mm/72�53' East/04�52' North: Middle of Maldives heading
south. Diving..collecting coconut bunches from deserted island, hundreds of
colorful fishes looking at them curiously...
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
17042003/0600 Z/21.250 MHz/ssb/vp5ggx-mm/57/
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
27042003/0600 Z/21.250 MHz/ssb/vp5ggx-mm/58 qsb/72�33' East/02�37' South 2-3 days to reach Chagos
Island
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
04052003/0600 Z/21.250 MHz/ssb/vp5ggx/55/72�12' East/05�21' South at Beddam Island (Chagos)
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
26052003: Cap'n Fatty and Carolyn is still anchored at the deserted
island (A 'zero population' island!!) of Chagos.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
02/06/2003/0600 Z/21.250 MHz/ssb/vp5ggx/44/
I talked to Cap'n Fatty & Carolyn (I heard Carolyn's voice
also! She seemed to me very joyous) on my radio. 'Cap'n Fatty told me that they had plenty
of
rains and their water tanks are now full-sufficient to sail down to Madagascar. Probably
this time they are carrying 'coconuts' collected from the island (I heard Cap'n Fatty
saying something related to that). I think 'coconut water' would be a good replacement in
the event of dearth of water. Cap'n Fatty was working on the boat and told me that they
are almost getting ready to sail. The tentative date of sailing towards Madagascar is June
7, 2003.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
09/06/2003/0600Z/21.250 MHz/ssb/vp5ggx-mm/56-44/After a long time I have
once again established a radio contact with Cap'n Fatty. They have left Chagos
Island at 09:30 local time and presently heading towards Madagascar. Tentative
time that would be required to reach Madagascar is 20-30 days. The
weather was stated to be very very nice and wind speed was 12 knot.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
10/06/2003/0600Z/21.250 MHz/ssb/vp5ggx-mm/55/ Cap'n Fatty's present position
is 06�30 min South
and 70�33 min East. The weather was stated
to be very nice with bright sun-shine..They have seen big sharks...
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
12/06/2003/0600 Z/21.250
MHz/ssb/vp5ggx-mm/56/Position: 09�38' South
and 66�37' East. Wild Card
is sailing at 6.1 knot speed (wind speed 24 knot). Weather temperature is
26� C. Cap'n Fatty is very very happy..they
sailed 153 miles in a single day...today he gave me the e-mail addresses
of his mother and sister
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
13/06/2003/0600 Z/21.250 MHz/ssb/vp5ggx-mm/56/ Position: 11� 01' SOUTH and 64�32' East....Wild Card is sailing at 4-6 knot speed..Wind speed is 25
knot..water is pouring into the boat like smoke..and Cap'n Fatty enjoys that...!!..(I have
calculated the distance they have travelled since I contacted them on June 12 to be 155.9023
nautical miles. The distance calculator is available at:http://jan.ucc.nau.edu/~cvm/latlongdist.html
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
16/06/2003/0600 Z/21.250 MHz/ssb/vp5ggx-mm/56/Position: 11� 40' SOUTH and 57�37' East..Wind Speed is 40 knot, poor weather..Yesterday
night a big wave of 6-10 meter went over the boat...Everything is fine onboard..another 500
hundred miles to go to Madagascar....
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
20/06/2003/0600
Z/21.250 MHz/ssb/vp5ggx-mm/44/Position: 12� 00' SOUTH and 49�15' East..Everything is fine onboard 'Wild Card'. Arrived Madagascar.
Presently in the area of Cape Ambre, Madagascar. Cape d’Ambre is the
northernmost point of land on Madagascar (the world’s fourth largest island).
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Contact Re-established with
sailboat Wild Card!
July 02, 0600 Z
Today (July 2, 2003) I have re-established the radio contact (we were out of Delhi: Click here for my travel
note!!) with sailboat Wild Card
at around 0600 Zulu from VU2NCT club station. I heard Carolyn's voice also! But the radio
signal was very very weak at my end. So I could not understand much of the thing what they
said..I could assume that everything is fine onboard 'Wild Card' and I told them about the
receipt of e-mails from their family. These days radio wave propagation seems to be bad.
Fatty told me the name of an Island several times but I could not copy it. Probably they
are at an Island near to Madagascar. As Fatty has to use a very small wire antenna
sometimes a 'good contact' becomes difficult if you don't have an extremely sensitive
high-gain beam antenna. We tried several frequencies ( 21.250 MHz, 28.470 MHz and 14.260
MHz) but no luck...The Ionospheric Propagation 'God' needs to support you too! ha ha..I
shall again try to contact them in the evening.
July 02, 1000 Z
Just now I have received an e-mail from Carolyn
Goodlander and came to know that they have Internet access at last! In the whole
island (French), there are only two computers available..They are at in Mayotte,
between Africa and Madagascar.
July 09, 0600 Z
Contact re-established with Wild Card but readability was 2-3. Cap'n Fatty's signal faded
with a brief signal report exchange.
July 10, 0600 Z
Today I had a fairly good contact with Cap'n Fatty on 21.250 MHz. I could note down their
present position to be: Latitude : 12�46' SOUTH Longitude :45�13' EAST
probably the name of
the place is Gamamtudso (I am not sure)..
July 11: Got it confirmed from DXview software that name of the
place is Mamoutzou, Mayotte Island.
(This web page on
Fatty Goodlander is created as a memento of the 'ham radio help episode' that took place
at Kochi, Kerala and as a memento of our friendship that has developed all because of a
'faulty marine rig'!
Thanks to Carolyn Goodlander who kept me updated
throughout)
My
acknowledgement to Jack, from whom I have taken the midi music
(Harry
Belafonte's Jamaica Farewell-one of my favorite songs)
� Sandeep Baruah, VU2MUE (2003), New
Delhi
Update Chronology: July 14, 2003 >April 9, 2004
|
