|
take a rest, Utupua offered us a convenient shelter in which to recover and fix our GPS. Casting about for a safe anchoring place, a canoe led us to the shoal in front of the village where, after several attempts we managed to hook on to a ledge.
Ashore we asked to be taken to the grave to pay our respects. A sandy mound in an unkempt graveyard left us with a feeling of abandoned desolation. The villagers had been too preoccupied of late, rebuilding their homes after a recent cyclone to take much notice of the graveyard. Poked in all around the mound were cuttings that might one-day form a hedge. The cut palm fronds laid on top had already turned from green to brittle-brown.
The sailor's unmarked grave seemed so forlorn, so anonymous; yet we knew Fritz to be one of the few brave hearts who had set out to live his dream. That his dream ended abruptly in tragedy was a reminder to other cruisers that maybe we will not all make it home. Michael, feeling a connection with a fellow sailor whom he had never met, set about to do something to appropriately mark the resting-place.
The villagers donated a half-round plank of rosewood on which Michael carved a head marker with the words:
Fritz Messerli
Bern
7/7/38
"Taken By a Crocodile"
14/7/98
Athene III
Utupua
At the top he carved a sailboat.
Fritz and Therese had realised their dream of sailing fearlessly in the wild places of the earth and had dared to live the life of the adventurous. The head-marker is a tribute from the yachting fraternity to Therese and her two sons, for a husband and a father left behind on a remote island in Melanesia.
………………………………
Home Page Published Articles
|
|
