# Where are you, Egon?



## Cpt Dick Brooks (May 13, 2013)

I first met Egon in Nuka Hiva, in the Marquise Islands, in French Polynesia. He was sailing around the world single-handedly on his small ferro-cement yacht, Skippy. It had taken him nearly five months to reach the Galapagos Islands from Bilbao, on the Pacific side of the Panama Canal, almost running out of fresh water, and completely out of food. He'd only managed to catch one fish in the 900 mile voyage.
From there, he sailed to French Polynesia, where he cracked the base of his unstayed junk-rigged mast in a storm, making it into the main harbour of Nuka Hiva. He met up with his fellow Swedes in my crew, who invited him on board my ship, Debut, for dinner and a social evening. The next day, my chief engineer, Rekus, towed his boat alongside of my ship with our launch for repairs.
The French Administration had tried to kick him out of French Polynesia, because he couldn't pay the US$1,400 bond for his cruising permit. As he had only US$8 when he arrived at the island, and was now down to only US$3 after spending six weeks in the island, you could say that he was broke. He'd been foraging in the rainforest for foodstuffs to survive.
He showed us the second highest waterfall in the world, in a bay on the western end of the island, reaching to a height of 2,000 feet in one drop, where we swam in the crystal pool at its base. It is second in height only to the Angel Falls, in South America, which reach to a height of 2,700 feet. 
After fixing his mast for him, and providing him with some basic rations from my ship's stores, we bid him bon voyage and headed to Taipi Bay, on the east side of the island. He was given 72 hours to leave French Territorial waters after we'd left. After exploring the wonders of that part of the island, we set our course for Hiva Oa, to get our cruising permit for the Southern Marquise Islands, so we could visit Fatu Hiva, of Thor Heyerdahl fame.
It was some seven months later, after exploring the wonders of French Polynesia, staying at Tahiti, Moorea and Bora Bora, then a month in the uninhabited wonder of Suvorov Island, in the Cook Islands, that we arrived in Pago Pago, in American Samoa. As it was their national day, the Customs and Immigration service declined to clear us inwards, even though it was only mid-afternoon, and instructed us to go out on anchor in the harbour, then return the next morning. They had broached their own bonded stores, and were feeling no pain.
Once I anchored Debut further up the harbour, still over 110feet deep, who should come rowing over to us, but Egon. He lay on his oars alongside the ship, as we were still flying our pratique flag, and promised to return later, after dark. I told him to come alongside on my port side, away from the prying eyes of the town, and to celebrate our arrival, he brought us out a case of beer. As it had been five weeks since we'd left Bora Bora, our bonded stores were bare.
Egon had been working as a welder and fitter for a local boatyard, as well as an electrician, specializing in electronics. After being in employment for six months, he'd done well for himself. When I got my first charter after some two months, I signed him on as the mate of my ship. We were contracted by Mary Crowley, of Sausalito, to carry a group of elderly adventurers around the remote and exotic Northern Cook Islands. He also came as mate on a contract by the New Zealand Government to recover the 100 tons of fuel-oil from a wrecked Korean long-liner on the windward side of Penrhyn Island.
During the year and a half that I spent at Pago Pago with my ship, Egon crewed on Debut to Tonga as second engineer, where we carried 265 tons of cyclone relief cargo, then also as second engineer back to the Cook Islands with another elderly group of American adventurers for Goodtravel Tours. It was on these two trips that he brought his new Western Samoan wife, Imi, who bore him a son.
He'd been shipwrecked once before, in the Philippines, on an earlier voyage round the world. After he left Samoa alone on his yacht, he was shipwrecked again in Indonesia. I met him on his return to Apia, after I'd been working there for a year with Debut. We had a contract to survey and carry out the maintenance and overhaul of the tanker moorings in the outer harbour of Apia, and the mile long undersea pipeline for Mobil Oil. 
Egon returned to Pago Pago with his young family, to work at the boatyard again. I heard through the pipeline that he'd built himself a new steel yacht while working there, and had set out again... for the third time, to sail around the world. After I'd been shipwrecked, myself, in the Coral Sea, spending three years castaway on Emily Reef, off the Australian coast, he was in contact with his fellow Swede and crewmate of mine, Beau Burge. He gave him my address in the UK, where I was living as a single parent with my 14 year old daughter, Zyanya.
I received a letter from him, right out of the blue, from Port Said, after he'd just transited the Suez Canal. He asked me to send him some charts for the East Anglian Coast, via the Post Office in Gibraltar, so he could pay me a visit. I made him up a parcel, including a chart of the River Orwell, and a map of the nearest marina to my flat on the New Cut. I never heard from him again. Get in touch, Egon, so we can chew the fat while downing a few beers. All the best, Cpt Dick Brooks.


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## Dartskipper (Jan 16, 2015)

I hope nothing bad happened to your friend Capt. He sounds a really interesting fellow. In the fellowship of small boats and big oceans, I hope he is safe somewhere. No news is good news perhaps.

Good luck in your search.

Roy.


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## Frank P (Mar 13, 2005)

Another interesting story Dick, 

I visited Tahiti, Moorea, Pago Pago and Bora Bora several times while I was onboard the Royal Viking Star 1973 - 1976, I often had visions of living down there on the islands but it never happened. I married a Filipina instead.

I hope that you find your friend Egon......

Cheers Frank


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## Cpt Dick Brooks (May 13, 2013)

*For Dart Skipper &Frank P.*

Hi, Frank & and Dart Skipper. Good to get your thread. Sorry for the delay in answering your thread, but I've been working flat out, preparing the manuscript for my sixth book for publication, The Black Ship's Odyssey, Book Three, with the sub-title of Published at Last.
Egon was a wire-y old bird, who could survive on a bowl of noodles and lintels for weeks on end. In that regards, he was like my old mate, Cpt Beau Burge, who was accused by some of his crew of having his own stash of food in his cabin, as the ship's fare was, to say the least, spartan. They just couldn't understand the drive you needed to punch a tall ship across the Pacific Ocean to New Zealand with what meagre provisions there was on board, let alone after already crossing the Atlantic from Sweden. His own thread can be read under his own name. Knowing Egon, he found a little opening some where to hole up and earn himself a crust in the world.
As for the South Seas... it excited me as a young teenager when the Kontiki raft set out to sail the Pacific in the 1950's, which made it to the Toamoto Archipelago. It was followed by the Seven Sisters, sailed single-handed from South America to Page Pago. 
I lived a year and a half, working out of Pago Pago, in American Samoa, then another year in Apia, in Western Samoa, after marrying an 18 year old Western Samoan girl. Mariana sailed the South Seas with me to Australia, and then stayed with me castaway on Emily Reef for a year with our baby son, Robbie. I finally got her a lift on a fishing boat to Cairns, in Australia, when there was no food left on board the ship suitable to wean a toddler. I spent another two years castaway before returning to Apia to collect Mariana and my young family and take them to England. Mariana is friends with several Pilipino women in Ipswich, as they are both from paradise, on the other side of the world. All the best, Cpt Dick Brooks.


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