This very atmospheric old photo was sent to me by a French couple who took it from their sailboat. In 1974, I was with them on their sailboat on the Amazon River when we were captured by pirates. We were tied up for three nights and two days while the pirates stripped the boat and argued amongst themselves. They let us live and left us tied up on the floor. We untied ourselves and sailed out of the Amazon to Martinique. My little catamaran TANTRA was left anchored alone in the pirate's den.
Everyone is aware of the danger of pirates today. Around ten years ago, the world's most famous sailor, Sir Peter Blake, took over leadership of the Cousteau Society and was murdered by pirates on the Amazon River close to where I was captured many years before. It is dangerous to sail to the wild places of the world, even today.
Four months after my pirate experience at the age of 22, I went back to the Amazon and stole my catamaran out of the pirate's den. I sailed up to Martinique where I rejoined my French sailing friends. That was when they took this photo of me on my catamaran. Imagine sailing to four continents on this 1,400 pound, 27 ft boat navigating with an old brass sextant and having no motor, no electricity, no radio, or life raft. Those were the days! Those years of sailing set the stage for me to conceive of accomplishing the longest sea voyage in history.
Reid