Perhaps the best way to introduce Shane Granger is to quote from the flyleaf of his book Cargo of Hope: ‘He has worked as a radio DJ, advertising photographer, copywriter, boatbuilder, director of museum ship restoration and bush pilot, between traipsing across the Sahara Desert, being kidnapped by bandits in Afghanistan and chased through the Andes by an assortment of revolutionary lunatics, but he has always returned to the ocean.’
The ship he shares with his partner, Meggi, is Vega, a 55-ton wooden commercial sailing vessel built for service in the Norwegian Arctic 130 years ago. He and Meggi live on board, dedicating their lives to sourcing and delivering educational, environmental and medical supplies to remote island communities in eastern Indonesia and East Timor.
We join them caught in the heart of Cyclone Gafilo, the most violent cyclone to hit the Indian Ocean in over 10 years. Things are not looking good for Vega or her redoubtable skipper…
Ripping through an ominous sky blacker than the inside of the devil’s back pocket, a searing billion volts of lightning illuminated ragged clouds scudding along not much higher than the ship’s mast. Through half-closed eyes burning from the onslaught of wind-driven salt water, I struggled
