Sea lures octogenarian adventurer

SIX weeks ago, on January 16., an 84-year-old Englishman set out on a raft, built here in La Gomera in the Canary Islands, to drift 2,800 miles across the Atlantic to Eleuthera Island in Bahamas, tracing the route upon which a ship’s 18-foot long jolly boat carried the survivors of the 41 crew of an English cargo vessel sunk by a German ship disguised as a merchantman (but then drawing back the deck-cowlings to reveal cannons and machine guns) during World War 11.

Seven men scrambled aboard the boat. Seventy days later, it washed ashore in the Bahamas with two men still alive.

When Anthony Smith, an Englishman born in 1926, and now walking on crutches, announced his intentions to build the raft at the small port in Valle Gran Rey (the valley which has been a second home to our family since 1981) the harbourmaster said he would allow no such cockamamie, DIY craft to leave his harbour. Understandably, he visualised time and money wasted in rescuing the irresponsible old duffer and his misguided crew. However, when he saw the professionalism of the finished craft, he relented.