Pete Bevington

25 January, 2007

ROUND the world sailor Andrew Halcrow, who was forced to abort his solo voyage last month after his appendix burst, returned home to the Shetland Islands a relieved man this week.

The 48 year old father of three said he came within 48 hours of losing his life when he was rescued by an international coastguard operation that saw him on the operating table just 36 hours after he called home four days before Christmas.

He said his life had probably been saved by the build up of goose barnacles on the hull of his boat. Had they not slowed him down, he would have been out in the Pacific Ocean, too far from land to get help.

Andrew set out from his home on Burra Isle, Shetland, on 27 June, on board Elsi Arrub, the 32 foot, steel-hulled boat he built himself 20 years ago. He expected to spend 11 months at sea realising his life's ambition of sailing non stop around the world on his own.

His voyage was going smoothly until early December when he started to experience stomach pains. "There had been a lot of bad weather and my stomach was tensing up, so I thought maybe it was an ulcer. I certainly didn't think it was my appendix," he said, from the comfort of his home, in Hamnavoe, yesterday afternoon (Wednesday).

But on 21 December the pains were so bad he called his anxious girlfriend Alyson Keillor on his satellite phone and asked her to get help. He was astonished how quick the response was.

"I had banked on about two days for a ship to get to me, so I was amazed when it was about four and a half hours later that the rescue plane came over. I was pretty happy when it happened so quick."

Alyson had called Shetland Coastguard who had immediately contacted the Maritime and Coastguard Agency's international rescue centre in Falmouth. They had got in touch with colleagues in Canberra who had sent out a spotter plane straight away.

It took eight hours for the bulk carrier Elegant Star, carrying iron ore from Canada to Sydney, to reach the Elsi Arrub, by which time Andrew's condition had deteriorated.

"I could move, but only very slowly. Everything was in slow motion. The only way I could get some relief from the pain was by going down on my hands and knees."

By the time the Elegant Star reached him, the wind was blowing a Force 5 and the swell meant the only way he could board the ship was by climbing a 10 metre pilot's ladder thrown over the side.

"It was just a case of you had to do it. There was no other way," he said, after doctors expressed surprise that he had managed the feat in his condition.

On board he was treated with antibiotics and after about 29 hours was picked up by a helicopter with doctors on board, who immediately checked his pulse, blood pressure and temperature.

Shortly afterwards he was at Albany Regional Hospital where they started to operate, still uncertain of what the actual problem was. "They had to make a bigger cut than usual because they were not sure what was wrong with me," he said.

"They were really good at Albany. The nurses were excellent, really professional, really caring. They took a genuine interest."

There was also a friendly face not far away. Half an hour after he arrived at the hospital, one of the local dentists came to introduce himself. He was Barry Geldard, brother of Dennis Geldard, of Lerwick, who had been following Andrew's progress on the internet.

Looking back, Andrew realises how fortunate he was to have survived his ordeal. When he spent five years sailing around the world with his brother Terry in the late '80s and early '90s he never had a problem with barnacles.

"It's different when you spend all your time at sea, so I spent a good amount of money putting on five coats of anti fouling paint before I left.

"I thought I won't have a problem with this, but just south of the equator I had to go overboard to clean them off.

"It was getting bad again south west of Australia and I realised I would have to beach the boat because going over the side there you're likely to meet a Great White Shark, and I didn't fancy that.

"I was going to beach the boat in Tasmania because it was getting so bad, but if my speed had not been so hampered I would probably have been in the Pacific by the time my appendix burst, and being so far from land that would probably have been it.

"I was cursing the barnacles, but it's just as well they were there."

Now the Elsi Arrub is floating somewhere south of Australia, after the towline dragging her behind the Elegant Star snapped. Andrew charted two planes to search for her, but after just five days when the first flight went out, computer programmes suggested she could be anywhere within a 2,500 square mile area. By the time of the second flight more than two weeks later, it was worse than a needle in a haystack.

"I've not given up hope yet that she will turn up. It's quite possible, and if she does I will probably go back out and see to everything," he said. He left everything on board, including his logbooks, his camera with all the photos he had taken, and even his passport.

As for doing the trip again, he has no intentions of repeating the attempt. "The trip itself would take about a year and I just feel that's too long away. The boat was in good shape and so was I. We would have made it, and that's good enough for me."