Whoever Fears the Sea, by Justin Fox
Justin Fox novel 'Whoever Fears the Sea' is an engagingly romantic, fast-paced tale of sailing-ship adventures off the myth-laden East African coast, with plenty of sex and action, plus a serious revisionist message regarding modern-day Somali piracy.
The sea was a dark mirror. The captain held up his hand for silence, laid his cutlass on the deck and stepped into the wheelhouse. 'It's the World Trade Center,' he said. The Hispaniola swung on her anchor in the darkness and the bbc voice trailed away, then returned as the current nudged the brigantine back towards the island. Paul looked around at the crew and guests, cramming into the wheelhouse to listen. The fancy-dress evening had been dealt a blow. Everyone had made an effort for this, the third evening of their cruise on the chartered brig, anchored now off Praslin in the Seychelles. They'd raided the dress store and were all got up with eye patches, headscarves, earrings and great-buckled belts. Tony Blair sounded like Churchill. Was this World War Three? Paul Waterson glanced at the German tourists clad in pirate outfits, craning their necks to hear. Blair's voice was clear again: 'There is no doubt in my mind that we stand very, very closely with America. We should regard this act as if it was an attack on any of us, and all of us.' Paul found his hands were trembling. Hannah. Hannah, his girlfriend in New York, worked for cnn. She lived uptown and her office was nowhere near the World Trade Center. But he wanted to get off the boat and find a telephone all the same. After the broadcast, the crew tried to make the best of it, singing a bawdy version of 'Fifteen Men on a Dead Man's Chest' while two of them performed a mock sword-duel on the main deck. But people's hearts were no longer in it and the party faded early. In his stifling cabin, Paul found it hard to sleep. His mind conjured pictures of jets ploughing into skyscrapers. He consoled himself that if there was anything he needed to be told, Hannah or her family would have found a way to contact the boat. Paul emerged on deck early the next morning to find the skipper sharpening the end of a broomstick with his seaman's knife to form a crude spear. 'Strange things are happening in the world,' he said. 'It can't hurt to be prepared.' He was in the Seychelles to research a travel documentary about the Hispaniola. Ordinarily, he would have enjoyed such an assignment, involving a pleasant week of knocking about the islands. He was a bit of a Sunday yachtsman back in Johannesburg and loved anything to do with boats. Hispaniola was a hundred-foot Dutch topsail schooner, restored and refitted for the luxury tourist market. The vessel had been converted to look like a pirate brig: a painstaking, two-year project by the owners. Paul had stayed a few days on Mahe doing research, then joined Hispaniola for a cruise. The days were spent sailing between the islands; in the evenings they'd anchor off some enchanting beach. Each location was more idyllic than the last. A crescent of perfect white sand, shaggy palm trees, granite boulders and luminous water. One afternoon, they'd rowed to Cousin Island, a deserted sanctuary. [...]
This is an excerpt from the novel: Whoever Fears the Sea, by Justin Fox.
Title: Whoever Fears the Sea
Author: Justin Fox
Genre: Fiktion
Publisher: Random House Struik
Imprint: Umuzi
Cape Town, South Africa 2014
ISBN 9781415203996 / ISBN 978-1-4152-0399-6
Softcover, 15 x 22 cm, 272 pages
Fox, Justin im Namibiana-Buchangebot
Whoever Fears the Sea
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