He lay curled up in the cramped space, trying to survive the bone-chilling cold. But not even his specially designed survival suit could keep him warm.

Tony Bullimore had no idea how long he’d been trapped in the pitch darkness of his capsized yacht. Two days? Three?

He’d fashioned a crude hammock form cargo netting after the cabin had begun flooding. It now hung about a metre down from the floor of the upturned yacht, only centimetres above the sloshing, freezing water.

If he wanted to turn over or change position he first had to get out of the hammock, which put him up to his neck in the icy water.

Tony’s thoughts were in a turmoil. He thought of his wife, Lela, and his family in England. He would have been reported missing by now and they’d be very worried.

He knew he had to keep his hopes up, but it wasn’t easy. After all, he was somewhere in the remoteness of the great Southern Ocean. The closest land was Antarctica or Australia, both about 2 500 km away.

His fresh water supply was almost exhausted and all he had to eat was a slab of chocolate. How long would the air trapped beneath the upturned hull keep him alive?

He couldn’t help feeling the end was near. At 57 he’d had a full and rewarding life. It was time to come to terms with his fate, he thought. He just hoped Lela would . . .

Suddenly his thoughts were .interrupted by loud banging above him. Tony sat up, his heart racing. On a number of occasions he’d thought he heard sounds of possible rescue, only to find the noise had been caused by some loose equipment rolling about.

Bang-bang-bang! This time it was unmistakeable.

Desperately he hunted around for something to bang back with, but in the end had to use his fists. ”I’m coming out! I’m coming out!” he yelled.

Tony took a few deep breaths, dived into the icy water and swam out from under the upturned hull. With bursting lungs he surfaced outside.

He was greeted by the most wonderful sight he’d ever seen – rescue workers in bright orange jackets in an inflatable craft. Behind them was the Australian Navy’s frigate HMAS Adelaide. A helicopter hovered overhead.

“It’s a miracle! It’s an absolute miracle!” he said through cracked lips as he was taken aboard the frigate.

Only later would Tony find out he’d spent four full days bobbing about in the hostile vastness of the Southern Ocean. And the world shared his amazement at his miraculous rescue.

The yacht had been sailing in fine weather for four days. In the still air the blue water of the Southern Ocean was as smooth as a millpond.

To Tony Bullimore, one of 10 participants in the gruelling Vendee Globe single-handed around-the-world race, it was a welcome relief from the storm that had raged earlier.

He used the opportunity to dry his clothes and tidy the equipment aboard his yacht Global Exide Challenger. Once again he could cook up one of his favourite meals – a delicious hot curry.

But although he took things easier than he’d been able to during the storm, he didn’t relax completely. The waters he was in, south of latitude 50o S, had a reputation for sudden storms.

So when the wind suddenly came up late in the afternoon on Sunday January 5, Tony was ready.

Without a weather fax and with the satellite equipment broken during an earlier storm, he had to rely on an old salt’s technique of “smelling” the weather.

And what he smelled wasn’t good.

Within an hour the wind was howling at 60 knots and the yacht began to roll wildly in the huge swells. But still he wasn’t worried.

“I got it going beautifully,” he said later. “Bare poles (no sails), lashed everything down, got everything tucked away down below and put every-thing in such a position I could be chucked from one side of the boat to the other without damage.”

But he was drinking a cup of tea when disaster struck.

“I was sitting there with my cup of tea and then–bang! The keel popped off.”

The boat immediately rolled, leaving Tony trapped in the cabin inside the upturned hull.

Things weren’t too bad for him during the night. But in the early hours of the morning disaster struck again – one of the portholes was smashed and icy water poured through it. In seconds Tony was up to his shoulders in water.

His first priority was to make a hammock to lie in so he could keep himself out of the icy water. Feeling around in pitch darkness he found a piece of cargo netting. For the next few fateful days it would be his only haven.

“I had to find a spot as high as possible. The smashed porthole was acting like a vacuum. It sucked everything out of the boat. It was quite amusing,” he recalls. The swells sloshed the water around inside the boat and it was impossible to stay dry. Even in his R5 000 survival suit, with its four layers of protective material, Tony was chilled to the bone.

Many times had had to brave the cold water and get out of his hammock, mainly to see to the life raft on the deck, now below the surface of the water.

“I was afraid that if it was adrift and anyone came across it they’d just look and say, ‘Ah, it’s all finished’ and any rescue would be abandoned.”

To ensure the life raft was lashed tightly, he had to dive into the water, swim through the entrance into the cockpit and onto the deck.

The whole exercise had to be done underwater and he had to do it in stages – as a lifelong smoker he could hold his breath for only a minute at a time.

“I went up there about a dozen times and each time I’d go back to my little bolthole to warm up for a few hours,” he says.

Tony told his story in fits and starts in the sickbay of the rescue ship.

His feet were swollen from excessive exposure and poor blood circulation. He’d lost the end of one little finger when a door slammed as the yacht rolled, and there were signs of frostbite on one hand.

Despite his condition he hadn’t lost his sense of humour. To the amusement of the crew, his first request on being rescued was typically British – for a cup of tea.

“I’ve been in some situations in my life that I could tell you about.” Tony said as his rescuers listened attentively. “But this was the hardest. I’ve done more than 20 000 miles of ocean racing but I’ve never been through anything like this.”

He confessed there was a time shortly before the rescue when he thought it was over for him.

Then he recalled the experience of a friend who’d had a heart attack. “When he got over, it he opened his bed-room window and said, ‘God, it’s like being born all over again’. That’s how I feel now.”

TEXT 2

“Miracle” sailor sparked apartheid row

Johannesburg – Yachtsman Tony Bullimore, who was plucked fom icy seas in a dramatic sea rescue, has faced difficulty many times – including once in South Africa, when he was challenged to a duel to the death over his outspoken opposition to apartheid.

But the plucky, daredevil Briton has never been so close to meeting his maker. His yacht capsized in the Vendee Globe solo round-the world challenge and he spent four days floating inside the hull of his boat, waiting to be rescued.

Reports from the Australian naval vessel that rescued Bullimore indicate the intrepid sailor may lose two of his fingers and will face surgery as soon as he reaches port. One of his fingers was severed when his yacht capsized and another was severely damaged by frostbite.

Bullimore came to South Africa in the early 1960s after leaving Britain and conning his way on board a yacht headed south. He had no crew experience.

His gift of the gab often got him into hot water. After three years here, he left South Africa – where he ran a judo school – and returned to Britain because he claimed he was fed up with apartheid hypocrisy.

He hit the headlines when he was photographed throwing a Springbok badge into a dustbin as a symbolic gesture of his contempt for racism.

He claimed to have been awarded Springbok colours for judo, but inquiries showed Bullimore had never been awarded colours as he claimed, or represented the country at the Olympics.

In the article accompanying the picture, Bullimore was quoted as saying: “I have no respect for this badge that masquerades as a badge of honour from a country of racists”.

Journalists also revealed that Bullimore had actually retrieved the badge from the dustbin. His opposition to apartheid caused a local uproar and one Durban judo champion even challenged Bullimore to a duel to the death in defence of Springbok honour.

Durban businessman Glen Billson, a judo expert, threatened to teach the British upstart a lesson and challenged him to a “fight till the death”.

Bullimore’s anti-apartheid stance was well known. When he returned to Britain he started a disco which attracted mainly black customers. The club was known as the Bamboo Club and it was a landmark in Bristol.

Bullimore told people he had decided to leave South Africa because the people “didn’t like me getting friendly with blacks.”

Last week, his West Indian wife Lalel was seen on national television telling viewers that she had never given up hope of him being found alive.

It wasn’t the first time she had to worry about her husband. Twice before his yacht had been wrecked in bad seas.

He was once almost killed when his yacht hit rocks near the port of Brest. The wreckage of his boat washed around him while he clung on to the rocks.

In another incident, his yacht flipped and a crewmate was killed.

But his latest skirmish was definitely the worst. Bullimore had only a bar of chocolate and a cup or two of fresh water. He tried to inflate his rescue raft but was stuck in a submerged section and every effort to get to the raft saw him plunge metres below icy waters.

He was fast losing hope of being rescued and was preparing himself for death when he heard banging noises from outside. The Australian Navy came to his rescue.

The Navy was helped in its rescue by satellite location beacons fitted to all vessels that competed in the race. Skippers had been trained to activate the beacon when they ran into trouble.

In all three rescues in the Vendee race of Bullimore, and of Frenchmen Thiery Dubois and Raphael Dinelli – the emergency switches were activated.

Bullimore was the last of the three competitors rescued, but the most grateful.

“I’ve been in some bad situations before, but this was the hardest. I think if I had words to describe it, it would be a miracle. An absolute miracle”.

Refer to text 2: Discussion

Tony Bullimore told people he had decided to leave South Africa

because the people “ ___________________________________” .

(Fill in the missing words).

Figure 1

What do you say? Fill in the speech bubble! Discuss these reactions. How should we react to other cultures?

[LO 1.6; 2.1.6; 3.8.1; 3.8.2; 5.1.4]