Yachtie will return to ‘danger’ coast

Press, 12 May 1984, Page 26

Yachtie will return to ‘danger’ coast

PA Auckland Being chased and shot at off the coast of Cuba will not stop an Auckland yachtsman, Mr Rod Taylor, returning to the Yucatan Channel, the infamous stretch of water between Cuba and Mexico. Back in Auckland after delivering a 12-metre yacht from the United States, Mr Taylor told of the January afternoon when he was chased out of Cuban territorial waters by an old fishing boat. He is flying out of Auckland bound for the Mediterranean to deliver a yacht from Gibraltar to the Cayman Islands. The voyage will again take him through the Yucatan Channel and down the coast of Cuba. Rapid bursts of gunfire punctuated the chase in January, which he estimated had lasted 20 to 30 minutes about six miles off the Cuban coast. His two crew members, an American woman and a New Zealand man, dived for cover, as Mr Taylor tried to steer the yacht out of the 12-mile territorial zone. The difficulties arose when one of his crew steeled an incorrect course

and the yacht ended up six miles off the Cuban coast. Their plight worsened when a light wind all but disappeared. When an angry Mr Taylor took over the 4 a.m. watch, he immediately tried to get away from the Cuban coast, aware of the Cuban’s penchant for harassing yachtsmen who strayed off course. They passed a fishing boat and, about 2 p.m., when nearly clear of the territorial zone, they saw the same boat approaching. “The same boat came out and they started to shoot,” said Mr Taylor. “I tacked away as they came in close.” The Cuban vessel came alongside the yacht and gestured to the crew to lower the sails. “As soon as I noticed they were from the military, there was no more worrying on my part,” he said. The yacht was towed to a Cuban military base where the vessel was searched and the crew’s papers examined. They left for the Cayman Islands the next day, satisfied with the manner in which they had been treated and relieved the yacht had not hgen confiscated.