Catamaran Worldwide Traveler

January 2010 - Piet Wittevrongel, the Belgian President of the “Save Askoy II” Foundation, and Sally Tanselle visited us in the San Blas Islands, Panama.  See http://www.askoyii.be for details.

Thirtyfour years ago,  the famous Belgium singer and playwright, Jacques Brel quit his public career, bought the Askoy II, the 60 foot steel ketch, Flagship of the Royal Belgium Yacht Club, and sailed off with his love Maddly to the remote Marquesas Islands of French Polynesia.  By a series of remarkable happenstance, he then sold the boat to Lee and Kathy Cleveland back in 1976.

They had to wait over a month in the remote Marquesas for their crew to arrive.  Each day, Jacques would row out to the boat and give Lee another dynamic, in-depth lesson abou the boat he loved. Afterwards they would retire to the center cockpit for lunch. Jacques would open a bottle of vintage French wine, and they would talk for hours.  When the wine was finished, he would exclaim, “Another dead Napoleon Soldier”, as he tossed the empty bottle over his shoulder into the water. 

Years later, after several other owners, the boat was shipwrecked on a remote beach in western new Zealand, where it languished, covered by sand.  The Belgium people revere the memory of Jacques Brel. That spurred the passionate Piet to form a non-profit foundation, the “Save Askoy II” .  Recently, he managed to dig the derelict hull from the sand, transported it by truck to Auckland, and shipped it by freighter to Belgium, where it is now undergoing a two year restoration.

Piet came with Sally to hear the stories and reminisces from Lee about that time.  He even took a two-hour digital movie.  We all had a wonderful time.