Excerpt # 3 from "Flight of the Kestrel" copyright Bobby R Towe sr

There are zodiacs being launched from the old freighter, their occupants have weapons, I alter course, to stay away from her, I have spotted this from my mast camera, I bring Kestrel around quickly, heading due east again and go back to full sail while at the same time ballasting to compensate for the direction change, the result is a tight, fast “swoop maneuver” Kestrel goes from 30 knots to 65 knots within about 40 seconds and walks far above the chop which has built back to five foot swells, the zodiacs soon give up the chase, but I did get to watch a couple of them go airborne off the crest of the waves and flip, the rest had to give up the chase without ever being able to close on me. I hate to tip my hand but I have to report this before these bung holes kill somebody.

 I am on radio to the nearest coastguard station, and am hoping it’s not corrupted; I report the activity I have seen and the name of the vessel and her size and her current course as well.

   I also get on the phone to Su-ling, who is very alarmed when she hears about this,  giving her the position course and approximate speed of the freighter, I tell her not to worry they never even got close, I tell her that I took Gus’s advice and never let my guard down, my security man reminds me to make sure I am wearing my vest, I told him I had put it on before I left port and have not taken it off even once, and that after this you may have to pry it off me!

    I am about 100 miles from home, I plot this as a waypoint highlighted in red on my GPS.

I keep an easterly course for the next hour and then turn back south once more as the old freighter was headed northeast away from the coast, having spotted, and then evading trouble before it got me, I consider myself lucky, I will travel due south for another hour and then go back west towards the coast, another thing is that the weather was very much in my favor, Kestrel handles this type of weather far better than most others.

   Just in case I get jumped by surprise I reach down and turn the master arm switch to stand by on the anti-piracy system, this way I can hit any of several “panic-buttons” located in key places on board, should the need arise.