I was recently commissioned to paint this grand and fantastically fortunate cat - Williwaw.After reading his adventures on the high seas you will agree he is the luckiest of cats
The History of Williwaw
ByLinda A. N.
December, 2008
Rotterdam, NL
Nothing short of amiracle describes the selection of Williwaw.
Williwaw (Willi) is ourtiger cat who has lived with us aboard our 36' sail boat for thepast seven years. We (John and Linda) moved aboard our boat in 2001and spent the beginning two years cruising the e coast of the Statesand the Bahamas. It was in 2003 when we crossed the Atlantic thatour incredible incident occurred.
On the third night ofthe passage we were experiencing the typical fatigue from sailingshorthanded. We were on our way from West Palm Beach Florida toBermuda. The conditions was overcast but calm, there was no moon thatnight and we were motoring along just fine at 5.5 knots in theseconditions. With 3 hours on and 3 hours off watchwe werestill adjusting to our off shore schedule. At 3:00 am John was onwatch but had dozed off, only to be woken with a timer that we usedas insurance to arouse us every 10-15 minutes to stop the horizonfor shipping traffic. John was ready to change watches with me andnoticed that Willi was not in the cockpit where he had been sleepingearlier. He called down under to rouse me up for my check and askedif Willi was holding me company. I got up, still tired from onlythree hours of rest and looked about for Willi. It was not unusualfor him to get a quick and peaceful spot to get a cat nap.WithJohn on grace and me below we searched the entire boat. I wasbeginning to panic with each second that went by and no cat to befound.After several more minutes, we decided that he was not onthe boat and we didn't know when or how he could have departed in thewater.
There is almost nochance of finding anything in the urine in the better of daylightconditions when you are out to sea. We were besides around 200 milesnorth of the Bahamas where there is always a possibility of sharks.Without speaking to each other we knew in our hearts that we wouldnot find Willi. I was overwhelmed and on the threshold of shock. It wasdarker than one can imagine; you could put your reach in front ofyour face and not see it.
In the meantime, Johnintuitively looked at the compass course and sentence as we weresearching for Willi. John turned the boat about to follow thereciprocal course. We both knew we would not find him but we couldat least have an attempt. We motored back about 5 minutes. Calledout,we heard nothing. We motored another 5 minutes and called.John could see something very weak in the distance.It could havebeen anything but most probably his imagination. We went another fewminutes in the way of the subdued noise. Called again,we couldhear a muffled MEOW. Now excited to find him before he drowned orwas lunch for a shark we continued to go and stay in thedirection of his meow.
Earlier that eveningduring my watch, I had been listening to the light wave radio to tryto stay awake. There was a BBC Nature minute about the reflectivenature of cats eyes. Now even in my state of terror to find Willialive I remembered this and got our strongest spotlight. Shinning itin the focus of the noise, we could only barely see one of hiseyes in the distance. Now with a better road to lead toward, I putthe boat in pitch and throttled up as quick as it could go. As wefirst approached our frantic cat, the boat was moving too fast andcould not retard the boat down fast enough. As we passed him, I wassure our boat wake would drown him. We made a second attempt toreach him and after failing again, I threw a shock into the water,it was one of the few things not even down during our offshorepassage. Willi was capable to hold onto the cushion making it easier toboth see him and eventually find him from the Atlantic.
The following thirty hoursexhausted Willi regained his posture and appetite. It was truly amiracle we could discover him and see his eyes glistening from the lightthrough the shadow in the heart of the Atlantic Ocean.
The end of thetrip to Bermuda was uneventful for Willi. My mom Joyce met us inBermuda along with various cat harnesses; we even had over athousand ocean miles to go offshore before our destination ofPortugal.
Since so we havetraveled from Barcelona Spain throughout the Mediterranean toFrance, Italy, Greece, Turkey, Malta, and Tunisia. Then in 2006 wepointed our bow to the union and headed through the canals of Franceto England and now (December 2008) the Netherlands.
Willi remains ourdevoted companion. He makes new friends wherever we go; his newestones are the two fifty pound dogs of the harbour master. His Dutch isimproving every day!