One hit. One miss. And one too close for comfort.

During his compulsory military service, my godfather was a tank commander in the Bundeswehr.

While out on a training exercise an order was relayed and he fired, only to hit a cow peacefully grazing in a nearby meadow. During an official enquiry, it wasn’t clear who gave the initial order and the Bundeswehr paid the farmer for the loss of his cow. At least the poor animal didn’t experience the trauma of an abattoir.

During a fairly recent joint naval exercise - this time involving the German and SA navy - off the Denel Overberg Test Range near De Hoop Nature Reserve, a navigational warning was given to all ships and extensive notices placed that all maritime traffic avoid the area.

One commercial fisherman reasoned – that if all other boats were staying well clear, the fish would be his for the taking.  

He snuck out of Struisbaai harbour at 02h30 and and put on all his navigational lights reasoning a target wouldn’t have all lights blazing. He was also certain he would be far away from the actual testing grounds.  But shortly after he reached his preferred fishing ground he issued an urgent MAYDAY! MAYDAY! MAYDAY! The navy had fired 3 shells directly at him, narrowly missing him, mistaking his boat for their virtual target. He got no response from the navy on the radio and urgently radioed Cape Town Radio while underway to relay the message - while he beat a hasty retreat to the safety of the harbor on shaky legs. There’s still no comment from the Navy who have kept their radio silence. Here’s a shot of AIS maritime traffic in the area and you clearly see the three naval vessels in a normally very busy stretch of water.

Another close shave was in the ‘90’s when my friend, Chris Allen sailed to Madagascar. Shortly before crossing the channel, they stopped over in Maputo for fresh supplies and one last night on the town before the ocean crossing.

There were no yacht facilities back then as the country was still reeling from a brutally long civil war.

The best they could do was anchor off Clube Naval and leave a crewman on anchor watch. The rest of the crew disappeared ashore on the tender for grilled prawns and a few chilled beers. A couple of rounds later, they were blissfully unaware of the onshore wind and the yacht dragging anchor. The crewman on watch did what he could but the yacht was in danger of running aground. Not quite knowing what to do, in desperation, he fired off a flare hoping help would arrive.

Some folks enjoying the balmy evening did notice and rallied around to help and in the process saw the presidential guard start to maneuver their mounted machine gun and direct it towards the yacht in distress.

Concerned, they asked the soldiers what they were doing, to which the soldiers replied; “No, that boat tried to attack us so we’re going to destroy it.”

Some hasty peace negotiations ensued to avert an international incident and eventually after dramatic persuasion and a fist full of Dollars to show sincerity, peace once again settled and boat and crew were saved.

At least he lived to tell me the tale.

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