Brazilian police are now
saying that a 23-year-old man - Ricardo Tavares - has confessed to killing New Zealand
yachtsman Sir Peter Blake in Macapa, the Amapa state capital of Brazil, near the mouth of
the Amazon River on the equator.
Seven pirates - known locally as 'Water Rats' - stormed the research vessel Seamaster, after Blake and his crew had returned from dinner ashore. The Seamaster was on a two-month environmental awareness expedition thousands of miles up the Amazon, and was at anchor awaiting customs clearance to depart Brazil, when the attack happened. Usually, the so called Water Rats meet no resistance. Then they disappear back into the jungle or into the small villages along the river. Their loot is then sold exchanged for drugs. But Blake, trying protect his 10-member crew, fired a rifle at the bandits before being shot twice in the back.
In addition to winning the America's Cup twice, Sir Blake won the Jules Verne round-the-world trophy in 1994 in which competitors race nonstop around the planet. Blake was also chosen to succeed the late Jacques Cousteau as captain of the marine research vessel, Calypso 2.
"He was a blond giant, with sky-blue eyes and a Viking moustache. He was the most popular and most respected sailor of the end of the 20th century," the news agency Agence France Presse said.
New Zealanders have a deeply personal connection to the seas, and recognize the fragile nature of the oceans on which they sail by seeking to preserve the pristine quality of the environment that surrounds them. Sir Blake worked tirelessly in this regard, and was in the process of monitoring global warming and pollution during this Amazonian expedition. He wanted to his final years promoting awareness of ecological causes, with an emphasis on the precarious state of the world's bodies of water. He planned to spend five years in the world's most important and fragile aquatic environments, filming documentaries aimed at young people with his organization, blakexpeditions, which had the backing of the United Nations.
Truly this is a loss not only for New Zealand, but for the world, and our future.
