We are all surely familiar with those stories of naive young Brits who travel abroad and are persuaded by a charming new holiday friend to bring back what they’re told is an innocuous package, only to end up on the sharp end of drugs smuggling charges. The latest series of the BBC’s World of Secrets somewhat inverts those expectations: it tracks the fortunes of three innocent young Brazilian sailors and a French captain who were allegedly duped by a Norwich businessman into sailing a rackety yacht across the Atlantic with £100 million worth of cocaine hidden in the body of the ship.
‘One thing you find on breakfast TV is that as your career declines you go on earlier and earlier’
The boat was called the Rich Harvest, a title which suggests a hand-rubbing anticipation of financial reward. Sadly, the unsuspecting crew reaped the whirlwind. The podcast’s presenters, Yemisi Adegoke and Colin Freeman, chart a compelling course through a twisty, novelistic tale which begins with two of the Brazilian sailors, Daniel and Rodrigo, describing how they were lured into the voyage to start with: their desire to gain documented sailing experience; a respectable-looking advertisement; and confidence-building encounters with the ‘trustworthy’, likeable Englishman known as Fox, who had been renovating the yacht in Brazil and was now asking them to help sail it to Europe.
Yes, the yacht was ‘ugly and untidy’ below deck, and Rodrigo’s parents were worried about him, but Fox was full of assurances. Even a raid from the Brazilian police and their sniffer dogs – energetically hunting for drugs on Rich Harvest and not finding anything – acted as a kind of comfort that all was above board. But Fox – who was meant to be on the boat – changed his travel plans.
Give or take a handful of tranquil days, the trip quickly lurched into disaster: a hapless captain had to be exchanged for a more competent Frenchman; the fourth crew member fell horribly ill, putting extra strain on the others; tempers frayed, and then the yacht’s engine failed, and they had to moor in Cape Verde off the west coast of Africa for repairs.
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