120 Year-old Historic Vessel Sailing For Humanitarian Mission

GEORGE TOWN (Penang, Malaysia) Dec 18 (Bernama) -- Each year, a 120 year-old historic Norwegian vessel known as Vega and its crew sail as far as 7,000 miles on a humanitarian mission. The vessel is captained by Shane Granger, 67, who is assisted by his wife Meggi Macoun, 50, and Volunteer Szymon Zachriasz, 26. Recounting the beginning of the mission, Shane said Vega was an abandoned vessel that he discovered off the coast of the Canary Islands, Spain about 15 years ago. "When I stumbled upon this vessel, I felt compelled to immediately buy it. Once I purchased and repaired it, me and my wife got inspired to use Vega as a medium to carry out humanitarian missions," he said when met at the Straits Quay Marina here today. He also plans to sail across small islands around Timor Leste and Eastern Indonesia next year to support the development of local communities there in terms of health and education services. Shane who used to work as a radio announcer at WQAM, Miami said all supplies and donations were loaded on board from layover countries including Thailand, Indonesia, Singapore and Malaysia. "Each year we collect and distribute donations weighing between 15 and 20 tonnes comprising learning tools like stationery, books, clothes, shoes and medical supplies to those unfortunate people, especially children," he said. Asked whether the management of Vega is bound by any organisations, he said they were not tied up to any parties and were free to take up a voyage from one location to another according to schedule they had set. "However, there is an organisation in Singapore that contributes in terms of the vessel maintenance. We obtain food supplies from close friends and people who come to visit our vessel," he said. Meanwhile, Meggi said apart from the learning tools, they also provide advanced training for traditional midwives and teaching aids for rural teachers. Apart from depending on donations from the public for their survival when sailing, they also have been selling food products such as nutmeg coffee specially brought from Timor Leste, cinnamon from Gunung Api, Indonesia as well as nutmeg seed from the Indonesian archipelago. Vega which has anchored for the third time at the Straits Quay Retail Marina, near here is holding an open day for 10 days beginning today from 10 am until 6 pm. -- BERNAMA