Son of the Sea--Liu Ning-sheng

Why would Liu Ning-sheng, the 43-year old president of an export company who had never set foot on a sailboat in his life, set about becoming a seafaring adventurer? Liu Ning-sheng points out that this life-altering experience began in the Philippines while collecting a type of water lily known as Pemphis acidula.

Ocean Paradise

On the eve of Chinese New Year in 1989, Liu Ning-sheng found himself in a small town in the Philippines where he had been surfing only one year before. Now, however, with a broken marriage and a company on the verge of collapse under his belt, Liu was looking for a way to save his company. He planned to gather and import into Taiwan a variety of Pemphis acidula indigenous to that area of the Philippines for use in potted plants.

These extremely slow-growing plants, found hugging coral and rock at the ocean's edge, with their gnarly shapes produced by the slapping of waves and the gusting of salt-carrying wind, are popular among potted plant aficionados. Liu went deep into the deserted northeast corner of Luzon in search of these odd Pemphis acidula.

Sweat poured like rain as he collected specimens during the day. He drank a special concoction of coconut milk and salty-fresh water taken from holes dug in the beach. He ate deep-fried corn. His bed consisted of cushions placed on a clammy beach. One night, as he reclined on the pristine coral sand staring up at the countless stars, a thought popped into his mind, "This is at least as comfortable as my bed at home." "I found myself content living a life that others would find unbearable," Liu Ning-sheng reminisced.

Roughing it in the Philippines for over a year, Liu found self-confidence. He believed that he could take whatever Mother Nature could dish out.

The rhythm of the waves

Liu Ning-sheng's Pemphis acidula idea didn't save his career due in part to the abrupt sinking of his boat purchased to transport the plants. It did, however, inspire him with a completely new train of thought. "Just as I had come to the end of my rope, a scene surfaced from the deep recesses of my mind," explains Liu. It was a scene from Mutiny on the Bounty, a movie he had seen as a child. In the scene, a group of sailors lay back in a grass hut in Tahiti with not a care in the world. It looked like paradise.

Liu had always loved the ocean. His father, a prominent painter by the name of Liu Chi-wei, made a treasure chest with skull and crossbones painted on it. This chest contained within it a world of imagination for Liu Ning-sheng-sea adventures replete with one-eyed, peg-legged pirate captains, glittering treasures, and beguiling women played out in his young mind. In junior high school, a skin-diving trip with his brother and his friends at Yehliu instilled within him the romantic notion of one day seeking adventure on the sea. After graduating from school, he fell in love with surfing, spending his weekends bucking the waves at Tahsi in Ilan.

It's really hard to say if he was fortunate or not. There he was at 40-something with over ten years' of experience doing something he loathed-working in the export business. And, what's more, he had nothing to show for it. Looked at from another perspective, having nothing meant he had no family or career to tie him down. If he didn't seize this opportunity, while he was still physically able, to realize his dream, when would he? He decided to set about to make his childhood dream come true-he was going to sail the open seas.

Setting Sail

At 43, Liu Ning-sheng brought his life savings to Australia to take six months of courses in a sail boating school.

"I concentrated more and worked harder there than I ever did in my entire life at school," chuckles Liu. "Groups of students took turns manning the helm, sails, and rigging in our daytime hands-on training. We learned to judge wind angle and wave size to maximize speed. Our training covered everything from daytime jaunts to nighttime hauls." When he finished his course of study, he was ready to captain his own sailboat. Facing the ocean stretched out before him, Liu Ning-sheng's palpitating heart cried out within him, "Here I come!"

Upon graduation, Liu went to the United States to purchase his first sailboat, which he christened "Fulong" or "Lucky Dragon." "Now that I had my own boat, I naturally wanted to sail her back to Taiwan." Liu placed ads in Los Angeles newspapers and spread the word around the piers that he was looking for a seasoned sailor. He found a like-minded friend in Bernd, a German who had been sailing since the age of eight. As they became good friends, Liu came to learn that, like him, the German had failed at marriage and business. Bernd, who had exiled himself to America, decided to sail the Fulong with Liu Ning-sheng across the Pacific to Taiwan.

On this the first leg of their trip, Liu and his companion packed the Fulong, about the size of an eight-man tent, with enough provisions for 30 days. The tiny boat was spilling over with instant noodles, instant soup, and brick-dry Shandong flat bread. Setting sail from the west coast, their first stop would be Hawaii, no less than 2,000 nautical miles and an estimated 28 days away.

A symphony, created by the irregular waves beating against the hull and the wind whipping the rigging against the mast, highlighted the beginning of their trip. Even the bone-piercing ocean wind made them feel like romantic seafarers. Every sensation was vivid and intensified. As the days went by and their physical strength waned, however, the real endurance test began. Liu Ning-sheng wrote in his diary that "I frequently imagine hearing dogs barking and chickens crowing. When I take the night watch, I imagine that I am sleeping, and when asleep, I dream that I am awake." The fact of the matter is that life on the ocean is monotonous and lonely.

After almost a month of endless rocking at sea, they finally caught sight of Hawaii. Ashore, they wandered into a supermarket, where they found the reds and greens of the fruits and vegetables exceptionally bright. The two bearded sailors stood in front of the produce counter for a long time taking in the aroma.

The ship's log, penned by Liu, describes the remarkable first transpacific sailboat voyage by a Taiwanese. After the trip, Liu's travel companion Bernd not only remained in Taiwan with Liu to promote sailing, he won the heart and hand of a beautiful Taiwanese lady.

As they energetically spread the word about sailing in Taiwan, Liu Ning-sheng and Bernd made friends with numerous people who also loved the sea. Despite the fact that the waters around Taiwan were opened to public use over a decade ago, private boats are still an uncommon sight. What's more, license application regulations and berthing facilities for sailboats are not in tune with current conditions and needs.

A modern Magellan

Eager to both answer the cry in his soul and to promote his beloved sport, Liu gradually formed a plan in his mind for circling the world.

The 4-man New Era, only 16 meters in length, was manned by a crew of idealistic nine-to-fivers willing to put aside everything to find themselves.

The first reality to be faced, however, when circumventing the globe is the need to raise large amounts of money. Liu Ning-sheng has always believed that "nothing is impossible if you set your heart to it." Upon learning of Liu's plan, boating enthusiasts didn't hesitate to rally to his support with donations of up to a million NT dollars. Before he knew it, he had collected NT$3 million to establish the Taipei Sail Boating Association. A friend's public relations company even expressed willingness to sponsor him and to provide publicity.

Liu Ning-sheng's father did not approve of his plan to sail around the world, and even now Liu can't help but feel regret when he thinks of his father. After all, Liu points out, "To this day, my dad, who is over 90 years old, bears the brunt of the family's expenses." Liu Chi-wei has never, however, meddled in his children's affairs. In the end, he even put up money and painted a picture of the New Era to encourage him.

With funds to sponsor them, Liu and his buddy Bernd departed right away for Hawaii to buy a second-hand boat that was over 10 years old. To save money, the two of them lived out of the garage of the sailboat's previous owner while they brought New Era up to tiptop shape.

With funding and a boat, their next task was to plan their odyssey. Liu and Bernd opted to go westward and take the safest routes. Liu explains, "This was, after all, the first time that a Taiwanese would be sailing around the world. To this point, the only Asians to make the attempt had been Japanese. Our goal, therefore, was to get the job done, as opposed to incurring unnecessary risks. With all the detailed planning and the help provided by the scientific instruments of modern boats, navigating the ocean is more of an exploration into your inner self than anything else."

New Era's round-the-world voyage

On 24 December 1998, Captain Liu Ning-sheng, navigational map unfurled, ordered the New Era to set sail. Their path led them from Kaohsiung across the South China Sea and Indian Ocean, through the Red Sea and the Suez Canal to the Mediterranean Sea, across the Atlantic Ocean, through the Panama Canal, and finally across the Pacific Ocean and back to Taiwan.

Despite the fact that the voyage was dreary, his heart swells with emotion when he looks back on their time on the sea, "On the sea, you have all the time in the world. On the ocean, you can see more than twice as many stars as you can on land and the faint glow of plankton washed up onto the deck is such a beautiful sight."

To make it possible for more people to spend time with the ocean, New Era's trip around the world would be divided into six segments. Two to three persons would be asked to share in each segment the experience of living on the ocean. Wu Chi-ling of the Tri-Services Hospital sailed with them from the Spanish Canaries to Santa Lucia. She recalls being woozy, like she was caught in a whirlpool, and vomiting until she thought she was going to disgorge one of her internal organs. "Even sleep was torture," she reveals.

She had to share in the four-hour watches, in which somebody always has to be on lookout regardless of the outside conditions-be it savage heat, stormy weather, or bone-shattering cold. With the exception of one cup of fresh water each for brushing teeth, seawater was used for everything from bathing to washing clothes. Of the two daily meals, there was only heated canned food for dinner; otherwise there were only instant noodles or bread. Three days after leaving port, fruit and vegetables became a luxury. All you saw when you looked around you was ocean and more ocean. Yet, Wu Chi-ling goes on to say, whatever else it was, in the end, this trip was a once in a lifetime experience and it was worth it.

Pirates!

Liu Ning-sheng felt that God was looking after them during this trip. In the beginning, the Straits of Gibraltar, where all of the Mediterranean's tidal water flows into the Atlantic, was their biggest navigational concern. If, in addition to the rapid current, you have to do battle with a strong headwind, you're going to have a tough time making it through the Straits, even if you use the auxiliary motor. Fortunately, somebody was watching over them-the wind and waves were calm and they got through with no hitches.

However, though there were no natural disasters, there were manmade ones.

Last October, with nine-tenths of the journey behind them-having seen wonders like the pyramids of Egypt and sea turtles off Ecuador-they found themselves breathing a collective sigh of relief. The evening that New Era arrived in Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea was muggy, so they opened the cabin's hatch to get some ventilation. The last thing they expected was to be attacked by pirates.

Five or six knife and gun-wielding robbers boarded New Era during the middle of the night. As Liu was held at knifepoint, thugs brandishing knives and guns demanded that the crew hand over their valuables. When the pirates saw a female among the crew, they started getting other ideas. It was at that point, in the pitch black, that the crew of the New Era set on the hooligans. A signal flare went off setting the ship's store afire. The pirates panicked and fled. The New Era made it through the incident with little damage, but crew members were wounded both mentally and physically. A five to six centimeter gash was left on Fu Kuo-hui's lip courtesy of a pirate's knife.

Pre-destined to sail together

The Chinese say: "It takes ten years of cultivation to create the conditions to sail with someone, just as it takes 100 years of cultivation to create the conditions for marriage." To anybody who has been on a long ocean voyage, describing your life as "incarceration at sea" is by no means an exaggeration. "The tight quarters of a tiny boat can magnify the smallest argument to outlandish proportions," confides Liu Ning-sheng. All the pirates and storms that were thrown his way during his two years on the open seas paled next to the bickering onboard.

Four crew members, four completely different personalities. Captain Liu is a romantic, courteous, and easygoing artist. In Liu Ning-sheng-Son of the Sea, biographer Liu Yung-yi describes Liu Ning-sheng as being "as unassuming as a plant or a glass of water. He may not be flamboyant or exciting, but he makes a good companion. He finds joy in the tedious, lackluster life on the sea." It goes without saying, however, that a person with a personality like this tends to be indecisive.

His buddy Bernd, on the other hand, is methodical, meticulous, and efficient. Tseng Shih-ming, an ex-fighter pilot, is full of spunk and loves to joke around. Born in a Penghu fishing village, Fu Kuo-hui is honest, reserved, and bears hardship without grumbling.

In more than two years of life together at sea, some friction and dispute is inevitable. Tseng Shih-ming left the team early in Spain. Disparate views caused unkind words between Bernd and Liu Ning-sheng on a few occasions, so that Bernd even considered giving up the cruise. Liu Ning-sheng feels that his own communication abilities most definitely need improvement.

Returning to port to sail again

As to how they diverted themselves onboard, Liu enjoyed reading when not on watch. His favorite book was My Old Man and the Sea, a true story about a father and son who piloted a small sailboat 20-some times around the southernmost tip of South America and close to Antarctica. This book, which paints their incredible feats so realistically, portrays the intimacy between man and the ocean.

In contrast to this, coastal waters are often littered with garbage. "The sea is alien or frightening to most of us, making us apathetic or blind to it," mourns Liu. He hopes that his trip around the world rouses an interest in sailing and in the ocean.

The voyage is over; the crew has disbanded. But Liu Ning-sheng, now over 50, is happy that he took the opportunity to fulfill his life's dream. Even now on dry land, sailboats are still his true love. He hopes that the end of his adventures marks the beginning of a new career. He repeatedly tells others, "I'm just a regular guy and I have sailed around the world. Anybody can make his dreams come true if he sets his mind to it."

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A chain of events, both favorable and otherwise, led the 40-something Liu to self-banishment.

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Liu Ning-sheng's first boat-"Fulong." In 1992, Liu Ning-sheng and his buddy Bernd sailed her from the US to Taiwan.

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A crew of like-minded ordinary nine-to-fivers worked together to accomplish, on behalf of Taiwan, the tremendous feat of sailing around the world.

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Life on the sea is tedious, but each port visit brings new surprises. Things like sea turtles in Ecuador and coconut crabs in the South Pacific island of Vanuatu hint at the wonder of our world.

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The passion for adventure might possibly be in his blood. Liu Ning-sheng and his artist father Liu Chi-wei pose together during fieldwork in Papua New Guinea.

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Wearing a red shirt as usual, Liu Ning-sheng is shown in his father's apartment. When on land, his "nest" is this small space between his father's bookcases. (photo by Pu Hua-chih)