{"id":19244,"date":"2019-09-17T13:22:51","date_gmt":"2019-09-17T06:22:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.franco-media.com\/?p=19244"},"modified":"2024-09-10T18:03:23","modified_gmt":"2024-09-10T11:03:23","slug":"ixdos-the-story","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.franco-media.com\/en\/ixdos-the-story\/","title":{"rendered":"IXDOS: The story"},"content":{"rendered":"
[vc_row][vc_column][vc_custom_heading text=”SCHOONER IXDOS \u2013 HEALTH MISSION SHIP” font_container=”tag:h1|text_align:left|color:%2300bfea” google_fonts=”font_family:Montserrat%3Aregular%2C700|font_style:700%20bold%20regular%3A700%3Anormal”][vc_custom_heading text=”This is a story about an ancient mariner fulfilling his dream:” font_container=”tag:h2|text_align:left|color:%23444444″ google_fonts=”font_family:Montserrat%3Aregular%2C700|font_style:400%20regular%3A400%3Anormal”][vc_column_text]\n
\"Captain

Captain Patrick Vickers<\/p><\/div>\n

My Dad got me boating as a boy when I enjoyed many happy hours messing about in little boats in Chichester harbour on the South coast of England.
\nNavy time confirmed my love of the sea. One day we set sail for France in a 20ft sloop; what an adventure across the busy shipping lanes of the Channel, La Manche!<\/p>\n

We did it and returned for more\u2026 My boats got bigger\u2026 there was the 100ton schooner Elsa we sailed from Sweden to the Medway in England while making a film for the BBC. Then came the 50ton ketch Bukefalos from Denmark to the Mediterranean which idyl ended with the birth of my son, and a new profession as teacher.<\/p>\n

Teaching mathematics took me further and further away to Germany, Portugal, then the trimaran Peritas to Oxford, and East to Sri Lanka.
\nNow I was playing with computers and was called to Malaysia and Thailand.<\/p>\n

Then came the fascinating challenge to work with the Health Department of Papua New Guinea to devise a primary health care management information system and install it in the provinces of that amazing land.<\/p>\n

It was in Milne Bay that I met my vision. It came in the form of the grandson of the first London Missionary Society missionary to P.N.G.
\nChris Abel talked eagerly of his dream to rebuild his grandfather\u2019s mission at Kwato. My mission\/vision has always been to do with the sea. And so, it was hatched, the dream of the health mission schooner Ixdos.\"\"<\/p>\n

I came to the conclusion that the many islands in the Pacific were in need of a mission ship such as used to be the case in previous times. Therefore, I set out to provide one. In 2003 I started building the schooner Ixdos in Phuket. I continued to teach at the British International School here and eventually the Headmaster kindly allowed me to bring the ship onto the campus so that the children could join in this effort. We are challenged to provide medical facilities for deprived island children who do not receive childhood vaccinations and who die from preventable diseases at the shocking rate of about 20 every minute according to UNICEF<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Progress has been steady, and we have been successful in building a beautiful little ship well capable of carrying out our mission. The 30ton schooner Ixdos is purpose-built here in Phuket to plans from well-known Australian naval architect Bruce Roberts with construction centered around a clinic and containing sufficient accommodation for a professional crew of doctors and nurses.[\/vc_column_text][vc_separator][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column width=”1\/2″][vc_single_image image=”19255″ img_size=”large”][\/vc_column][vc_column width=”1\/2″][vc_column_text]We are now approaching the final stage of construction and are faced with huge expense for masts, rigging and sails.\u00a0 Rolly-Tasker, Phuket, have quoted 1.8 million baht for:<\/p>\n