Guest Speaker - Lieutenant Commander Topshee

This week we had a fabulous presentation by Angus Topshee, aided by Sandy Bourne who is with the Navy's Public Affairs. Lieutenant Topshee has been sent on a Speaking Tour by the Navy on "why we have a Navy". The Canadian Navy operates in every ocean in the world, including the Artic. Lieutenant Topshee, with NATO, just completed a tour of 40,000 miles circumnavigating Africa. They were always at least 12 miles off shore in International waters. They met fishermen that were that far out and when off the coast of Nigeria they had to go onboard a Nigerian ship to convince the captain that they were not there to challenge them. When they reached the coast of Somalia they were in the worst area in the world for Pirates. Most ships will sail 300 miles off shore around the Horn of Africa to avoid Piracy. This adds an extra two days travel for ships. The pirates ransom the boats and crew they take - the last one waited 6 months for someone to pay the $1 million ransom. Next they faced an erupting Volcano off the coast of Yemen and were able to rescue one person. It was an exciting presentation and while on this journey the 235 sailors built orphanages and gardens and raised $40,000 for Charity!