Falconer - Together alone

The true story of a modern- day Swiss Family Robinson who make the ultimate sea- change for a new life on a desert island.

After travelling the world alone in his handmade boat, Scottish adventurer Ron Falconer still yearns to live his dream to escape to a desert island. But when he falls in love with Anne, a strong-willed Frenchwoman, it looks like the dream may remain just that.

Two children later, Annes ready to try it. When the Falconer family arrive at their new home, tiny Caroline Atoll in the Pacific, they quickly discover that life in paradise isnt easy. Shark-infested waters, crafty rats, giant crabs and flesh-eating ants its sink or swim for Ron and Anne, as they struggle to live off the land and raise their children without the things many of us take for granted.

In Together Alone Ron Falconer celebrates the pristine island wilderness of Caroline Atoll in loving detail. Both an adventure and a love story, its an insightful, poignant and truly fascinating tale of how one mans dream to live alone in paradise becomes very much an extraordinary family affair.

Very little was known about Caroline Atoll when our small biological expedition arrived at this tropical paradise. It was in need of a scientific survey before its nomination as a World Heritage site could be submitted to the United Nations.

Caroline Atoll is uninhabited, we had been told by the owners of the island, the Kiribati Government which made the presence of the Falconer family quite surprising. We saw them as a modern-day Swiss Family Robinson.

We were pleased to find Ron, Anne, Alexandre and Anas acting as competent caretakers of this perfect little place. The Falconers were eating locally grown produce and catching fish whenever possible. They used whatever was washed up on the beach in ways that boggled the mind, and held us in rapt admiration of such true ingenuity at work. They had developed a pragmatic blend of Polynesian and Western ways, and they amazed us with their determination to overcome outside influences that threatened to overwhelm their self-made paradise.

Ron Falconer is quite a character adventurous yet relaxed, private, yet a talented singer and musician. His abilities as a gifted storyteller have served him well in the pages of this book. If you are looking for tried and true desert island survival skills, or a classic family adventure story, then read on, you will not be disappointed!

Dr Graham Wragg (R/V Te Manu)
University of Oxford
January 2002

Were sailing north from Tahiti toward the equator. Overhead the tropical sun is hot even the moderate easterly trade wind feels warm on my bare skin. Small, puffy white clouds drift slowly by in an otherwise clear blue sky. Sailing aboard Fleur dEcosse is as comfortable and reassuring as being in a mothers womb.

I lie in the cockpit with my head propped up on a pillow, occasionally moving my book aside to glance at the compass course. We sail along peacefully, a white apparition in the centre of a lonely circle of ocean that is far from land and the regular shipping lanes. From time to time I sit up to scan the horizon for any sign of thunderclouds that could bring on a squall and disturb our peace. Sometimes I remain upright long enough to watch the windvane automatically control the rudder and bring the boat back on course; then I go back to my book. Its hard to pay attention to my reading, however. Im not as calm as my relaxed position would suggest. This voyage is the first step toward fulfilment of a long-held dream.

Anne rests below, trying to catch up on sleep since she has been fully occupied with the demands of our two young children. Anas, soon to be two years old, is taking a nap. She has suffered some seasickness and remains a little lethargic. Alexandre, two years older than his sister, stays quiet and busy on the floor of the cabin, arranging his favourite plastic bricks into pirate ships and fantasy castles. Dou-Dou, the cat, lies curled up in her usual snug place on the main bunk while Kiki, our short-legged mongrel, remains spread out and inert on the cool floor. The two parakeets, Kwili and Raki, are the liveliest aboard. They chatter and bob around in their cage, scattering the husks of their sunflower seeds all over the chart table.

We are nomads, sea nomads complete, like Noah, with our own handmade boat and menagerie of animals. Our destiny is a very special island that lies right in the centre of the Pacific Ocean. We feel we are being blown along toward our future by the winds of fate, since so many events, some planned and others strangely coincidental, have brought us to this point.

Now, after five calm days sailing northward, we are close to our destination: Caroline Atoll, which would later be known as Millennium Island, the first place on earth to witness the dawning of the year 2000.

I check my navigation fixes. From the morning star sights, I estimate the distance still to run. Were about twelve miles away, I call to Anne. We should see it any minute.

Anne, instantly alert, bounds up on deck and begins to search the horizon. An intense person who can put concentration and energy into anything she chooses, she is enthusiastic about the boat, always ready to change sails and complete the navigation. She has been my skilled and faithful mate (in both senses of the word) for several years. But I know shes not one hundred per cent in favour of this adventure. Shes following my dream with me, which I realise is not quite the same as following a dream she designed for herself. In addition, shes anxious about the children, who will be living so far from medical assistance. While I share her anxiety to some extent, my excitement at the moment obliterates all negativity.

Suddenly she cries out, I can see it! She points. There, there, look!

Together we watch as a thin smudgy outline appears from time to time between the undulating swells. Although its hot on deck and were both tired, for a moment our discomfort is forgotten and we share the thrill and satisfaction of having found our landfall this island that could possibly be our new home. The series of navigational dots and crosses weve been following faithfully now become redundant. We can see the actual island, and we head directly for it.