World Of Secrets - Finding Mr Fox: 1. The adventure of a lifetime

Episode Date: October 30, 2024

Two Brazilian sailors prepare for a transatlantic voyage that will change their fortunes forever in ways they can’t imagine. Daniel and Rodrigo sign up for a life changing opportunity to crew a yacht from Brazil to Europe and gain the experience they both crave. But before they even set off, police and their sniffer dog raid the boat and spend hours searching for cocaine, which they think may have been hidden on board.

This BBC podcast is supported by ads outside the UK. You're about to listen to season five of World of Secrets, Finding Mr Fox. Episodes will be released weekly, wherever you get your podcasts. If you're in the UK, you can listen to the full series right now, first on BBC Sounds. Welcome to our new World of Secrets investigation, which is going to take us on a journey which begins in Brazil. My name is Daniel Guerra. With Daniel.

I'm a natural from Passo Fundo do Sul, Brazil. Well, I grew up very close to the sea. And Rodrigo. Since I was little, I created this passion for the sea. And then, at 12 years old, I learned to sail. You'll be hearing lots from them, and from other Portuguese speakers. You'll hear their words spoken in English by actors and members of our BBC team. It's not long after dawn, and at a marina in northeast Brazil, a scattering of boats are anchored off the coast.

The water's calm and the harbourside is still quiet. But on board an old white sailing boat, one of the crew, Daniel, is already up and about. I'd just woken up. I was only wearing shorts. I hadn't even put a T-shirt on. In his small cabin below deck, he's making his bed when he hears a commotion. I look around and see a police boat coming towards us. Then I hear them. Documents, passports. His younger crewmate Rodrigo is already up too. He's at the back of the boat in the kitchen, which is small but neatly organised.

Everything is stored in its proper place ahead of a long Atlantic crossing they're about to set sail on. I'd just finished breakfast and I was washing the dishes. And Daniel shouted, Rodrigo, Rodrigo, the police are here. I managed to get close to the window and I could see a boat full of police officers. Rodrigo drops what he's doing, plates still covered in the remains of that morning's scrambled eggs. He rushes up the narrow steps to reach the deck,

just as the officers board the yacht. First, federal police, all in black, all armed. Then officers from the port authority. Then military police, in camouflage, with a sniffer dog. The sailors are ordered to stay where they can be seen. The yacht is about three times as wide as a car and five times as long, and soon it's swarming with people in uniform. One of the cops, a particularly aggressive man dressed all in black, swaggers over to Daniel and squares up to him. You guys are in trouble, he says,

because there's something on this boat. Daniel appears nonplussed. What's he talking about? A smaller, more polite police officer starts to question Rodrigo. How did you get here? Where are you going? And I was thinking to myself, a guilty person would be really scared. They'd look nervous. So he tries to play it cool, despite the heavily armed police,

some with machine guns drawn around him. Rodrigo does what he normally does when he finds himself in a strange situation. He takes out his phone and starts filming the search. It soon becomes clear they're looking for drugs. The officers turn out drawers, empty the fridge, lift up sections of the floor. It really looked like a scene from a movie. A long movie. For more than six hours, police combed the yacht.

They cut through plastic pipes, opened water and fuel tanks, scattered the contents of the sailors' backpacks all over their beds. I was thinking, like, whoa, they messed up the whole boat. Then after they'd opened everything up, they said, OK, now let's bring a sniffer dog for the rest of the inspection. The dog is led along the deck, then moves from room to room, running its nose along the dark, wooden surfaces. The communal seating area, the cabins, the storage tanks.

Everyone seems to be holding their breath. But the dog finds nothing. The police seem to have run out of steam. They've searched everywhere they can, but clearly haven't found what they're looking for. So they apologised and said, look, you're free. Almost as quickly as they arrive, the police leave the yacht and head back to shore.

This is Rodrigo and Daniel's first major international voyage. They don't know what to make of it all. I thought it was standard procedure. But wasn't it strange for you guys? When you travel through an airport, you have to go through an inspection too. Your bags go through the x-ray machine. So I thought, well, it's an international trip and they're coming to inspect the boat. Rodrigo is so unfazed by it all, he even sends the video of the search to his mum. She'd been worried about her son working on this yacht and for someone she doesn't really know.

Look, everything's cool. The police have searched it. There's nothing to worry about. But Daniel remembers a warning they got from a more experienced sailor a few weeks earlier. He told them a story of another yacht, one being used to carry drugs across the Atlantic Ocean. So this captain said to us, ha, be careful, make sure you inspect everything. Who's the boss? Ha, a British guy, be careful. So I said, right, let's just go and ask him. He's right here.

Daniel says he finds the British owner and asks him straight out. Do you have any drugs here? What do you mean, says the owner. Do you have any drugs on board the boat? He gave me this big smile and said, no. Kind of like, you're crazy. Maybe there's nothing to worry about after all. This is World of Secrets.

Season five, finding Mr. Fox. A BBC World Service investigation with me, Yemi Siadegake, who you might remember from season two. And me, Colin Freeman, a foreign correspondent who's been working on this story for years. Episode one, Adventure of a Lifetime. My first memory of cycling is of freedom. As a kid, my bicycle was my best friend. I was an only child, my parents worked all day, and so I shared my best moments with my bike.

Brazil, 2017. Meet Daniel, an aspiring sailor on the lookout for an adventure, a job that will take him to interesting places. 36 years old, he has thick curly brown hair, warm brown eyes and he's nearly always smiling. He gives laid back surfer vibes. Daniel's always been a bit of an adventurer, but long before he set his sights on becoming a sailor, his bicycle was his way of exploring the world. He loved the thrill, the adrenaline, but more than that, it gave him something he didn't always have as a child. My bike gave me power, freedom, and it helped me expand my mind. It took me to new places. Daniel's parents were loving and supportive, but protective. As a kid, he often had to play with his mates through the garden fence,

rather than out on the streets with them. Their concern was understandable after his difficult start in life. I'm adopted. My biological parents left me in a little cardboard box in front of my parents' house. They rang the doorbell and left. When Daniel's dad opened the door, he caught a glimpse of a couple getting into a car, driving off into the rain in the middle of the night. Then he noticed the package at the front doorstep,

a cardboard box with something wrapped up inside it. My dad brought me over to my mother and said that someone had left them a gift and it was me. I'm so grateful for everything they have ever given me and I always will be. It's a story of pure love. Being abandoned at birth wasn't the only challenge in Daniel's childhood.

At 18 he was treated for cancer and had to spend a year in recovery. He decided from then on he would never waste a single moment and would always be open to new adventures. It was my dream, not only to be the captain of my own boat, but of my own life, to be a nomad, sailing around the world. Fast forward to his thirties and Daniel set about trying to realise his dream of becoming a professional sailor, getting qualifications and building up experience. And so I went looking to see how to do this. Deck licences, supply licences, captain's licences. So I could actually work on boats.

But there was one thing he still lacked. A bit like trainee pilots have to clock up a certain number of flying hours before they can qualify. So too do commercial boat captains. You need nautical or sea miles. I'd done some trips along the coast of Brazil, so I'd already had some miles, but I wanted to cross the Atlantic. June 2017, and Daniel thinks he's found the answer, when an old teacher of his shares a job advert. The British owner of a yacht is looking for a crew to take his boat across the Atlantic, from Brazil to Europe. across the Atlantic, from Brazil to Europe.

It's unpaid, expenses only, but a rare opportunity to clock up thousands of nautical miles. My dream was to become a captain and go work in Europe. And so I was super happy knowing that my path to my dream was beginning. I think I was born a fish out of water, but fell back into the aquarium. Meanwhile, another Brazilian man sees the same advert, posted by a reputable yachting company, and shared by the same teacher. Rodrigo is younger than Daniel, and he too wants to be a captain.

For him, the job has the added advantage that the yacht is moored in the very city where he lives, Salvador, in northeastern Brazil. 24 years old, tall and slim, with wavy brown hair and glasses he prefers not to use, Rodrigo has never been far from water. Ever since I was little, I've had a passion for the sea. I learned to surf, I learned to dive, and then when I was 12, I started learning to sail.

I fell in love with sailing. There was a summer camp. It was an intensive sailing class for children. And then my dad bought our first boat. We started sailing together. I learned a lot from him. And from then on, I kind of lived in a world of sailing. After finishing school, Rodrigo decided to study engineering, choosing a university close to the sea. But he soon gives that up to pursue his real passion. I just wanted to sail. And so I decided that I needed to change my life.

So I looked for a way to sail for a living. Then I discovered boat delivery jobs. You can hire a professional crew to take your boat from one city to another, from one country to another. Just like Daniel, Rodrigo studies everything he can. Navigation, first aid, mechanics. But just like Daniel, he has a problem. He needs those all-important nautical miles.

So how did you feel when you were accepted? I was so happy. I think every sailor dreams of crossing a large ocean. For me, it was going to be a great adventure and an opportunity to gain a lot of experience. There's a lot riding on this voyage for both of them. It has to be a success. Rodrigo has always been drawn to the sea. He has always, always, always liked adventures. This is Joao, Rodrigo's dad. Shorter, broader, tougher looking than his son. Protective.

He's excited that Rodrigo has secured the chance to crew an Atlantic crossing. He's proud, but he's also got some questions. Like, who will he be working for? What kind of yacht will he be working on? Even if it's in another state, I'm going to see the boat. I'm going to see everything. You have to look at everything. So when I finally got there, from a distance I could see it was a majestic boat.

Big, old, very old. Majestic in size, maybe, with two towering sails. But the boat, which is called the Rich Harvest, isn't some glamorous party boat where oligarchs or groups of influencers in bikinis drink champagne. The Rich Harvest is a serious yachters vessel, the kind people use to sail across oceans, built for endurance, not comfort. It was big, beautiful on the outside. And then when we went below deck, I found it very old, very ugly, very untidy. This is Rodrigo's mum, Aniette, and she's right. Inside the boat is in a bit of a state.

Repairs are not finished. Workers still scurry around, painting, mending. But its dark wooden interiors make it gloomy. It didn't give me good energy in any way. And I think that Rodrigo could tell what I was thinking. He looked at me with that look, as if to say, I know you don't like it, but that's fine. My concern was basically the safety of the boat if it sank. I thought that was an obvious thing to want to check. It made my heart turn cold, you know.

But I know Rodrigo has to do these sailing trips. You get the picture. Rodrigo's parents are anxious. They're worried about their son. So what do they want to do next? They've seen the yacht. Now they need to meet the owner. All they know is that he's a British man in his 30s.

They hear he bought the yacht over from Europe to have it renovated in Brazil. Now he wants to take it back. They're told not to worry about the state of the boat. It's been worked on for months. Just the finishing touch is to go now. And while it may be old, it's reliable. Joao's impressed by the owner. He was calm, very polite. He said he was an officer in the British Navy, wounded in the war. He showed me the gunshot wound. I said, look, watch out for my son. He said, don't worry, I'll take care of Rodrigo. I just told him, be careful with my son, I'm watching you. And he gave me a friendly smile.

They're charmed and reassured. Within weeks of the advert, the parental seal of approval and the repairs being finished, the yacht set sail from Salvador. I was able to see the boat passing by at sea from the window of our house. And I said a prayer to God that everything would work out. The way Aniette describes it to me, the boat passing the city's famous lighthouse then sailing off into the distance, I imagine a pretty serene scene.

Early morning sun, maybe some palm trees fluttering in the sea breeze. But that's not how it went down. In a video filmed by Rodrigo's uncle on his phone, you can see low grey clouds dominating the sky and hear the wind howling around. But they're not ready to cross the Atlantic just yet. First, they have to sail north, hugging the Brazilian coastline to the port of Natal. On board this first stage of their voyage

are Rodrigo, Daniel, a mechanic, and the yacht's British owner. It was super tense because there'd been a storm and there were waves about three metres high. So I was anxious to get out to sea. It's an early test for Rodrigo and Daniel. It's also a test for the owner. He's their boss and they have to put their trust in him. When I first saw him, he didn't seem like a sailor with much experience. Because of his hands, you know, people who sail, they burn their hands on the sails. It makes them really calloused. But Daniel says the British owner has smooth, unblemished hands. Then, when we got out to sea, I saw he was wearing gloves. And actually, he had a lot of experience.

Both Daniel and Rodrigo are impressed by their new boss, his sailing skills and his attitude towards them. I used to work on some boats and the owners were old, super demanding, super rude and talked down to me. He was, like, very cool, very friendly, polite. He seemed like a trustworthy guy. He seemed to be a very honest, kind, polite, respectful person, with few words and always straight about what he wanted.

They say he keeps mostly to himself, working or playing video games, but he's friendly. He tells them he lives in Spain, has a house on the seafront, but doesn't come across as a rich, arrogant playboy. We were saying to each other, you know, how cool is this guy? This guy who can travel the world, things like that, and at the same time not show off his wealth. Like, he's wearing jeans, there's no fancy watch, no rings, you understand? Yeah, he was short, blonde, looked like a typical British guy.

What does a typical British guy look like? Like David Beckham. I'm not sure I'd agree that the average British guy looks like Beckham, or that the boat sounder does, really. I think most men wish they did look like David Beckham, but I agree with you that he doesn't. He looks quite muscular. It looks like he does spend quite a bit of time in the gym.

And when he took his shirt off, you could see he had scars on one side of his body. He said he went to the war in Afghanistan and ended up being shot there, shot in the lungs. I remember once I was making food and asking if the salt was OK, the seasoning good enough. And he said, it doesn't matter to me. I can taste it. He couldn't smell and couldn't even taste the food

because of his injury. Much as Rodrigo and Daniel have grown fond of the boat's British owner, their time with him is soon over. After a few days at sea, they arrive in Natal. This city, on the northeast tip of Brazil, is the closest point to Europe and the main point of departure for transatlantic crossings. They're here to swap crew ahead of the voyage. The British boss will leave and a new captain will take over.

The first impression I had of him wasn't very good. He was a little out of shape. My first impression was terrible. The impression I had of him wasn't very good. He was a little out of shape. My first impression was terrible. He just arrived with his clothes all wet. I asked what happened. The captain had fallen off a boat. This is the man who will be in charge as they travel thousands of miles across the Atlantic? This is the man who will hold their lives in his hands? We call him Captain Catastrophe. Rodrigo and Daniel are excited about their trip,

but what they don't know is that Captain Catastrophe is about to live up to his nickname. What do Tiger Woods, Mark Zuckerberg and Taylor Swift all have in common? Well, their lives and fortunes are all being discussed on Good Bad Billionaire, the podcast exploring the minds, motives and the money of some of the world's wealthiest individuals. I'm Zing Zing, and each week my co-presenter Simon Jack and I take a closer look at the world's mega rich and we try to decide whether they're good, bad or just another billionaire. From celebs and CEOs to sports stars and tech titans. Find out how

billionaires made their money and how they use it. Good Bad Billionaire from the BBC World Service. All episodes of season one and two are available now wherever you get your BBC podcasts and click follow or subscribe so you never miss a new episode. It's 10pm. It's dark. And right now, the rich harvest is moving through the gloom,

heading away from Natal, trying to reach the open sea, to start its Atlantic crossing. It's already been an eventful few days, what with that police search of the yacht, which in the end didn't find anything unusual, and a new captain taking over from the yacht's owner. Now the crew has to negotiate their way out of the bay and to the open ocean through a narrow, rocky channel. It's super dangerous. You can't use the sails, you have to use the motor. Only when you're in the open sea can you navigate using the sails.

Doing this at night was the worst. Rodrigo says he asked the captain if they could postpone leaving until the morning, as they're all tired. The answer was no. Who am I to go against the captain? He's the boss. So there they are, in the middle of the night, trying to avoid the rocks. We started to smell smoke.

We'd already got the boat's lights turned off so that we could see our way and then when we switched on a flashlight we could see the cabins were full of smoke, black smoke, and we're thinking if there's black smoke there's fire so we need to switch off the engine. How do we switch off the engine when you're in a super dangerous place with rocks on both sides of the boat? It's a nightmare start to their dream trip, but they have no choice. There was a lot of adrenaline. They find an electrical wire has come loose and melted on the hot engine, and they don't

want to switch it back on and risk more smoke. The captain decides they need to return to the marina and get it checked over. But without an engine, they'll need help to get through the rocky channel. And for that, they'll need to wait until morning. So they take turns to keep watch. But when Rodrigo wakes up, things have gone badly wrong with Captain Catastrophe. He fell sick. He vomited. He turned out to be completely useless. We were supposed to be at the entrance of the channel at dawn, but the captain changed his route and was heading the

wrong way. We were super far away. We woke up and said, Captain, what are you doing? Where are you going? I was really afraid of getting too close to the rocks and so Daniel took the rudder and I went to change the sails. We took over from the captain. We maneuvered the boat and from then on Daniel was in charge. The captain laid down and slept. Then suddenly, zipping across the water, is the yacht's British owner in another boat. He'd responded to their call for help. That scene was really crazy. The sea was very rough and the owner wanted to board our sailboat.

But to pull two moving boats together would be very difficult. With the waves crashing around them, they chuck the yacht's support boat, an inflatable dinghy, into the water. Somehow, the owner manages to jump in and get himself onto the rich harvest. He takes control immediately, and rather than use the engine, with great skill, he manages to sail the large boat back down that dangerous channel and back to the marina. He saved them.

But things will have to change. Back in the safety of the marina, Daniel and I, we said, we don't want to travel with this guy. We don't trust this captain. He doesn't know what he's doing. The owner fires Captain Catastrophe. After everything that happened, did you never think twice about whether this trip was a good idea? I thought about the fire, the motor, the mechanical problems, problems with the electrics, the captain. And I thought, people who give up do so because they're scared.

I didn't want to be scared. I wasn't scared. I didn't want to be seen as a person who gives up, you know. I wanted to go on this voyage. It was my dream and I was so close. The yacht now needs more repairs, plus a new captain. And, it's decided, another pair of hands to help out on the voyage. Rodrigo recommends one of his friends, who soon joins the crew.

He's also called Daniel, so to avoid confusion, they affectionately call him Steve. And finally, they also have a new captain, a Frenchman, Monsieur Thomas. He was a really professional captain. The first thing he wanted to do was climb the mast to inspect the steel cables that support it. He also ended up identifying a problem that no one else had noticed. A problem with the batteries we needed for the fridge and the navigation equipment. So he seemed like a very experienced guy.

And the owner liked him too. The captain takes command and quickly gets the rest of the yacht in order. At last, they're ready to cross the Atlantic. For real this time. This is it, they're finally on their way. Daniel, Rodrigo, Steve and Captain Thomas. Meanwhile, already on his way back home to Europe by plane

is the boat's British owner, a man who calls himself Fox. But what none of them realise is that even after the police search, they're still being monitored. We've got hold of photos taken in the marina by undercover cops. Because the police are still watching. That's next time on Finding Mr Fox. It's a BBC News long-form audio production for the BBC World Service.

We hope you've enjoyed it. To make sure you get episodes as soon as they're available, make sure you subscribe or follow World of Secrets. And please do let others know what you think. I'm Colin Freeman. And I'm Yemi Siadigake. The producer is Charlotte MacDonald. The executive producer is Joe Kent. The series editor is Matt Willis. Production coordinator,

Gemma Ashman. And the sound design and mix are by Tom Brignall. Additional production is by I.M. Leroy, Christine Kist, Nick Norman-Butler and Chiara Francavilla. At the World Service, Kat Collins is the senior producer and John Monal the Commissioning Editor. Rodrigo is voiced by Edison Okaja. Daniel by Antonio Fernandes. Joao by Thomas Papon. And Agnet voiced by Monica Vasconcelos. For just as long as Hollywood has been Tinseltown, there have been suspicions about what lurks behind the glitz and glamour.

Concerns about radical propaganda in the motion pictures. And for a while, those suspicions grew into something much bigger and much darker. Are you a member of the Communist Party? Or have you ever been a member of the Communist Party? I'm Una Chaplin, and this is Hollywood Exiles. It's about a battle for the political

soul of America, and the battlefield was Hollywood. All episodes of Hollywood Exiles, from the BBC World Service and CBC are available now. Search for Hollywood Exiles wherever you get your podcasts.