Cruising Yachts
pp. 109-111 · Read in the full issue
• VALROSA, beautiful 32-metre ack schooner, which has been king underwater film in the Perlas lands of the Gulf of Panama, will :turn to Balboa, Canal Zone, soon »r provisioning before sailing for capulco, Mexico, and then Tahiti, i a round the world cruise. The icht, which is French-owned, left [arseilles about three months ago ith a crew of 12. • MY ON lE, 36 ft ketch with Dr.
Jbert Gehrman and his wife “Mike,” as due to leave Durban for Cape own in January on the last legs ome to Miami. Myonie began a >und-the-world cruise in November, 961, and spent several months of 962 in the Pacific.
The Gehrmans hope to be home y June of this year. Dr. Gehrman lys the trip so far has given him mterial for three books: an ad mture story; a book on the tech ical side of yachting for future mnd-the-world yachtsmen; and cookery book for yachtsmen. • HEATHER, 28 ft cutter, single anded by Larry Nilsen, reached Durban on December 11. Nilsen ms completed a four-year yacht ruise round the world.
Nilsen left South Africa in 1960 5r the West Indies to join the crew f the yacht Phoebe, which took im to Tahiti.
He sailed from there in an unerican luxury schooner to New Zealand where he bought the leather.
From NZ he sailed back to >urban solo via Brisbane, and the tarrier Reef, Timor, the Cocos slands, Rodriguez and Mauritius. • AEGAEAN, 38 ft ketch with Ir. C. D. Nordlund, of Vancouver, is wife and two young daughters, /hich spent some time in Brisbane ecently, has sailed north for the larrier Reef. The Nordlunds were een in many South Pacific ports last ear. They left Suva in the last week if July (PIM, Sept., p, 105) and ater visited Kadavu, the Great Astrolabe Reef and New Caledonia »efore pushing on to Brisbane where 4r, Nordlund got a job in a boat hop.
• ATOM, a Tahiti ketch from New York, is due to leave Balboa soon with Jean Gau, a French-born single-hander. Now a US citizen, Gau is chef de cuisine at New York City’s Taft Hotel.
For over a quarter of a century, he has been working in the kitchen for four years, then voyaging under sail for four years. He has already been around the world once, and back and forth across the Atlantic six times.
On this circumnavigation, he plans, in the next few weeks, to call at Pitcairn, Mangareva and Tahiti, On her first circuit, tiny Atom weathered the hurricane in which
the famous German windjammer Pamir was lost. • JOHN HANNA, 30 ft ketch, with Klee Wing, 41, of California, J. Counterman, 40, of Michigan, and Isaia Koroi, 21, of Fiji, is still going strong on her round-the-world voyage which has taken her to many ports in the South Pacific. On February 7, she left Lae for a cruise along the New Guinea coast.
The John Hanna left San Pedro, California, on May 4, 1962, and has figured in PlM’s yachting columns many times since then. The last time was in December after she
rrived in Rabaul on October 9 from le Solomons.
From Rabaul, the ketch pushed long the New Britain coast to landrian, where she stayed for two lonths. She moved on to Lae late i January.
Plans on leaving Lae were to call Madang, Wewak, Kota Baru Hollandia) and Singapore, and then ) head for home (San Pedro) via le Mediterranean, Atlantic, Carib ean and Panama Canal. The yachts icn reckon on reaching San Pedro i about two years. • KOAE, 30 ft ketch from Seattle ith Mr. and Mrs. C. B. Taylor, as reached Townsville, North Queensland, after a leisurely cruise p the Barrier Reef. Koae was in le South Pacific last year.
Writing to us from Townsville, Mr. nd Mrs. Taylor say that they have njoyed reading PIM for the past 20 lonths and that it has enabled them 3 know the whereabouts of many achts they have travelled with.
They go on: “Since leaving Suva n September 14, we cruised to Auck md, stayed there one month, then on o Russell in the Bay of Islands, cross the Tasman Sea to Brisbane, laving fair weather across.
“We were held up in Brisbane due d the holidays, then we went up trough the Sandy Cape Strait, on to tfackay, stopping at Pearl Boy, dndeman Island, Prudhoe Island, in ide the Barrier Reef, to Townsville.
Ve will stay here until mid-April due o the cyclone season. Then we will
go on to Cairns, Port Moresby, Indo nesia, Singapore, and on home.
“As crewmen, we have John Burgess and Graeme Morton, of Auckland. They plan on going all the way with us. At present they are looking for work down south until we leave Townsville.
“We met the Aegaean, of Van couver, with the Nordlunds, in Bris bane and cruised with them through the Sandy Cape (See p. 107). Last time we saw Aegaean, we believe she was heading for Maryborough.” • SIGA WALE, 30 ft launch, which left Kadavu, Fiji, for New Zea land in November with a crew of three, appears to have been lost. The
RNZAF made a search for the vessel from Auckland in January, but be cause of lack of details about hei possible whereabouts soon called il off.
The Siga Wale, which was 30 years old, and had an open cockpit, had no navigational equipment apart from a compass. She carried enough food for 40 days and water for a month.
Although she had a radio receiver, she had no transmitting gear.
The Siga Wale’s crew comprised William James Ewins, 61, the owner skipper; his son Robert Ewins, 22; and John Caine, 16, a nephew. They sailed from Suva on November 4, and were last seen leaving Kadavu on November 18.
There was a tropical storm in the area between November 20 and 25.
The harbour authorities in Suva did their best to dissuade Ewins from attempting the voyage. They were supported by several of Ewins’ friends.
But Ewins, who had a reputation for stubbornness, refused to listen to their advice.
A senior police officer at Auckland said in mid-February that there ap peared to be no chance now of find ing the three men alive. • BARLOVENTO, 70 ft Ameri can staysail schooner, with 11 people on board, called at Pitcairn in December. She is on a world cruise extending over five to seven years.