Cruising

Yachts

• ALOHA, Ted and Ave r i 1 Gotcher’s 35 ft ketch, left Port Moresby recently for Fiji, via Thursday Island and Cairns, Queens land. The Gotchers hope to stay in Fiji two years.

• Bluebird Of Thorne, 50

ft ketch, with owner, Lord Robin Riverdale of Sheffield, England, and crew Mike Hart, 20, John Hope and Brian Leech, left Nukualofa on September 6 for New Zealand, via Fiji, after a three-day stay in Tonga.

The wishbone rigged steel boat was for several weeks hove to at PaoPao Bay, Moorea, French Polynesia, in June and July. • ASTROCYTE, with Ruth Gould, BLACK ROSE, with the Goodhues, INVICTUS and OHRA, with Lothar Harder, were at Cape town, South Africa, recently. In early 1968 Astrocyte made an ex tensive cruise through New Guinea ( PIM, Nov., 1968, p. 57). • JANUS LEE, Ken Broadhurst’s Tahiti ketch, was at St. Helena, West Indies, in June after a trip from Capetown, South Africa. After the West Indies, Ken was either headed for Brazil or the Mediterra nean. Sid, Barbara and Fred Nettle ton of Shearwater would like to catch up with Ken, so if any yachties know where he’s hiding himself, let us know! • METUNG, 35 ft ketch with Bill and Chevaun Holmes, left Port Moresby recently for South Africa, via Thursday Island, Timor and the Seychelles. The ketch is named after the small town in Victoria where she was built. The Holmes’ dinghy, incidentally, is called Nutmeg. • lOTA, Simon Simpson’s 30 ft yacht, will make an island-to-island trip from Timor to Java, Indonesia, in June and July next year and Mr.

Simpson would like to hear from any yachties who’ve made similar sails in this area. Can anyone help?

He can be contacted c/o Roche Products, Inman Rd., Dee Why, NSW, 2099, or by phone, Sydney, 982-3433. • MYONIE, with A 1 and Helen Gehrman, was in Port Moresby in

late August with plans to push on to Durban, South Africa, via Mauritius. The Gehrmans, an Ameri can couple, have been cruising Melanesia for several weeks and while on Kolombangara, in the Western Solomons, they met an Aus tralian old Islands hand, Brian O’Keeffe, who managed a small sawmill near Monga Village. Brian, they told PIM in a recent note, could spin many a tale of the Solo mons. • MAMAMOUCHI, with the Roberts Brothers, SOLVEIG 111, with Rollo Gebhard and WAITERE, with Downie Muir, were in Port Moresby in late August. They were all Durban-bound.

• Regina Maris, 188-Ton

Norwegian barquentine, left Plymouth, England, on September 14 to retrace Captain Cook’s voyage of discovery to the Islands and Australia 200 years ago. • ESTRELITA, Doug Suther land’s 40 ft tri, made a recent call at Honiara, Solomon Islands, en route to Japan from New Zealand.

Doug built her himself. • NEXUS, Chuck and Frances Harris’ yacht, was at Port Moresby, New Guinea, in August and Sep tember. Chuck and Frances were on the move in the territory by foot, truck and air. They hitched all over Moresby to see most of the events at the South Pacific Games before flying to Lae. From Lae they hitched two separate rides in trucks up the Highlands Road to Mt. Hagen, where they stayed for a couple of days to watch the Highlands Show and slept with many other visitors at the local high school. • EREVA, Fred and Mike Sibthorpe’s cutter, was at Redondo Beach, Los Angeles, California, recently with plans to continue cros sing the Pacific. Friends of Willie and Shirley Barnes of Free Flight. the Sibthorpes stayed in Hawaii for six months late last year and early this year ( PIM , Apr., p. 111). • KETON ALT AIR, reached Christmas Island, in the Phoenix Group, on August 16 from Fanning Island. Her skipper intended to stay on Christmas for about three weeks. • BONA DEA, which won the first Port Moresby-to-Durban cruis ing yacht race in 1967, was in Recife, Brazil, recently with plans to sail to the Azores, in the mid- Atlantic, and Ireland. Before Recife, Bona Dea had made calls at Rio,

St. Helena, Trinidad and Salvador.

The 41 ft ketch won the Moresby- Durban race with an average sail of 138 miles a day. Her skipper, Andy Price, beat Alan Eddy in Apogee and Mr. G. Symons in Atea ( PIM, May, 1968, p. 111). •CE LEU STA, an 18 ft rubber boat fitted with three sails and a canvas cabin, reached Raroia Atoll, Tuamotus, on August 10, with three Italians on board, after a 4,500-mile trip from Callao, Peru.

Celeusta left Callao on June 2 to follow the sea currents used by the Norwegian explorer, Thor Heyer dahl, on the raft Kon Tiki, in 1947.

The crew —Mario Walli, 50, a former army officer, Vittorio Marcioci, 32, a navigation expert, and Sergio Groci, 32, a filmmaker, —carried out various scientific tests en route.

Celeusta had tried to land at the first atoll sighted in the Tuamotus— Pukapuka—but heavy seas forced her to sail on to Raroia, a remote pearling spot. • RAIREVA, sloop with John and Leni Muller of Germany is in NZ from Fiji. John, three years out from home, is thinking about a trip to Indonesian and Malyasian waters, but says he is in no hurry. • KLA-HOW-YA, Art and Anne Ahrens’ ketch out of Vancouver, BC, have been in NZ for about three months. The Ahrens’ many friends in Hawaii will be glad to hear that they will be heading that way again in about six weeks. Last mention was PIM, June, p. 112. • SVANEN, 54 ft British ketch with skipper-owner Alan Batty-Scott will leave Auckland in November for Fiji, New Guinea, the Marianas, Japan, the Philippines and Borneo, and then across the Indian Ocean to spend Christmas 1970 in Durban, South Africa.

Alan and his wife Louise plan to take five or six crew members.

Those interested contact Alan c/o P. 0., Auckland. • ANNETTE M, Jim Pike’s 48 ft auxilliary ketch, which has been in Port Moresby for the past two years on charter work in the Gulf of Papua, recently departed for Brisbane via the Torres Strait. Jim’s wife Joyce is accompanying him.

While working on charter the Joyces visited the Fly River and Murray Island where they became well-known with the locals.

Jim plans a two or three-month holiday before again heading for NG where he hopes to obtain

more charter work. Could be he will sail to Samarai or the Solomon Islands.

He’s a great lover of the Islands and Annette M has dropped anchor at Fiji, Tonga and many others. • MINK, 34 ft cutter owned by Jerry Nolan, sailed into Port Moresby recently with crew Bob Amies and Freddie Varga. Mink had sailed from Cairns, Darwin and Thursday Island and will stay in Moresby until the end of the sou’easter before returning to Thursday Island. In Moresby, Mink will go up on the slips for a check and paint job in

preparation for a trip to Seychelle Islands and Ceylon. • HIHIFO, Melbourne based Bermuda cutter, 42 ft long and owned by skipper Stan Field with crew Mick Hurry, arrived from Apia in mid August. It will probably go on to Suva but is cruising round Tonga for a break. • SHE, 35 ft sloop with Hans Fleming and wife Shelia, tied up on a buoy in Nukualofa, Tonga, for a few days after arriving from Apia, Western Samoa via Vavau. She left mid-August for Suva.