Cruising
pp. 114-115 · Read in the full issue
Yachts
• Easter Island, like Micronesia, is one of the rarely-visited spots by travellers, even yachties, in the South Pacific. However, the ketch Blue jacket, last reported in Papeete after a call at Pitcairn Island, spent several days off the Chilean territory early this year.
Bluejacket’s crew, Keane, Helen, Laraine and Bobby Gau, sent this report on Easter to the California based Seven Seas Cruising Associa tion: “We arrived just in time to be invited to Christmas dinner at the American Air Force weather station and met some of the greatest guys you could imagine.
“The most serious drawback with Easter is there is no protected anchorage and you must be ready, at a moment’s notice, to move to the lee of the island, when (every few days) the wind changes.
“There is a small harbour under construction, at Hanga Pika, and if
it is ever completed will fur nish good protection for possibly two yachts at a time; the depth at present is a maximum of 4 ft, and there being no equipment available, the harbour has to be deepened by divers working by hand, rather a slow process.
“The port captain, Guillermo Blanco, not only took care of our papers quickly, with no muss, fuss or bother, and no charges, but took a great deal of his time showing us around in his jeep to the various interesting places on the island, ex plaining the beliefs and legends of the places as we travelled.
“There seems to be plenty of produce available, but the prices are a little high. Almost nothing was available in the way of boat supplies and repair gear except at the Ameri can weather station where machine tools, welders, etc., are located.” • PANDORA 111, arrived at Fanning Island, Central Pacific, on May 4 with an American couple, the Forciers. Her damaged sails were repaired and she sailed for Hawaii. • WHAI, catamaran, visited 1 Honiara in May on her way from .
NZ to Japan with W. Potts, Jr., , Ralph Powell, “Cobber” Morley, , Callum Campbell, Wayne Barsanti,, Michael Rober and P. C. Sturdle. • ESTRELITA, tri, left Honiara j recently after a 10-month stay in the; Solomons. She will go to Japan viaj Gizo and Rabaul. • ATARANGI, 34 ft cutter,, arrived at Suva in May with Des< Read and Mrs. Read and crewman i Grant Dawson, from NZ. • ESCAPEE, 40 ft cutter, arrived! at Suva in May from NZ withi skipper Mr. H. Sykes and Mrs. Sykes,, plus Richard Farley, Mike Hart and!
P. Courtney. • MYSTIC, 56 ft ketch, arrived! at Rarotonga from the Society Islandse in May with skipper, Richard Pratt,, Mrs. Pratt and daughter Wendy. Shes had spent six months in the Societies..: • MISTRAL, arrived at Raro tonga from Bora Bora in May withri skipper-owner, Julio Villar, of Spain.i She has been sailing around thea world for the last two years. Fronc Rarotonga she will sail to Fiji ancfc New Hebrides. • WESTWIND V, ketch, with!
Mr. and Mrs. Sandy Lowe and two sons, stopped in Honiara in May on her way to NZ from Port Moresby..
• CARINA, 40 ft ketch, arrived at Suva on May 10, from NZ.
Yachties, Stan Walker and his wife planned to spend a few months in I Fiji before moving on. • lONA, 39 ft ketch, arrived at I Suva on May 22 from Auckland, via Tonga. Skipper Clifford Bird is with his father, Harry, his wife, Francis, and three-year-old daughter, Donna.
Kirk Usher’s aboard also. New calls include the Hebrides and NG. • LADYBIRD, 34 ft ketch, arrived in Fiji on May 24 from NZ, via Tonga. Skipper-owner Brian Blake—with wife, Joyce, and three children, Peter Tony and Elizabeth, as crew—was planning to spend a couple of weeks before leaving for NZ. • SHE, 35 ft sloop, with husband and wife, Dr. Hans and Dr. Sheila Fleming, arrived at Suva in mid-May from NZ. Plans were to spend several months in Fiji before leaving for England. • QUEEQUEG, 35 ft tri, which has been cruising the Pacific since May, 1968, arrived at Apia recently with Jack Downs and Quentin Cultra.
From Samoa they headed for Tonga and Fiji. • DUBLOON, a catamaran, skippered by former Canadian naval officer. Captain J. Littler, arrived in Suva recently. • TIARE, with Paul de Smit, paid a recent call at Apia for supplies before continuing on to Tonga. Mr.
Smit, of Antwerp, Belgium, was in Rarotonga in April (P/M, May, p. 111). • DAWNBREAKER, tri, owned by American composer Russ Garcia, returned to Suva in May after several weeks absence.
• Hummingbird Two, Of The
West Indies, has left Suva where she has been for the last six months to continue her round the world cruise. • TANGO, with Stephen Bonnett and Drew Hayward, of Auckland, rested in Suva in May after she was battered by storms for three days 800 miles south of Fiji. A mizzen sail was lost and the tiller broken. • FINISTERRA, 75 ft ketch, arrived in Port Moresby in May after a 120-day charter cruise from Fiji.
She is one of the largest privately owned yachts to visit the territory in recent years.
• MAPU, 36 ft cutter, safely reached Rotuma, Fiji, in late May with Auckland engineer Edward Stallard, his wife Bernice and son Christopher, after running aground on a reef off the north-east of Rotuma.
Mapu was sailing from the Yasawas for Vila, via Rotuma. • GEMINI, 40 ft ketch, with American grandmothers Mrs. Vangie Haughwout and Mrs. Maryanna Burr arrived in Suva from Auckland in June. Her owner-skipper is Mrs.
Haughwout’s husband, Robert, of California. She will sail around Aus tralia and then to NZ.
• Shu Bl Himmany, 29 Ft,
single-masted yacht, arrived at Norfolk Island on June 4 en route from Sydney via Lord Howe Island, which she left on May 29. Skipper Paul Jenkins and his crew of four men anchored in Ball Bay for two days then left for South America, via Suva and Panama.
• Robert Hartley, Is In
Sydney these days. Her crew, Cec and Joan Auty, married recently— aboard ship on the fore deck with flags all “fluttering”—and Harry Fink, of Kylie, was best man.