Cruising

Yachts

A major topic of discussion for visiting yachts in Port Moresby is the difficulty of getting a sailing permit to visit Indonesia. Letters seem to go unanswered and many boats have sailed from there hoping to clear up the formalities in Portu guese Timor. Hard to say where the hold-up is, as requests must go through one’s own embassy in Djakarta to the Indonesian Navy.

While not all cruising yachtsmen have a great deal of spending money, if Indonesia is hoping to build up its tourist industry it seems a pity to lose the favourable publicity the yachts could otherwise give the country on their return home. • ANANIAS, 29 ft sloop, arrived at Rarotonga from Bora Bora on June 12 with Paul and Jan Henriques on board. Their voyage started from Los Angeles, US, in July last year and their Pacific ports of call were the Marquesas and Society Islands before arriving at Rarotonga. The young couple, interested in island life, plan to stay in Rarotonga for several months, obtain employment, and have their yacht careened. Next planned ports are Tonga, Fiji and NZ. 28 ft cutter built in the UK in 1939, arrived at Rarotonga on lune 16 from Tahiti with skipper owner Frank Dodson, Anne Molton ind a cat on board. They left Britain ive years ago and spent two years on the east coast of the US, then :alled at the Galapagos and Society islands. They spent 18 months in french Polynesia and intend to visit litutaki, Palmerston and Suwarrow. further plans are to stay a year in sZ before continuing round the world. • KAWAMEE, 63 ft steel-hulled Letch, arrived at Rarotonga from Honolulu, Fanning and Penrhyn slands on June 28. On board were <ockne H. Johnson (master), his vife, Rubellite, their son, Dane, Mr. ind Mrs. Maierhofer, their two iniversity student sons, Robert and Villiam, William Bond and Bruce <earney. Kawamee left Honolulu on une 1 on a three-month Pacific cruise nd will call at the Society Islands, tie Australs, Tuamotus and Marquesas before returning home, dr. Johnson does research in eophysics with the University of lawaii and his wife is a lecturer on

the Hawaiian language at the same university. The Johnsons and their three daughters called at Rarotonga last year on the HAVAIKI when Mr.

Johnson was searching for a submarine volcano. He finally found it on a south-east extension of the Austral Islands chain. • VLAAG, 19 ft sloop, sailed by single-hander Ivo van Laake of Holland, arrived at Rarotonga on June 29 from Papeete. Mr. van Laake bought Vlaag in San Francisco and sailed her to Tahiti from Honolulu in 33 days. The vessel is only big enough for one person. Mr. van Laake intends to call in at Tonga and Fiji.

• RIGADOON, a 38 ft Bill Atkins-designed ketch, left Miami, Florida for a world cruise on June 1, 1970, with owners Carl and Jeanne Moesly on board. After sailing along the coast of Mexico, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica and through the Panama Canal, the Rigadoon followed the west coast of Panama and then on to Galapagos, Marquesas, Tuamotus and Tahiti.

From Tahiti, the route was to Moorea, Huahine, Bora Bora and Samoa to Fiji. The Moeslys tied up at the Tradewinds Hotel in Suva for several delightful weeks, then called at Lautoka, leaving there on July 1 f or the Yasawas and Vila.

• KLARABORG, 110-year-old gaff rigged ketch, which has been at Sydney for more than six months after sailing from Sweden, was scheduled to leave mid-July after recruiting more crew to bring the strength up to 12—six men, six women. Ove Linner, 27, is the skipper.

First stop will be Tonga, followed by Hong Kong, Indonesia, the Indian Ocean and South Africa. • WHITE SQUALL 11, a 70 ft schooner, with New Zealander Ross Norgrove and his American Virgin Islands-born wife Minine aboard, was at Papeari in Tahiti early in July. Crew member is a small black Schipperke dog called Clancy, whose job is to lower the boom. Leaving the Virgin Islands in June last year White Squall 11 has cruised leisurely —“None of the wham, bang, smash, crash charter stuff”, Ross writes to PlM—via Cartegena, San Blas Island, Panama, Perlas, Galapagos and the Marquesas to Tahiti. “Pricewise, St.

Thomas, Virgin Islands and Honolulu, the two dearest places in the United States are just cheapskate stuff alongside this place,” Ross writes.

White Squall 11 has an automatic pilot, hydraulic windlass and roller furling jib. Ross is inquiring about an “old sparring partner”, Jim Shortall, of Auckland whom we haven’t heard from ourselves lately. Presumably he is still radio officer somewhere on the high seas. • RESOLUTION, a 40 ft yacht with owner-skipper Mr. Horst Oeltjen, his wife Susan and Mr. William E.

Ingersoll on board was at Darwin in the middle of July. Sailing from Vancouver, they made for Brisbane and then enjoyed a six weeks run to Darwin through the Great Barrier Reef. After a week’s stay in Darwin they were hoping to make for Portu guese Timor, then drop anchor for a brief pause in Bali before setting course for Durban in South Africa via Christmas Island and Cocos- Keeling Islands. Just to set the record right, Mr. Ingersoll writes, it was the Ueltjens who found themselves in the choppy waters of Cemetery Bay at Norfolk Island in April when the dinghy overturned and not a Mr 105 r ) BeSS and (P ™’ June ’ p - » 34 ft traditional gaff ketch from Los Angeles, arrived m Port Moresby after a series of misadventures. On the trip from she broke her gaff collar and lost her port main shrouds in a squall. She finished the voyage to he coast under staysail alone. While moored at Kapakapa on the Papuan :oast for repairs, Sea Witch caught ler bowsprit under a jetty and broke 1 jackstay. Owners Jeff Bruce and

Mickie Rogers were busy at Port Moresby repairing the damage before taking off for Darwin, Timor and across the Indian Ocean to Durban.

Sea Witch was the first yacht to enter and moor in the new Asau Harbour on Savaii, Western Samoa, which was at the time dredged to 7 ft. Sea Witch draws 5 ft 6 in. • KATHENA 11, 29 ft steel sloop from Germany, arrived in Port Moresby, also in June. Her skipper, Wilfrid Erdmann, is a familiar figure to Port Moresby yachties who remem bered him from 1967 when he stopped there in the first Kathena on a single handed circumnavigation. On that trip, Kathena stopped at only six ports, with the longest leg, from Capetown direct to Germany, taking 131 days. This voyage, with wife Astrid aboard, Kathena II has so far dropped anchor 80 times since she left Germany in August, 1969.

From Panama the couple sailed to the Galapagos, Marquesas, Samoa, Fiji and New Zealand, and then through the New Hebrides, the Santa Druz Islands, Rennell Island to Port Moresby. Next leg will be through Torres Strait to Darwin and possibly Indonesia on the way to Africa.

Wilfrid and Astrid plan an unusual ■oute in the Indian Ocean by includ ng visits to both Mauritius and the Seychelles. They are planning to go outh to Mauritius at Lat. S2O deg., hen run back to the Seychelles at -at. S 4 deg., before working down he East African coast on the way o Europe. • FINN ISLAND, beautiful tradi ional 47 ft schooner from Pargas n Finland, was lost in the Gulf of *apua on June 17. Owners Artur laarni (62) and his wife Berit (54) Irifted in rough seas for four days vith their two dinghies before eaching the Papuan coast at the Jama River. After struggling through wampland for 24 hours Mr. and drs. Saarni were found and taken o Misave village to recover. Artur ►aami reported that Finn Island hit i reef about 10 to 15 miles north of Lnchor Cay, the northernmost island •f the Great Barrier Reef. The boat pas swept on to her side before eing blown off the reef by Force 8 rinds. She drifted 50 miles north •efore she had to be abandoned. 7 inn Island left home in July, 1970, fith one crewman, a Finn. He left tie boat at the West Indies and was eplaced by a Spanish boy who went erserk one day out of the Marquesas nd tried to kill the Saamis. After etuming the boy to the Marquesas ie Saamis sailed Finn Island on their wn, from Tahiti direct to Port Moresby. Mr. and Mrs. Saarni will

now complete their world voyage by liner.

Other cruising yachts at anchor in Port Moresby in June were ketches

Karie-L, Ko Rong And Lah Ara,

and NZ sloop SHI-BUI.

"Finn Island", the 47 ft schooner which was lost in the Gulf of Papua on June 17. This picture was taken only a few days be fore she was lost.

See story below.