Cruising

Yachts

• VALIANT, a 40 ft ketch, arrived at irotonga on September 3 from Honolulu id Tahiti with Mr Verne Bixby, s wife, Bonnie, and their two lildren, Wendy and Bradford. The Bixbys >ught Valiant last December, left Hono lu in June and arrived at Tahiti three eeks later. Mr Bixby is a physics teacher the Kamehameha Boarding School Hono lu, which has 1,500 Hawaiian students. » is on 12 months furlough during hich he is carrying out research on )lynesian countries. Plans were to call American Samoa, Tonga, Fiji and New ‘aland, returning to Honolulu next ■ptember. • RAVENSONG, a 40 ft cutter, arrived Rarotonga on September 4 from Cali rnia, Papeete, Huahine, Raiatea, Tahaa id Bora Bora. On board were surveyor ;nnis Brown, his wife, Eva, a journa t, their son Stephen, and friends Robert id Karen Arris and Tom Wyneken. essrs Aris and Wyneken are also jour ilists. They intend sailing to New Zea nd. • ARCHIV, 29 ft steel sloop, arrived Rarotonga on September 5 from ipeete with owner-skipper Warwick Bain id crew John Gauntlett and Jenifer Hop ood. All three are Britishers and the icht is registered at Cowes, Isle of ight. Archiv was built in Holland about ! years ago and left England in Septem ir last year on her present voyage. It planned to call at Tonga, Fiji and New ‘aland. • YANDA, 35 ft steel-hulled sloop, so arrived at Rarotonga from Papeete i September 5 with owner-skipper Peter ransky, his wife, Robyn, and their two lildren, Rachel aged 10 and Andrew, 8. >ey are Australians and started their >yage from Holland to Australia three *ars ago. They will sail to Sydney with ills at Tonga and Fiji. Yanda is re stored at Sydney.

• VAHINE, 26 ft sloop, arrived at Rarotonga from Bora Bora on September 7 with Ortwin Ahrens and his wife, Elli. The Ahrens started their cruise from Hamburg, Germany, and ports of call included the Canary Islands, West Indies, Panama, Galapagos, Marquesas, Tuamotus and Society islands. Plans were to visit Niue, the Vavau Group in Tonga, Fiji and New Zealand. • FIONA, a 42 ft ketch from Poole, England, arrived in Port Moresby on September 8 from the New Hebrides.

After a week's stay, Jo Menell and Brian Mcgarry sailed for Singapore, Vietnam.

They plan to sail to Shanghai, Vladivostok and Murmansk.

• AOTAHI, a 40 ft fibreglass slop from Auckland, with skipper, Hal Con way wife, Elaine and crew Brian Wyatt, Beth Ellingworth and Steve Durney ar rived in Port Moresby from Cairns on September 29. After a short stay, Aotahi sailed for Samarai the north coast of New Guinea then on to Indonesia. • ALAUNTO, 33 ft trimaran, arrived at Rarotonga from Bora Bora on Septem ber 11 with San Franciscan owner-skipper Don Schmidtkev and wife, Caroline. Mr Schmidtkev, a schoolteacher, took five years to build the tri which he sailed from San Francisco last November, calling at Mexican ports and the Marquesas. Plans were to spend some years teaching in

Jew Zealand after calling at Aitutaki and pending the hurricane season in American amoa. • SANTA LENA, 30 ft motor yacht, vent on a reef off the Nadroga coast of iji late in September. She was later owed to Suva for inspection. The owner, 16-years-old Ted Warner, an Englishman, lad put the yacht on automatic pilot and lone below just before she grounded, he keeled over after the grounding, and he pounding from the heavy seas tore gaping hole in her side. Mr Warner “ft England in the yacht about four ears ago on a projected 10-year round he-world voyage from east to west. • ENSENADA, 27 ft Aitkens cutter i/ith owner-skipper Dave Croucher, /ife Flo and 11-year-old son Daniel, was i Gizo (BSIP) in September. From home iort Townsville in Queensland, the Touchers sailed to Lae and then visited inschhafen, Madang, Rabaul and Kieta. hey left Kieta on August 11, planning to ruise to Fiji via the Solomons and New lebrides but had two setbacks. The motor roke down and then, on reaching Gizo, lave had to go into hospital for three ays. Wife Flo, in a letter to PIM, wrote:" ince leaving Nila in the Shortland Islands /e've had the pleasure of sailing with nother yacht, RAMBLER 11, a 36 t Alden ketch, six years out f Berkley (California) owned and ailed by Dick and Ann Willis. Dick nd Ann are keen shellers and are looking Drward to meeting other shell collectors i their travels. They are also heading or Fiji."

O ASTRAEA, a 44 ft cutter, arrived t Rarotonga on September 18 from Bora ora with owner-skipper John Orr, his rife, Annette, their daughter, Penelope, nd relatives John Brooks and Lindsay rown. The family is from Hilo, Hawaii, istraea was built in Vancouver and was lunched in May, 1972. The leg from lawaii to Papeete was made in un sttled weather. Plans are to call at onga and New Zealand and to return d Hawaii in four years' time. • SEAFARER, a 65 ft gaff-rigged ketch, rrived at Rarotonga from Bora Bora on )ctober 9 with owner-skipper Andrew egal, his wife Wendy, their 2i year-old laughter, Darrian, and friend Jerry Jacobs, hey called at Hawaii, the Tuamotous and lost of the Society Islands. Plans were o sail to Russell in New Zealand's Bay f Islands and, eventually, to circum lavigate.

(Sk The Slocum

The Slocum Society, of Hilo

lawaii, offers an extensive range of

nformation for cruising yachtsmen,

t is a repository of information on ong-distance small boat passages, dembers may call on the society for dvice when planning cruises. Mem bership is open to all; offshore ex perience is not a requirement.