Cruising

Yachts

• SEA CHALLENGER, 44 ft sloop registered at Winter Park, Florida, arrived at Rarotonga on November 18 from Papeete and other Society islands. On board were owner-captain Dr D. M. D.

Schulke, his son Jeffrey, daughters Sheri and Carolyn and Australian friend lan Mordue. They are circumnavigating by sea and air, having left Florida last June.

They left Rarotonga on November 21 for Auckland. Dr Schulke plans to ship Sea Challenger back to the United States from NZ, then return in his converted Hudson bomber. Air Challenger, in which the family will fly to other Pacific Islands, Rangoon, Singapore, India, Iran and Iraq.

Dr Schulke hopes his will be the first private American plane to land in Russia before continuing to Western Europe, Scandinavia and back to the US, arriving there in September next year. • ARA MOANA, 40 ft Canadian tri maran, registered at Vancouver, arrived at Rarotonga from Papeete, Raiatea, Hua hine and Bora Bora on November 20 with owner-skipper Gregor J. Duffus, wife Fiona, and family, Elspet, Deborah, Jean and David. Plans were to sail direct to New Zealand where they hoped to stay for about a year. • DENEBOLA, 57 ft Herroshoff ketch from Cannes, France, left Fiji in July, sailed to the Solomon Islands and on to Port Moresby to arrive on November 10.

After a few weeks stay, skipper Bernard Catu, his wife Christine, son Gerard, daughter Sophie and crew Raemi Des forges and Paula Denk plan to sail to Indonesia. ® GAYNA-DARI, a 36 ft Nicol-design Cavalier trimaran from Gladstone waited out the south-east season in Port Moresby. Hugh Hunter, his wife Meralon and their children Nattolie and Alex sailed on November 17 for Rabaul via Samarai and Milne Bay. • ALLEGRA, 41 ft trimaran, arrived at Rarotonga from Bora Bora on October 31 with owner-skipper Ray Kisner, Clive Thomas, Ken Van Meter and Frank Hender son. Mr Kisner, who built the tri himself, started his cruise from San Francisco last March, and made calls in Mexico, the Marquesas Islands, the Tuamotus and Society Islands. After a brief stay at Rarotonga he sailed for Tonga and New Zealand. • ARWEN, 47 ft yawl, with owner skipper Adrian Hickey and Anne Hill, left

Rarotonga for Tahiti on October 31.

Arwen arrived at Rarotonga early last May and was chartered in June to take four Frenchmen, one of them a general, from Rarotonga to join the nuclear tests protest yacht, FRI, then near Mururoa Atoll. She also took provisions and spare parts for the Fri. Arwen left Australia in August, 1972, and made calls at New Caledonia, New Hebrides, Fiji and Tonga.

Plans are to complete a circumnavigation. • ALISIO, 40 ft sloop which arrived at Rarotonga from Tahiti on June 23 with owner-captain Frank MacCarthy of Santa Barbara, California, and two crew, left Rarotonga on October 31 for Papeete.

The sloop's forestay had been damaged, and it was dangerous to sail in that state, said Mr MacCarthy shortly after arrival at Rarotonga. He had to await the arrival of new steel-wire rope from NZ before proceeding with his cruising. • FAIR WINDS, 43 ft yawl, with owner-skipper Charles Rockwell, his two sons Jeff and Charles, Bruce Roland, and a cook called Lorraine, arrived at Raro tonga from Bora Bora on November 9.

The American yacht left San Diego on July 29, 1973, and called at the Mar quesas, Tuamotus, Tahiti, Huahine and Bora Bora. Plans were to sail to New Zealand. • MAYA, 43 ft ketch, arrived at Raro tonga on November 9 from Tahiti with Sandy Mill, his wife Joan, and their chil dren Emily, Charlotte and Daniel. The yacht is jointly owned by Sandy Mill and David Armstrong, and Mr Armstrong had sailed with his family in Maya as far as Tahiti. His son Barclay became seriously ill at Tahiti and Mr Armstrong took him to hospital in New Zealand, then arrived in Rarotonga by the MV Lorena in time to join the yacht there. The cruise

started from Limington, UK, in May, 1972, and calls were made at Corunna in northern Spain, Mediterranean ports, the Balearics, Gibraltar and the Canary Is lands. They visited Antigua, then spent five months cruising in the Bahamas, made calls at Cartagena and the San Bias islands before proceeding via Panama to the Galapagos, Marquesas and Tahiti. They plan to visit New Zealand's Bay of Islands, then Auckland. • QUEST, 51 ft motor yacht from San Diego, left Vila at the end of November for Noumea, Lord Howe Island and Sydney before spending the hurricane season in Adelaide and later New Zea land. The Carter family on board — Chuck, Van, Charles, Chris and Charla — have been at sea on and off for the past years including calls in Micronesia, Japan, Philippines, Korea, New Guinea and the Solomons. Chuck is writing a book on his travels and doesn't expect to stop travelling till he drops. From New Zealand they plan to head through Vila to Fiji, Tonga and Samoa and then from Indonesia and South-East Asian ports across the Indian Ocean to Cape Town. • ROUND-THE-WORLD Whitbread yacht race contestants began arriving in Sydney in December at the end of their second leg, from Cape Town. First to reach Sydney, on December 7, was PEN DUICK VI, 74 ft French ketch skippered by Eric Tabarly, followed by the British ketch, 72 ft GREAT BRITAIN, skippered by Chay Blyth. Both yachts have been specially built for the race. Blyth is the man who rowed the Atlantic and sailed solo non-stop round the world. It's the first round-the-world race for fully crew ed yachts. Next leg is across the Pacific to Rio de Janeiro, and the final leg is to P'ymouth.

The motor yacht Quest ready to leave the main harbour at Vila.