Cruising

Yachts

• Wave Walker, 23 M

schooner, was a recent arrival in Melbourne carrying Yorkshireman Gordon Cook, and wife Mary and children Suzanne (8) and John (7).

They set out from Plymouth in September, 1976, to retrace one of Captain Cook’s voyages because as Mr Cook says, he has “always been identified with him’’. The voyage, from Plymouth to Plymouth via Sydney, Wellington, Tonga, Tahiti, Hawaii, San Francisco and Vancouver, was originally ex pected to take three years, but Wavewalker is eight months behind schedule, mainly because of a rough crossing of the Indian Ocean, when the schooner was badly damag ed. Mr Cook does not expect to complete the voyage before December, 1979.

• Noa Noa A 9.14 M

double-ended ketch, built in 1935, left Florida four years ago with Captain Foot L.

Young and Master Pamela In gram. They have since sailed through French Polynesia and arrived in American Samoa in November. They plan to spend the hurricane season in Samoa before sailing on to Australia.

• Oomattee A 11 28

m Brown Searunner trimaran arrived in Pago Pago from Maui.(Hawaii). Owner-builder Mike McCrea and his wife Barbara and daughter Bridget, plan to spend the season in Samoa, which will give them time to contemplate future plans.

• Anduril Or Flame

Out Of The West In

Tolkien’s Elvish, is a 12.2 m Cross Trimaran. After taking two years to build the craft, the Sandstrom family, Don, Joan ne, Donald, and Eric, left San Francisco in December, 1975.

They have since sailed throughout French Polynesia to Niue, Tonga, Fiji, and Wallace, arriving in Samoa in November. They plan to sail to the Gilberts and Tuvalu before heading on to Papua New Guinea. • JAYEL, 12 .5 m tri was bought late last year for a re ported $26,000 by Margot

(Chicago) Whitten, an American, and Barry Trigg, a New Zealander. She is mak ing tourist trips around Vila Harbour, New Hebrides, where the couple also have another yacht on charter, the 12.7 m sloop AOTAHI, which they originally sailed from NZ en-route to the Seychelles.

The couple have a cat, Pan dora and Barry was to be join ed by his 12-year-old son, Darcy. • UHURU, a large, oldtimer yacht, was in Vila late last year.

•La Desirade, A 15.9 M

Sparkman and Stevens yawl, of mahogany and teak on oak, and registered in Panama, dropped anchor at Tubuai in the French Australs in Oc tober after a 19-day “direct” voyage against westerlies from Pitcairn with owner Carl Lipscomb, of Britain, and Marylyn Neff, of Florida (USA).

Carl had single-handed La Desirade (built in France in 1 963) from Spain to St Maarten in the West Indies where he was joined by Marylyn. Together, they crius ed the Caribbean, through Panama and direct to Pitcairn.

There, they took on board Pit cairner Kay ‘Nig’ Brown, and, after an extended stay on the island, voyaged to Mangareva, the Marquesas, the Tuamotus, Tahiti and other Society Islands before return ing to Pitcairn in time for Nigs 21st birthday. Carl made the voyage to teach Nig celestial navigation, a closed book to the Pitcairners. Nig did a com petent job at navigating La Desirade from Mangareva.

Carl and Marylyn spent six weeks on Pitcairn, Nig taking

the yawl with companions to the Pitcairners’ other island of Henderson to gather wood and catch sharks for the islan ders’ artifacts. It was Carl’s third visit to Pitcairn, where he lost his previous craft, FAIR WINDS, two years ago. He is seriously considering selling La Desirade and returning to live on Pitcairn,-the islanders having asked him to establish a mail run to Mangareva, 805 km to the north-west. He believes the job would be feasible, using a sturdy motor launch with auxiliary sail for downwind running, and capa ble of being hauled ashore on the boat landing at Bounty Bay. Wrapped up in the story of the Bounty and Pitcairn, Carl and Marylyn left the is land and sailed to Tubuai where the Bounty mutineers twice attempted to establish themselves before settling on Pitcairn. After a week’s visit La Desirade set sail ior Rarotonga The Samoas and points west are on the sailing plan.

• Aquilon 11, An 11 M

sloop from Montreal (Canada) also called at Tubuai in Oc tober from Tahiti bringing single-hander Daniel Trickey, who had soloed from Canada’s east coast to Por tugal, the Canaries, Barbados, Martinique, Panama, the Mar quesas and Tahiti. He plans to complete the cir cumnavigation later. Fluent in French and a skilled mechanic, Daniel spent Christmas on the island and found many mechanical jobs to do.

• Kawamee, 18.3 M

steel-hulled ketch, arrived at Rarotonga from Raivavae,

Austral Islands, on December 1 9 with owner-skipper Rockne Johnson, his two daughters and John Chapman and Brian Higley. They left about 10 days later for Tahiti and home to Honolulu.

• Runestaff, 9 M

Australian cutter which arrived at Rarotonga late last Septem ber with owner-skipper builder, lan Hancock, was still in Rarotonga in December, dry-docked for the hurricane season. lan, who wished to stay in Rarotonga for a few months, had obtained a pre viously-arranged job at the Rarotongan Hotel where he has the rather unusual task of laying mosaic tiles. • TREKKER, 11 m ferro cutter with Montanans, Joe and Ellen Hart, plans to leave Vila early April for Funafuti and then sail for the Gilberts, Marshalls and Carolines. The Harts, last in these columns in 1962 aboard their then 9.7 m ketch, White Lady, are real “pros” in the cruising yach ties world, with many voyages behind them. Joe, a crusty 62year-old, has been associated with the sea for 40 years, many in the merchant navy and more lately, ANL Ellen, a livewire “old salt" as well, says during long periods at sea, they read. On their cur rent trip they left Port Stephens, NSW, in late 1976 and spent two weeks at Lord Howe Island, where they met old friends Roy and Clive Wilson, and Jim Whistler. “We got crowded out in the US,”

Joe says. “We simply wanted to go to sea many years ago.”

They have a son, Joe, 22, who is a pastrycook at Evans Head, NSW.

La Desirade at Pitcairn Island.