The yachting life: It

ain't all beer and skittle ...

Writing from Kerikeri, New Zealand, PIM yachting correspondent JANE DeRIDDER takes an affectionate but realistic look at the joys and the trials of the yachting life.

She concludes . . .

Flying fish and billowing sails.

Sunshine and tradewinds. Brown skinned girls. Rum punches ... The dream is pursued by countless would-be small boat voyagers who give up the rat race, the time clock, the mortgage payments, the idiot box, the lawn mower, only to tumble out of the familiar comfort of the armchair into a frantic chase for elusive values. The life’s savings that are not gobbled up by the dream yacht itself may soon be eroded by unforeseen expenses and soaring prices. Many vessels never leave the dock more than a dozen abortive times. A few never leave

the backyard.

Some dreamers, led by visions of cotton sails, caulked seams, dead eyes and baggywrinkle, spend their waking hours keeping ahead of dry rot. The idea was great but the vessel they chose was too old or too far gone to start with. Or maybe just too big. Anyhow, the leaky seams and sloshing bilges are ac companied by mildew, rust and soggy bedding and the bubble bursts.

Still other cruising hopefuls find themselves the slaves of their own electronic monsters with their in cessant demands for overhauls, parts, or just a little more juice.

These gadget-happy skippers can

seldom cut themselves free from their electrical umbilical cords A surprising number of dogged souls do manage to sail off into the unknown in monohulls and multihulls, gaff-headed schooners and tupperware sloops, stolid motor sailers and engineless cockle shells, converted lifeboats and megabuck moneytrees each secure in the knowledge that his is the only way to go.

But too many set out in untried craft with green crews, never having cruised their own waters, not realis ing that the inevitable bugs can be more readily run to earth and eradicated before leaving sheltered, familiar cruising grounds. Without so much as a trusty leadline, they have a depth sounder that they cannot always fathom. Instead of adequate anchor tackle, they have a radio to call for help.

Seasickness takes its toll. Crew members desert at each port of call

like rats leaving a sinking ship.

The hardy carry on only to be stricken with sunstroke, dysentery or ‘teak seat’. Those that survive the sun, the drinking water and the damp bathing suits may succumb to coral infections and fish poisoning, more exotic certainly, but no less

painful.

Even shipwreck is not unheard of.

But there are hundreds, who, undaunted by officialese or cockroaches, carry on to have adventurous, fascinating lives ply ing the oceans and visiting foreign shores as masters of their own vessels. Chances are these people have more than their share of energy and know-how, and don’t mind hard work.

There are those who can afford to have repairs and maintenance done by professionals, who perhaps have paid skippers deliver their boats when obligations keep them else where, or they may have their yachts shipped or trucked for portions of their trip when time runs short. There are well-equipped rac ing yachts taking part in ocean races and subsequent cruising, often with little fanfare.

Then there is that great host of salty characters often on modest budgets, sometimes working here and there to keep themselves in beans, who manage to cruise for years and thrive on the vagabond existence. Perhaps they have built their own boats. More often than not they have the ability and

knowledge as well as the tools and spares to do their their own main tenance and repairs, mechanical and electronic as well as structural if necessary. They smile to them selves when envious people say how lucky they are, for that it is not all luck they are only too well aware.

Cruising on your own boat can seldom be done too happily on a shoestring. Maybe a modest, ingeni ous person can live on next to nothing but a boat cannot. Even the simplest of yachts must be hauled regularly to have bottom anti fouled. And this is just a beginning.

The more complicated the gear, the more expensive the maintenance on a logarithmic scale. The old saying the ‘a boat is a hole in the water lined with wood into which you pour all your money’ is no less true today when the hole may well be lined with fibreglass, steel, aluminium or ferrocement.

Cruising can be fun and challeng ing. But it may not be cheap or easy.

It cannot be done successfully on a vision. It can be costly, uncomfort able, inconvenient, even frighten ing.

Our log tells of trade wind voyaging, Polynesian feasting, dancing and singing; of landing giant wahoo and hunting wild pig and goat; of diving in coral barrier reefs and of shooting surf by

moonlight; of shell leis and flower crowns, fairy terns and blue noddies; of taste sensations such as roast dog, barbecued goat, grilled bobby, raw fish, marinated octopus,

fresh-plucked pamplemousse.

But our log also reminds us sail handling in fierce doldrum squalls; of bouncing uncomfortably in surgy anchorages as a result of distant high latitude southern winter gales; of being driven aground on coral after midnight anchor drills in gusty winds and torrential rains.

Our log tells too of anxious red rimmed eyes searching out elusive atoll landfalls; of nau-nau bites, most unpleasant eruptions; and of weak, aching, tingly limbs after a case of ciguatera fish poisoning.

It ain’t all beer and skittles . ..

Marcia Davock

reports from Port-Vi la,

Vanuatu:

• CHRYSALIS. This Alberg designed 11.5 m fibreglass sloop from Corpus Christi, Texas (PIM Jul ’Bl p 65) spent most of the 1981-1982 cyclone season in the Florida Islands group of the Solomons. Owner Mike Phelps found a job for several months as second mate aboard the Captaine Cook, a 12 000-tonne merchant vessel that mainly carried New

Zealand products to islands of the Western Pacific. Meanwhile, Sue Mcßride remained with their yacht in Avi Avi, enjoying snorkeling, shell-collecting, and holiday dinners with the other yachts. She had nightly ham radio contacts with Mike. In January, she joined Mike aboard the ship for the Honiara to New Zealand passage, followed by a month-long camping holiday in NZ.

The couple has owned Chrysalis since 1977, when they purchased her in Florida. They departed the following year, sailing through the Caribbean to the Panama Canal, then to the Galapagos, French Polynesia, Suvarov, Western and American Samoa, Tonga, and New Zealand, where they remained for months. The following season they cruised Fiji, then returned to NZ.

In 1981 they again visited Fiji, and sailed west to Vanuatu, ‘where we spent several months instead of the couple of weeks we’d planned on,’

Sue explained. They then raced north through the Solomons to get the yacht settled in a secure anchor age before Mike joined the mer chant vessel. Their future plans call for cruising the Solomons and Papua New Guinea, and then head ing to Australia for a year’s stay. • BOKONON. This Islander 36 sheltered in Avi Avi while owners

Herb Linder and Margo Callaghan returned for a two-month visit to Minnesota at holiday time. Boko non spent the last cyclone season in New Zealand, then sailed to Fiji, Vanuatu, and the Solomons. Herb and Margo play guitars and have a large repertoire of selections, in cluding local songs they have learned at each island group they’ve visited. Their cat Chagress spent a happy vacation, meanwhile, as a boarder on Gloria Maris until its owners returned. • PHOBOS. Reece Clark and Connie Rossitto returned to the US, visiting Minnesota, Louisiana, and California, while Phobos swung on the hook in Avi Avi. The 15 m wood ketch is registered in Savannah, Georgia. • BONA DEA. This 13.5 m ketch has been stored in Avi Avi for the past year and a half, while her owners, Carl and Mary Leonard, are in Nepal, where Carl is involved in an engineering project for a dam.

The ketch was built in New Zealand of plywood sheathed in fibreglass.

The Leonards expect to return to the yacht in April. • MINTAKA. Charles and Nita Martin returned to the US to visit family members in Washington and Montana. The Martins built their Dreadnought 32 in Montana, then sailed her partway down the Snake River and trucked her to the Pacific

Ocean. They cruised the Pacific, spent a season in New Zealand, then sailed north to Vanuatu and Solomon Islands. • SHEARWATER. Also present in Avi Avi for the holiday season was the yacht Shearwater, with this correspondent and her husband, Mugs Davock, aboard (PIM Nov ’Bl p 73).

Jane Deridder Re

ports from Kerikeri ,

New Zealand:

• SEAVENTURE. Glen Marks and Dan Matthews sailed Seaven ture from New Zealand to Suvarov atoll and organised a roast pork picnic for the crews of 11 yachts which met there.

On another occasion, a striped marlin which Marks and Matthews caught was large enough to feed 14 yacht loads of people even though it was hit five times by sharks before they were able to land it.

And now, after an extensive refit at Deemings Bay of Islands slipway, Seaventure will be put on the market. She’s a beamy Freeport 36, a Robert Perry design fibreglass sloop built by Islander Yachts of Irvine, California, in USA. ‘l’ll deliver her anywhere in the South Pacific.’ Marks said.