$15,000 reward for leads

leads on lost sailors

A $ U 515,000 reward has been offered for any information on a boat and its three passengers which was apparently lost at sea during June, 1984.

A major effort, involving the U.S. Coast Guard and other branches of the military, was launched to find the missing boat at the time, but without success. The parents of the missing sailors say they believe the 5.5 m Hobie Catamaran sailboat could be in the Mid way, Johnston Island or Kwaja lein area.

Milan Vucurevich and Jim Chouinard, both experienced sailors, and Mary Huston, sailed from Hanalei Bay in Kauai, Hawaii, on June 3 for an afternoon’s sail. It was the last time they were seen.

The disappearance occurred at the outset of RIMPAC 84 military exercises involving the navies of five nations near Hawaiian waters. The war games were delayed for a day to allow for a major search.

“In spite of these herculean efforts, ” said Paul Krai, brother in-law of Vucurevich, “no trace of the three individuals or of the boat has been found, and therein lies the mystery. The manufacturer of the boat the trio was on has attested to what

is common knowledge among sailing enthusiasts that the boat is unsinkable. Further, in the unlikely event that the craft were to break up at sea, the debris would float indefinitely. ”

Barbara Krai said she be lieves there were satellite photos taken during the RIM PAC exercises. “But even

though my father is a retired colonel, and we’ve talked to the Pentagon, we can’t get con firmation that the photos were even taken, let alone assurance that they would be studied to see if my brother’s boat might have been in the pictures,” she said.

The family of the missing Vucurevich has offered the large reward for information on the boat. For further informa tion contact: Mr M. Vucurevich, Lt. Col. (ret), 2261 Parnell Ave., Los Angeles, CA. 90064.

Rumors of Jim Taylor’s death greatly exaggerated

Hundreds of villagers flocked into Goroka in Papua New Guinea’s Highlands one day recently after a rumor went round that free goods were on offer.

But instead of a handout, they got arrested.

Police said the story was that Jim Taylor, who settled in the Goroka area in the early 1940 s and is now aged 80, had died and left K5OOO worth of goods to be given away.

About 500 villagers flooded into Goroka on foot and in vehicles at about 6.00 a.m. and waited with bags to collect their share outside Collins and Leahy’s Old Bena Road super market.

Some villagers went to Mr Taylor’s house at Kafuku vil

lage, 6 km out of Goroka, and tried to get some of his posses sions. Mr Taylor, who was very much alive, had to call the police to disperse them.

Snake creates

a believer’s

dilemma

Late last year a large brown snake was causing a Fiji Hindu farmer a terrible case of inde cision, and turning his home into something of a religious tourist attraction.

About a month before the snake slithered into the home of 34-year old Sukhi Ram, who lives at Rainibulu, in the Nagigi area of Vanua Levu, near Labasa.

However, Mr Ram and his family worship Naag Baba, the Hindu snake god, and the snake had wedged itself firmly into the wall of the farmhouse right alongside a family shrine featuring not only a picture of Naag Baba, but also of the snake rock, Naag Pathar, which is in Nagigi, and a holy place to devotees.

“I just don’t know what to do,” he said. “If I just knew whether the snake is good or bad, I would do something about it But it has done nothing. It does not even move out of the place it has wedged itself in the wall.”

Next day the confusion sub sided. Caution overcame devo tion and Sukhi Ram asked someone to remove the snake.

“He took it outside and beat it to death,” said Ram.

Mr Nakasone’s

yaqona cure

A bowl of good, strong yaqona (Kava) may be the answer to the common cold, the cure for which scientists have been un able to find.

A* Japanese newspaper has reported that the Japanese Prime Minister, Mr Y. Naka sone, had a severe cold when he began his four-nation Pacific tour early this year.

But after having a bowl of yaqona at Nadi during his first stop, the prime minister found, to his surprise, that his cold was gone, the newspaper reported.

A mother-of-pearl fish-hook more than 800 years old which has been unearthed on the island of Huahine, French Polynesia, by Professor Yosihiko Sinoto, and his Bishop Museum archeological team. RIGHT: Professor Sinoto (right), pictured with journalist Christine Lee who interviewed him late last year for National Geographic magazine. -Les Nouvelles de Tahiti photo.