Stepping off the[?]readmill

Yachting

By Sally Andrew

BARDIE Holmes and Clive Jenkyn left their home port of Bristol, England in September 1985 aboard a bilge-keeled Alan Buchanan-design called simply Frank. One of the smallest yachts cruising in the Pacific, Frank measures only 6.95 metres (23 feet) on deck. Bardie and Clive have safely sailed Frank across the Atlantic and the Pacific Oceans, but not without adventure.

Bardie and Clive agree the best part of cruising is “stepping off the treadmill and being able to visit places inaccessible by other means.” And Frank , tiny as it is, provides both a home and transpor tation. Frank has called in at some of the most out-of-the-way spots in the Pacific, including mysterious Easter Island.

Easter Island, at 27 degrees south of the Equator, is probably one of the most interesting islands in the world. Its large collection of prehistoric monuments or moais have long intrigued archaelogists and travellers. Who built them? How were they transported from the quarry to their platforms? Why were so many of them toppled and damaged? Both tra ditional archaelogists and other dreamers have evolved a number of theories to explain these mysteries.

It took tiny Frank 26 days to make a landfall at Easter Island. The distance from Frank’s last port of call in the Americas, Ecuador, was about 2200 miles. Frustrating calms just south of the Equator in the Inter-Tropical Conver gence Zone (ITCZ) were later replaced by southeast trades and fine sailing. Very few yachts sail to Easter Island, in part because it’s far off the traditional “Milk Run” through French Polynesia, and in part because the wind follows you around from bay to bay. A stay of any duration is limited to moderate weather

conditions. Mataveri Airport has made Easter Island more accessable, but it is still a very long way from anywhere.

The ancient statues of Easter Island are fascinating. And there are so many of them that they are now used as gateposts, built into homes set up in the harbour.

Their origin is still a mystery. Residents of the island include 500 Continentales or Chileans (including about 50 policemen and 20 Chilean navy personnel) and about 1600 indigenous Polynesians or Rapanui. Bardie and Clive hired trail bikes to take in the sights hard work

Sally Andrew Lyttleton, New Zealand: a natural harbour and home of Banks Peninsula Cruising Club

nee the terrain is like an assault course, horseback riding is the most practical ay of getting about the island, and they

>otted the Rapanui galloping across the

mntryside with their long hair and red

mdanas flying.

Sailing 1100 miles west of Easter land, Pitcairn Island rose on the >rizon. One of the most remote in ibited places on earth, there is no irbour or airport and the few ships hich call in to Pitcairn stand off or ichor in the lee of the island and move the wind shifts.

Pitcairn is home of the descendants of e crew of the famous Bounty. Fletcher iristian and his mutineers arrived at tcairn over 200 years ago on January , 1790 and founded a colony which day numbers about 53 inhabitants.

It is the last remnant of the British ipire in the South Pacific. Bardie and

Clive were invited into the islanders’ homes and made most welcome since only a dozen yachts per year visit Pitcairn.

The island is tiny, about two square miles, most of which is fertile ground supporting a variety of fruits and veg etables. Truly a tropical paradise.

Except for one thing. Because there is no safe harbour, visits are often cut short by unfavourable sea and weather con ditions. With sad hearts Bardie and Clive weighed anchor and sailed to Fiji via the Gambiers, Mangareva and Tonga.

Landfall in Fiji was unexpected. Sail ing through the reefs and islands between Tonga and Fiji, Frank was set up on a reef off the island of Totoya in the Lau Group late one night.

The sound of roaring surf as the swell broke over a nearby reef was tardy notification of impending trouble. Al most before they knew what was happen ing, Frank was picked up and carried over the reef and deposited on the other side.

But for the grace of God, the voyage of Frank might have ended there. As luck had it, only the rudder broke.

The encounter with the reef could have been far, far worse Frank’s rudder mounted on the transom could have easily ripped off the whole stern and sunk them when they hit the reef, but a weak weld gave way instead.

Locals appeared at sunrise and brought Bardie and Clive to the village so they could radio Customs and Immi gration authorities in Suva. Bardie and Clive stayed a week in Udu Village

making repairs to the rudder. Questions

and answers flew back and forth between the warm and welcoming villagers and

the crew of Frank names, ages, number of children. Because there were no children on board Frank , there were questions regarding contraception. And since they had sailed all the way from England, everyone wanted to know if Bardie and Clive had met Queen Elizabeth.

Frank returned to Fiji again this season after an extended stay in Lyttelton, New Zealannd where they made repairs and

replenished their “cruising kitty”.

Their voyage to Fiji was less exciting this year, thanks in part to the purchase of a GPS, a modern electronic position ing system. With a GPS, navigation is simplified and more exact.

Although nothing will ever replace traditional navigation by sextant and tables, most cruisers these days have an electronic supplement which greatly reduces the chance of error or miscalculating due to currents or over cast weather.

Frank is spartan in size and amenities but a Sony all-band receiver lets Bardie and Clive keep in touch with the weather and world news and programs, including the BBC World Service a little touch of jolly old England.

They hope to return home to Great Britain one day, but seem to be in no hurry. Frank is now headed for Australia and after that...only the wind knows.

Other U.K yachts sighted in Fiji this season include Blackjack of Lymington (Poole), Papa Kilo (Hull), Faith of Norforlk, Ocean Quest (Poole, Dorset), Aquila Nova (NRSA), Dancing Wave

(Ipswich), Suleika (Shoreham, Sussex),

Teraki, Sussex Warrior.