KETCH REACHES AUCKLAND.

Press, Volume LXV, Issue 19667, 10 July 1929, Page 9

KETCH REACHES AUCKLAND.

STORMY WEATHER IN BAY • OF PLENTY. SUCCESSION OF GALES. [THE FBESS Special Service.] AUCKLAND, July 9.

Tattered fragments of sails, and a stove-in lifeboat were brought into Auckland early this morning by the auxiliary ketch Will Watch, a sturdy little coastal vessel that ran through a succession of gales in the Bay of Plenty between June 27th and last Sunday. Captain Sayer, the master, said to-day that he had been through one of his worst experiences in 10 years. Added to her other damage was a broken main topmast, and the cost of putting things in shape is expected to mean the best part of £loo. On June 26th the Will Watch sailed out of Auckland a cargo of coal and benzine for Gisborne. . That night the first trouble came through complications aloft. In a sudden gust the mainsail gibed and soon the main topsail was in a tangle around the main peak halvards. To put matters right the vessel was run to Kennedy Bay, and from there to East Cape. It is always an anxious time for a sailing vessel in a northerly gale, and not long after the voyage was resumed from. Kennedy Bay on June 27th a strong north-west gale with heavy seas was experienced in the Bay of Plenty, with the waves sweeping right over the deck. Two men were kept at the wheel and a double watch was set. The log disappeared and a lifeboat was stove-in. For twenty hours the little vessel was held head to the wind, during the height of the storm. \ period of better weather gave an opportunity of rounding East Cape but after a dav's sail down the coast another storm "broke with a preliminary hailstorm, and for 10 hours more the ketch was hove-to. A week later the Will Watch was again in the Bay of Plenty with a ballast of sand loaded at Gisborne. Gales and mountainous seas put her once more to the test. The staysail was blown to tatter 3. Five hotirs of tempest followed before sighting Alderman Island off Tauranga. A passage inside Mercury Island was the next objective but the north gale frustrated all efforts. A gale that sweeps down the Coromandel coast is a tough proposition for any auxiliary vc.=el and the Will Watch nosed awav' from it until finding the entrance to Mercury Bay. There she dropned anchor at noon on Sunday. At nine o'clock yesterdav morning she be-ran the last part of her voyage to Auckland and reached here at 7.30 today.