PACIFIC YACHT TRIP

Press, Volume LXXXVIII, Issue 26868, 22 October 1952, Page 3

PACIFIC YACHT TRIP

Vessel Now Nearing Los Angeles TWO AUCKLAND MEN’S VENTURE “The Press” Special Service AUCKLAND, October 21. ‘ Now at sea between Honolulu and Los Angeles, the Auckland 35ft yacht Chiquita is nearing the end of her voyage from Auckland to San Francisco, the first attempted by a New Zealand yacht. She is due at Los Angeles about November 5. Manned by Mr J. Campbell, of Devonport, a manufacturers’ representative, who is travelling to North America on business, and by Mr D. McLean, an Auckland mechanical engineer who- will study American production methods, the Chiquita left Auckland on June 4.

Mr Campbell intends to sell the Chiquita at San Francisco. She will be put up for auction immediately on arrival, and Mr Campbell will return home shortly after.

The voyage has been by way of Rarotonga, Papeete, the Tuamotus, the Marquesas, and Honolulu. The Tuamotu and Marquesas Groups both gave the New Zealanders some problems. Cruising through the Tuamotus without an engine was dangerous work. When the Chiquita made her landfall, a course wis set for what was thought to be the western extremity of an atoll, but at dusk the crew heard breakers and found the yacht was headed for the southern side of a triangular atoll, 40 miles of submerged reef with an occasional islet. “We turned about, lost all wind, and spent all night wondering in which direction we were drifting,” said Mr Campbell. “Dawn found us miles further east, with trees around the horizon. There was just enough wind to get us through a six-mile gap, so we heaved sighs of relief when we cleared that evening and picked up fresh easterly trades.” Of the stage between the Tuamotus and Nukuhiva, in the Marquesas Islands, Mr Campbell said it was no wonder that many boats which left Tahiti for this group neVer reached it. “It is dead to windward, with a strong adverse current,” he said, “and as one gets nearer the group the local currents move in all directions, causing an abnormal sea. Here we lost our main jib blocks, the pins shearing right through. We averaged about 85 miles a day, although we normally do 100 miles going to windward.” At Nukuhiva the Chiquita’s crew traded soap, old clothes, salt and- other items for oranges, coconuts and bananas. On the stage to Honolulu the yacht sailed 2800 miles and averaged 130 miles a day “without driving.”