Juanita repairs at Greymouth

Press, 20 January 1982, Page 2

Juanita repairs at Greymouth

Greymouth reporter

“We ran out of puff,” the owner of the $lOO,OOO ketch, Juanita, Mr Tony Huxley said in Greymouth yesterday, after a 30-hour journey from Jackson Bay. Mr Huxley’s ketch berthed at Greymouth at 11.10 t p.m. He said that he had had to use the motor for much of the journey because of the still conditions. The Juanita was unlawfully taken. from Sydney at Christmas, and ran aground at Smoothwater Bay, south of Jackson Bay. Mr Huxley and a companion, Mr Michael Middleton, flew to New Zealand to recover the yacht. Two Jackson Bay fishermen, Mr Mervyn Velenski and Mr Addie Marley, accompanied them on the Juanita to Greymouth.

Also, on l)oard' were Mr Velenski’s daughter, Marie, aged 10, and her cousin Michelle Velenski, aged 11. The two girls were rewarded with the trip for the work they had done in cleaning up the Juanita. It was however, an unhappy experience. Although conditions were calm all the way, the girls became seasick.

Mr Huxley was yesterday shopping for necessary hardware in Greymouth. He said that problems had been experienced with the motor on the journey from Jackson Bay, as fan belts kept slipping. The main task is to pull down the mast and free jammed rigging. He is living aboard his yacht tied up at the corner of the main wharf at Greymouth, close to where the tuna fleet is unlaoding at present.