Woman seafarer had yen for S.I.

Press, 31 January 1989, Page 7

Woman seafarer had yen for S.I.

By

PAM MORTON

A desire to see what the South Island had to offer brought Mrs Mary Jane Misener and her crew of five into Lyttelton at the week-end on the luxury motor yacht Tonga. Mrs Misener, aged 73, of Florida, has been travelling the world for the last four years on the 31m boat. Valued at between SUS 4 million and SUSS million ($6.6 million-$8.2 million), the Tonga, built in the Netherlands in 1985, has the latest in navigation and communication equipment. In the last four years the Tonga has traversed the Atlantic, travelled through the Panama Canal, and visited Alaska. The motor-yacht has a Dutch skipper, Mr Willem Racke, and a crew of three New Zealanders and one American. Mr Racke said the motor-yacht had no itinerary — destinations were decided on the spur of the moment. “We try to do as much as possible. Time is not really a factor,” he said. Home port for the Tonga is St Petersburg Beach, Florida, and about three months a year is spent there. Tonga, named as a symbol of the South Seas, arrived in New Zealand in October and will be in New Zealand waters until April. Mrs Misener said this was her first visit to New Zealand and the visit to Lyttelton had been scheduled so that she could see Christchurch. Mrs Misener and her two American guests plan to spend the next few days visiting Queenstown, Fiordland and Mount Cook. The motor-yacht will be in Lyttelton for about 10 days.