LONE VOYAGER

Manawatu Standard, Volume LXIII, Issue 25, 29 December 1942, Page 4

LONE VOYAGER

ARGENTINIAN RANCHER

ADVENTURES AT SEA WELLINGTON, Dec. 29. Senor Vito Dumas, the Argentinian rancher, racehorse owner, adventurer, and writer, had an interesting story to tell of his lone voyage in his 31£it ketch Legh 11 from liuenos Aires, Argentina., to Wellington, via Cape Town. When he arrived in Wellington on Sunday his ketch was 180 days out from Montevideo, ins last port of call in the South American continent, and 104 days out from Cape Town. Senor Dumas is 41 years of age. A ; wealthy ranch owner, he owns, breeds, . and races some good horses at meet- j ings round Buenos Aires. A member of the Yacht Club of the Argentine, his lonely ocean voyages are made as a hobby. He says he is just one of • those men who like solitude and adventure, and that is the way in which [ he finds them. Despite the time occupied by his , main hobby, however, Senor Dumas | has found time to become an accom- ; . plished polo player, boxer, and swim!iner. In 1923 ho swam 55 kilometres in the River Plate in 25 hours in an endurance test. He says he is a descendant of the famous French novelist Alexandre Dumas, but the destruction of records during the French Rcvolu- : tion prevents him from establishing ; the exact relationship. His family left France in 1790 and reached the . Argentine in 1864. Senor Dumas is , a qualified air pilot and holds an in- ■ ternational civil pilot's license. His journey " from Montevideo to Wellington has been packed with danger. Some 200 miles out in the South . Atlantic he awoke one ngiht to find a storm had arisen and his little vessel ■ rapidly filling with water. She had a hole in her the size of a fist, having been hit at the waterline by drifting wreckage. It was only with great difficulty, and after a long struggle, that he succeeded in blocking the hole and emptying the ketch of the . water she had taken in. In the struggle, Senor Dumas cutj his hand, and'the cut later turned septic. His arm and shoulder swelled up and he became feverish. For 10 days he lav helpless in his bunk and the ketch drifted at the mercy of the winds. Another experience he met in the South Atlantic was an attack by a giant killer whale, and he had some anxious moments before the big mammal gave up the attack and disappeared. STORMS AXD WATERSPOUTS. Between Capetown and Wellington, Senor Dumas met extremely bad weather. Seas ran inouutainoiwly,' and three ; big waterspouts passed close to his lit- j tie craft, lie was all out physically when , he safely reached Wellington on Sunday, and save he will need all the 20 days he intends to stay here to recover from , the strain he haj undergone. In one of the storms encountered down in the "Roaring Forties," between Capetown and Wellington, his biggest breaker j of water, holding 200 litres (about 53 gallons), iva» wrecked. His other breaker, containing 145 litres, ran dry, and the ( last five days before reaching Wellington he was without water for cooking or drinking. The course followed by Senor Dumas j. after leaving Capetown took him close j |to Tasmania, and ho sighted New Zca- I land at the south of the South Wand. Beating his way up the coast of the j South Island to Cook Strait, lie was hampered by a blanketing fog, but ho found Capo Farewell only a few hundred yards out of his reckoning. For navigation he j uses a sextant and has had no difficulty j whatever in this respect on any of his voyages, , I I'lic l.cgh II is a strong little ship of I nine tons, constructed of viraro, a very durable South American timber. Her beam is 11 feet 10 inches, her draught a little more than sft, and her freeboard about 14 inches. The entrance to her decked-in cabin is by way of a hatch, the cockpit being' separated from the cabin by a stout bulkhead. The lone voyager intends to return via Chi'c and Cane Norn. So far the voyage has covered 11,900 miles; 4500 miles from Scufh America to South Africa and 74C0 miles from South Africa to New Zealand. (