Voyage in Small Ketch

Manawatu Times, Volume 63, Issue 63, 16 March 1938, Page 2

Voyage in Small Ketch

MAKORA AT WELLINGTON WELLINGTON, Last Night. Weary after battling 500 miles through mountainous seas and violent winds, three sun and salt-tanned seafarers arrived at Wellington yesterday morning in a 35-foot ketch, eleven days out from Auckland. Almost all the way they met heavy weither, and finally, on Sunday night, when sheltering in Palliser Bay, narrowly escaped shipwreck through an eighty-mile-an-hour gale dragging their anchors and drifting them into the surf. The vessel was the 35-foot auxiliary ketch-yacht Makora, recently purchased in Auckland by Mr. L. V. Martin, Wellington. Mr. Martin had with him as navigator Mr. Johnny Wray, well-known Auckland cruising yachtsman, and skipper of the Ngataki, and Mr. George Roberts, Wellington. Leaving Auckland a week ago last Wednesday, they made fair progress under engine and sail across the Bay of Plenty and down the East Coast toward Poverty Bay. Off Gisborne, however, the Makora ran into a gale of wind l'rom the south. She had to smash her way through waves 25 feet high, in the teeth of 60-mile gusts. The two heavyduty engines, unusually powerful for so, small a vessel, enabled her to work in under the lee of Young Nick’s Head. There was a huge swell breaking in the bay, but they decided to put into Gisborne boat harbour, and succeeded in doing so without mishap. Gale Encountered. Makora left Gisborne on the Monday, and called at Napier on the following day. They sailed for Wellington early on Thursday afternoon, and made a fair passage as far as Castlepoint, where they arrived early on Friday, in tending to stop for an hour in the safe anchorage in the lee of the point. But within 30 minutes of their arrival a strong southerly gale blew up, and there they had to stay until Saturday night. As it was then fine enough they set out for Wellington, and at daylight were about 12 miles off Cape Palliser. On rounding Palliser light, the little ship ran into a stiff head wind, the north-westerly experienced in Wellington on Sunday. Progress was slow, a big sea was getting up in Cook Strait, and the wind was rising steadily, so it was decided to shelter in Palliser Bay. ‘'But we found very little shelter there,” recounted Mr. Martin. “The wind ripped down off the high hills in gusts up to 80 miles an hour. We had never seen wind like it before. The waves were mountainous.

“We had two good anchors out —our 501 b. hook and a 501 b. kedge —and both were broken out of the ground together. After a wild night, we found ourselves within 50 yards of the breakers at dawn.”

But the wind let up, and they started up the engines, took in their killicks, and set a course for Wellington. The sun was shining, and the harbour compartively calm, when they came chugging into the boat harbour, safe after the peril and toil of their stormy vov-_ age.